Nebuta Warasse

The Nebuta Wa Rasse (ねぶたワ・ラッセ) is a museum dedicated to the history of known information of the Aomori Nebuta festival. It is in a building covered with red metal slats and is located on the waterfront district north of Aomori Station. This festival is held annually in August along with two other festivals (Akita and Sendai) from the Tohoku region, thus known as part of the three great summer festivals in the Tohoku region. Visitors who enter the museum will find displays of the approximately 300 years of Nebuta festivities on display followed by pictures of floats and the participants of the celebrations. In regards to the festival origins, there is no exact known origin. However, it is believed that it started as a military tactic by a General Sakanoue-no-Tamuramaro and his troops to scare away their enemies, wherein they used bamboo and cloth as the materials. The museum building itself holds floats where visitors can view the details of the huge structures that were used in previous parades, though they change them out every year. The Nebuta Wa Rasse also has occasional performances by the haneto dancers on weekends and holidays so that visitors can feel what it is like at the festival itself.