Lost Chronicles: Nebuta Festival (失われた編年史: ねぶた祭り, うしなわれたへんねんし: ねぶたまつり)

Editor's Note: The next few entries have been a long time coming.  I had prepared drafts and written bits of these in a previous blog before other things sidetracked me.  After that, I had decided to relocate my writings to this new collection, thus cutting off my old writings from these.  These have become the lost chronicles that I will now compile, re-edit and post here.  They are of some festivals and a trip I took in the first few months of returning to live in Japan back in August.  Afterwards, I will continue with posts from this year and work on catching up to the present starting right at the beginning with my experiences of Japanese New Year's.


Sept. 18th, 2010:

Japan seems to always have something happening every week that is interesting to go to.  In Tokyo, every week so far seems to have a festival celebrating an aspect of Japan (or other countries as well).  The Nebuta festival that we went to is based on the larger one started in Aomori.  Aomori is a city and prefecture to the very north of Honshu.  


Nebuta (ねぶた) are large floats made with Japanese paper that is illuminated from the inside.  There are a couple sources of inspiration behind the Nebuta festival.  The first is the story of General Tamuramoro who had fought in Aomori area during the 800s to pacify rebels in the area.  One of his tactics was to have his army make large creatures called Nebuta to scare the enemy. [1]  The other is the festival came out of a development of the Tanabata festival originally based in China.  During the Tanabata festival Toro are used.  Toro are wooden framed boxes wrapped in paper with a candle placed inside.  They are then sent out to sea in order to purify the people and send away evil spirits.  It is a common sight with summer festivals and the final night usually have fireworks to go along with the Toro.  In Aomori, the Toro first started to develop and expand into the large Nebuta of today. [2]


The Nebuta festival in Aomori is the most famous and has the largest Nebuta.  The Nebuta float that we saw at Shibuya is dwarfed in comparison. Here is a picture of one of the floats in Aomori's festival to give you an idea.

You can see Nebuta written in Hiragana at the bottom of the float, same as I use in parenthesis next to introductions of new Japanese words.  Hiragana is one of Japan's 3 written languages.  Image [3]

The festival in Aomori is one of the largest in Japan and is from August 2nd to the 7th.  The festival in Shibuya draws from the traditions of the Aomori Nebuta festival.

The Nebuta is on a portable float that is carried around the streets of Shibuya followed by dancers called Haneto wearing a traditional clothing of Naneto. [4]

Dancers wearing the traditional Naneto costume.  I'm sorry that the pictures for this event were on the old camera and not as good quality as usual.

The dancers are intermixed with people playing instruments such as traditional flutes and percussion while chanting a chant called the Rassera.  So for about an hour the procession pushed the float and marched around the streets of Shibuya.

Here are some more pictures of the Nebuta itself from different angles.

Passing by.

The back of the float.

While these small festivals that happen often are a great taste of the culture and different events in Japan and other parts of Asia, it's only a small one.  I hope to eventually get the chance to go to Aomori during the week of their Nebuta festival and see the one there as well as see the main events of others that I get a sneak peak of seeing here in Tokyo. 

References:

1. "What is Nebuta," Aomori Nebuta Executive Committee.

http://www.nebuta.or.jp/english/pages/what.htm.

2. Ibid.

3. "Aomori Nebuta Aug. 2006 02," Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aomori_Nebuta_AUG_2006_0002.jpg.

4. "Nebuta Rules," Aomori Nebuta Executive Committee.

http://www.nebuta.or.jp/english/pages/rules.htm.