Stunningly beautiful the Hirosaki style of Neputa is hand-painted so elegantly and impressive despite being the smallest type of such floats, compared to neighboring Goshogawara City’s Tachi-Naputa (20 meter tall) and the Aomori Nebuta (3-6 meter) that we saw in previous travel video. Tsugaru-han Neputa Village Museum has a couple of these floats in various styles and you can have an interactive experience, listen to the rhythm of the Taiko Drums and then try play yourself!! You can even wear the Tsugaru-han Shirt and carry the smaller sized Neputa Goldfish!
The Hirosaki Neputa Festival is a summer festival held in the old castle town of Hirosaki. About 80 neputas of various sizes – large fan-shaped floats depicting epic and fantastic images of warriors – parade through the town. In 1980, Hirosaki Neputa Festival was designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties of Japan.
Hirosaki Neputa Festival is organized mainly by citizens of Hirosaki. Every year each neighborhood association and citizen group gather together to make elaborate fan-shaped neputas. The key feature of a neputa is the contrast between the gallant kagamie (front picture) and the elegant miokuri (back picture). The neputas parade through town accompanied by flute and taiko (Japanese drums) players. The festival is held annually between August 1st and 7th. The Hirosaki Neputa festival takes place every evening from August 1st to 6th and daytime of the 7th.
AloJapan.com