Day 14: 立佞武多まつり (Tachi Neputa Festival)

This is the second day in the Tohoku/Akita region. Today we are staying in 大館(Odate) with a nice lady with many friends. We had many conversations with her!

Korakuen: The oldest Kabuki theatre in Japan

 
First off, we paid a visit to the 康楽館(Korakukan), which is the oldest traditional Kabuki theatre in Japan, in the small town of 小坂 (Kosaka). We got there early, and a staff member gave us a tour of the building. There were many contraptions below the stage, and some of them were so heavy they needed many people to operate. The actors would walk along the wooden board in the middle, and would suddenly disappear from trapdoors in the ground!

We weren't allowed to take photos during the Kabuki act, but afterwards they performed dancing and also Eisa! Kabuki actors are traditionally male, but they dressed up glamorously.

Next stop, 五所川原立佞武多まつり (Goshogawara Tachi Neputa Festival)!

 
The Tachi Neputa are a variety of Aomori's Nebuta festival. The neputa consists of a huge float car with a height of about 23 meters and a weight of about 19 tons called Shibushige, walking through the city center of Goshogawara under the shout of "Yatemare! Yatemare!" Oh did I mention, these floats were being pulled by people?

More chanting: "Sore! Sore!"

The floats started at the intersection, and walked all the way around the city centre in a loop, lasting 2 hours. By the end, the float pullers looked absolutely exhausted!

It's also interesting to note that Goshogawara has a population of only 56,000 yet there were so many performers and spectators for a small town!