Tachineputa no Yakata

The Tachineputa Museum is a facility where you can see the towering floats used in the Goshogawara Tachineputa Festival, held every year in early August in Goshogawara City. Along with Aomori’s Nebuta Festival and Hirosaki’s Neputa Festival, Goshogawara Tachineputa is selected as one of Aomori’s three major Nebuta/Neputa festivals. As the name suggests, Goshogawara’s tachineputa floats stand upright and are known for their dramatic height. Around 1907, floats as tall as about 27 meters were reportedly made, but as overhead power lines spread through town, the scale gradually became smaller. However, from the late 1990s—about 80 years later—large tachineputa floats began to be built again, and power lines along the parade route were moved underground. Inside the museum, floors 1 through 4 form a dramatic atrium, allowing you to descend a ramp and view three massive tachineputa floats on display—each around 22 meters tall and weighing about 19 tons—from many different angles. In the on-site "Tachineputa Workshop," you can watch the creation of new floats from November to July, and from April to June you can enjoy a hands-on paper-pasting experience. Taking home a goldfish neputa made at the Yuraku Workshop "Kawarahiba" is also recommended as a memorable Aomori festival souvenir.