2010 Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri - Japanese Festival with Lit-Up Floats and Flashing Swords

http://therovingroninreport.blogspot.com/2010/08/neputa-matsuri-of-hirosaki-j...
My second night in Aomori Prefecture I went to the city of Hirosaki for its Neputa Matsuri, a festival where they predominately use fan-shaped floats with painted pictures on them. The paintings depict scenes from Japanese and Chinese history and legend. Neputa is seen more like a parade for going to war so the scenes are more warlike and on the back are often paintings of women who represent the women who would say farewell to their warriors. Because of the warlike nature of Neputa, some of the paintings can be a bit gory with bloody severed heads. There is also a brief demonstration of using the katana. 

This is my fourth time to the festival and it's one of my favorite being different each year as they make new floats every year.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Japan
• Neputa
• Hirosaki
• Nebuta
• Aomori
• festival
• swords
• katana
• japanese-sword
• japanese-culture
• japanese-festival
• matsuri
• art
• painting
• Japanese-art
• 県 ねぷた祭
• 太鼓
• 弘前市
• 青森
• じょっぱり

[sunochannel]

lol! Yeah, I had to google it to make sure I wasn't making a fool outta myself and I was -_- I didn't know there were festivals called Neputa though. I've learned something new today :3

[RoninDave]

@sunochannel don't worry! A lot of Japanese don't know that either! Many of them think Neputa is just another name for Nebuta. Nebuta of Aomori City is the famous one that everyone knows while Neputa of Hirosaki is rather overshadowed by it. I like both but I think Neputa is more artistic because of the painted scenes plus some of them are rather bloody!

[tanukisan666]

Dave always finds hot chicks for his videos. But could those drummers look any more bored?

[RoninDave]

@tanukisan666 I think they were going for that supermodel look of "I'm too beautiful to be interested in anything"

[RoninDave]

@sunochannel lol! Pretty sure it IS Neputa. You removed your comment before I had a chance to school ya!

[tanukisan666]

The Yakuza chick from 4:36 to 4:44 is captivating....

[holdenc96]

I lived in Hirosaki for six years as an eikaiwa teacher. I was feeling very nostalgic for my old hometown after the earthquake and tsunami, and I felt all kinds of natsukashii hearing the little kids screaming "yaaaaa ya dou!" and seeing the blase faces of the high school girls. (And they're not bored; they're supposed to have expressionless faces! My former students loved banging on those drums!)

[LatinoSan]

Great video again!

are you a busy guy!

cool stuff!

[daidouji]

@RoninDave lol

[daidouji]

THIS IS EFFING AWESOME!!! GREAT VIDEO.  I found you through "ThatJapaneseGIrl" channel.

[Lodoss3800]

I will go to Aomori by a business trip next month