Aomori Nebuta Festival

The custom is generally explained as a local form of nemuri-nagashi, 'washing away sleep': at the height of summer, just before the harvest work, people floated lanterns and other objects down rivers or out to sea to cast off drowsiness and misfortune. This ties it to Tanabata observances of the seventh lunar month. A popular legend credits the general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who campaigned in the north around 800, with using giant lanterns to lure out his enemies, but this story is not supported by historical evidence.

Lantern processions in the Tsugaru area are recorded from the Edo period, and in Aomori the floats grew steadily larger. After the Second World War, when much of the city had been destroyed by bombing, the festival was organised on a bigger scale, and the modern form – large figure-shaped floats built by companies, civic groups and associations – took shape in the post-war decades.

Each large float is designed and built by a nebuta-shi, a specialist float master, working with a team through the months before the festival. The frame was once built of bamboo and lit by candles; today it is wire over a wooden structure, lit electrically. Paper is pasted over the frame, outlines are drawn in black ink, wax is applied to create translucent highlights, and the colours are painted on last.

The floats are judged each year, and prizes are awarded for the best nebuta, the best float master and the best music and dance. After the festival most floats are dismantled; a few of the prize-winners are displayed for a year in the Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse by the harbour.

What sets the Aomori festival apart is the haneto, the 'jumping people'. Dressed in a white yukata-style costume with flower-trimmed hats, sashes, small bells and tasuki cords, they hop from foot to foot around the floats, chanting 'Rassera, rassera'. Participation is open: anyone wearing the full haneto costume, which can be bought or rented in the city, may join the parade without registering.

The music is played by groups of taiko drummers, flutes and hand cymbals (tebiragane), each float having its own musicians. Bearers called hikite turn and rock the float in front of the crowd, bringing the figures to life.

The pattern of the festival is stable from year to year. On the eve, 1 August, there is a smaller evening event; the main festival begins on 2 August.

Lantern float festivals are held in many towns of the prefecture in early August, and their forms differ. Aomori city's name is nebuta; in Hirosaki, the old castle town of the Tsugaru clan, the festival is called Neputa and its floats are mostly fan-shaped (ōgi-neputa), painted with warrior scenes on the front and a beauty on the back, and paraded to slower, more solemn music. Goshogawara is known for its Tachineputa, towering vertical floats more than twenty metres high.

Aomori city is reached by Tōhoku Shinkansen from Tokyo in a little over three hours to Shin-Aomori. Accommodation in the city fills up months in advance for festival week, and many visitors stay in Hirosaki, Hachinohe or further afield. Paid grandstand seating along the route is available, but the parades can also be watched from the pavement.