ねぷた：Neputa Festivals (part 1)

The first week of August is a wild time in Aomori-ken. Aomori City, Hirosaki, Hachinohe, Goshogawara, Kuroishi, and other cities around the prefecture all put on their biggest festivals of the year for the entire week, with exciting and hectic night parades, giant illuminated floats called nebuta or neputa, daytime markets, drum competitions, and a massive influx of tourists. It's impossible to see it all, but it's tempting to try!

For visitors from out of town, it must be a fleeting, ephemeral experience- one or two nights of music, parades, illuminated floats and dancing, then they hop on the train and go home. For the people living here, it's the culmination of an entire summer (or lifetime) of labor, training and preparation. Every year starting in May or June, the floats are designed and built from scratch in huge canvas tents that appear in parks and empty lots around town. Each district's float is built by neighborhood craftspeople and sponsored by local businesses and organizations. Taiko groups practice the Neputa bayashi (the drum and flute song that is unique to the Neputa festival) all year round, but as the weather gets warmer they practice outside, and sometimes I can hear the drumming from my house. There is a building of energy heading up to the actual festival week, and when August arrives it's finally time to party..!

Hirosaki Neputa: drummers playing Neputa Bayashi on the Odaiko (giant drum)

Night #1: Pulling the Odaiko (Giant Drum) in Hirosaki's Neputa Festival

Along with a few friends, I've been practicing with a local taiko group since about October of last year. The biggest event of the year for our group is pulling the Odaiko at the front of the Hirosaki Neputa parade, every night of the first week in August. Experienced drummers take turns drumming the Neputa Bayashi on the Odaiko, with six drummers actually sitting on top of the 15-foot-tall drum, and a line of drummers walking along behind it. The other members of the group take hold of the lead ropes in the front, and pull the Odaiko along the parade route and then back to the storage space afterwards.

Although I didn't do any actual drumming on the Odaiko this year (and that's fine with me!), putting on the hanten (the short jacket worn for special events) and pulling the Odaiko along with everyone else, waving to familiar faces in the crowd and seeing their excitement, was definitely one of the best experiences I've had so far in Japan!

We only planned to pull the Odaiko for the first night, but it was such a thrill, we came back to do it again on the third night of the festival. One note about the pictures here- I didn't take my camera or phone with me in the parade because I was afraid to lose it, so most of the pictures I have of our participation were taken by Hide-san, our head instructor, who walked in front of the group with a megaphone slung over his shoulder, shouting directions and the festival chant "Yaaa yaaa dooooouuuu!"

Alex, Jackson, Stefan and I in our hanten (photo credit: Jackson's friend)

Drummers walk behind the Odaiko in the parade (photo credit: Hide-san)

Jackson's turn drumming on the Odaiko (photo credit: Hide-san)

Stefan's turn to yell "Yaaa Yaaa Doou" (photo credit: Hide-san)

While it was fun to pull the Odaiko down the actual parade route, it was an unexpected thrill to pull it back through the nearly empty streets of Hirosaki to the store house near the park. Each group in the parade takes a different route back to their home base, chanting and drumming on the way, so it's kind of like the parade dissolves back into the city, rather than stopping at the end of the official route.

Our group turned off Dotemachi street on to a part of my usual morning commute. Driving a car and "driving" a giant taiko drum are two very different ways to experience the streetscape! We also pulled the Odaiko through some narrow streets in Kajimachi, the nightlife district, and it was great to see shop staff and patrons spill out of the tiny bars and lean out of upstairs windows to cheer us on our way.

Night #2 - Kuroishi Neputa

On the second night of the festival week, I took a car full of JETs to Kuroishi to watch the night parade there. Our friend Kyoko has a barber shop in Kuroishi close to the start of the parade. She had advised us to try to come early so we could go check out the neputa (parade floats) all gathered in the staging area in the park near her shop.

Neputa staging area in Miyuki Park, with parade crew and spectators milling about

Neputa staging area in Miyuki Park

Neputa staging area in Miyuki Park

Neputa staging area in Miyuki Park

As the official start time for the parade approached, we headed off down the parade route to find a bit of curb to set up our "leisure sheet" (aka: a tarp) and get comfy.

Sitting in front of a flower shop enjoying the parade

In Kuroishi's Neputa parade, the large fan-shaped floats rolled by amidst a swirling crowd of smaller floats, dancers, drummers, and kids, and every now and then one or two marchers carrying huge paper fans would stop and wave a little cooling breeze onto the spectators. Whenever the parade paused for a moment, which it frequently did, the crews of the larger floats grabbed ropes attached to the corners and ran in a circle, causing the fan-shaped part of the float to spin like a top, showing the images on both sides to the spectators.

The parade starts - each neputa has a few riders up on top to yell at the crowd with a megaphone and also fold the top flaps down to fit under low wires

A battle scene is painted on the front, and on the back there is usually a pretty lady

This neputa is in the style of the ones in Aomori City- not fan-shaped, more sculptural, still a battle scene

Still got a pretty lady on the back

Cotton candy sunset as the parade goes on

Playing for applause as the neputa spins

A bubble machine used for great effect

Next up: more Neputa, Nebuta, and Tachineputa