The Hirosaki Neputa Festival opened on August 1st in the center of Hirosaki.

Hirosaki Neputa Festival, a summer festival in Hirosaki, is held from August 1st to 7th, with Neputa groups centered around neighborhood associations carrying out joint parades. This year, 66 groups participated, two more than last year. On the first day, August 1st, 34 groups carried out a joint parade along the Dotemachi course.

Designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property of Japan in 1980, "Neputa" consists mainly of fan-shaped floats. They are paraded around in processions by flute players called "hayashikata" and people called "hikite" who pull the Neputa, and many groups are participated in by both adults and children.

As the parade began, music, drums and chants of "Yaya-yado" began to ring out, and the spectators erupted in cheers and applause as the floats, some of which were up to 9 metres tall, were raised up and down and spun around.

Among the festival participants were some creators from Kobe who had joined as part of exchanges between Hirosaki and Kobe. They participated in the parade on the day with fan-shaped Neputa that they had made themselves. Kobe resident Sora Yamaguchi, who participated in the Hirosaki Neputa Festival for the first time and was in charge of the farewell painting, said with a smile, "I'm happy to have had the chance to experience Hirosaki's traditional summer festival, which I've only seen on TV and in the newspapers. I want to enjoy this exciting summer until the very end."

As in previous years, the joint parade will continue along the Dotemachi route until August 4th, and then along the Station Square route on the 5th and 6th. After the morning joint parade on the 7th, the "Nanukabiokuri" ceremony will be held on the riverbed near Iwaki Akane Bridge, where the Neputa will be purified with flames.

Until August 7th.