Nebuta Museum WA RASSE — Attraction in Aomori

Absolutely fell in love with this form of art, I was very excited to visit this place, and words nor photos can truly capture how I felt looking at these mind blowing works of art.

I felt so drawn into these, I’d imagine it’s what a mosquito feels like as the glow of a bug zapper draws it in.

The museum is spacious in terms of available space to walk around the main floats, with high ceilings and perfect dimmed lighting, it provides these lantern sculptures a real nice space to truly shine.

It seemed like most visitors walked through it in less than an hour, but I easily spent 2 and a half hours walking around. Not just for the chance to try and capture what I was seeing in photo and video, but just simply admiring the detail and craftsmanship of the art.

The staff are kind as well, eager to capture a photo of you with the floats of you want or even share a little history about the festival, art form, etc. One lady was cool enough to not only share details about the art and the work one of the artists was doing in a studio beneath the entrance stage, but she even gifted me some of the paper used in making these. I listened carefully, gave her my undivided attention as she was clearly pouring her heart out about the love she had for this work, but I understood nothing she said from the words she spoke, but sometimes you can understand someone by just how they talk with their gestures, and it all made perfect sense, I think 😅

Two take aways, one was I want to now desperately make my own, and it seems very doable, but I won’t know where to put it. And two, I want to not only attend this festival next summer, but I want to participate in it if possible. I don’t know how, but I’ll find a way.

Love this place, love the art, love Aomori, want to move here and raise a family of Nebuta craftsman and sleep under the warm glow of these...

Really a must visit if it's your first time in Aomori. This whole museum is dedicated to the giant papier mâché floats they make here each year for the Aomori Nebuta Matsuri (festival). You'll go through a brief tour explaining the history of the floats, how they're constructed, and photo galleries of some some stunning floats over the past several decades. Then comes the big show...

The main display room features several floats preserved from past years all lit up like their own little firework show against the dark background of the room. It is really stunning to see the work the individual teams can do -EACH YEAR-, and in many cases, compare them to artwork that inspired the floats. These things tower over you when you get close, and you get a real appreciation not only for the scope of each piece, but the fact that over a dozen of these are carried down the streets by people in the parade. Make sure you walk around the floats too, since they're designed to be part of a parade there's usually something to see on two if not four sides!

Entrance to the museum is really cheap, more than worth the pittance you pay just to enjoy the air conditioning. It also makes it easy to spend a few yen in the gift shop on the way out just to help the museum along. As a tip, you can find a stack of postcards with many of the famous floats depicted -- it's a great way to get some professional shots of these beauties!

Highly recommended. It costs little, it'll eat up a good hour, and you can head to the A-Factory next door for snacks when...

We did not really know about nebuta and went there spontaneously. The parade floats displayed there are absolutely stunning, the building is new and well designed. Do not expect to spend more than 1 hour there as there is not that much content, it's just a history of the festival and then the 3-4 best floats from last year. It's the way they are displayed and the presence of the whole museum (with lights, sounds etc) that makes it really breathtaking.

Gift shop (which I usually find annoying) has some actually very nice custom merch and regional products. Also has a restaurant that looked good and had very fair prices, but we didn't eat there.

If you have a Jr pass and are heading north anyway then this museum, the fish market and eating an aomori apple are probably worth...