Tachineputa No Yakata, Tohoku, Japan

5Carol M 5:00 PM Oct 11, 2018

Simply Amazing sight to see!!
The Tachi-Neputa House is a museum that displays parade floats featured in the city's Neputa summer festival. These huge floats are 23 metres high and made of wire and rice paper. The workmanship of these floats is simply amazing and the museum's set up allows visitors to walk around to see the floats from all angles along the 3 floors. Well worth a visit!

51234texas 5:00 PM Aug 26, 2018

Bucket List! Total surprise item--never heard of it, but it should be a "bucket list item" for anyone!
Any words you read about the floats will not begin to capture the visual experience that it is to go through this "museum." It is not really a museum, but it is the warehouse (10 to 12 stories tall) for the 3 most recent floats to be housed. There are some descriptive items on display to help you get a sense of what is going on, but the head of the operation gave us a guided tour (I do not think that is commonly available) to the 3 floats on display and to look behind the scenes to see how they are constructed. To go through here without a guide would be a challenge--make certain you read up on what you can PRIOR TO ARRIVAL! As I said, we were totally surprised by this--we had never heard of them. I do have some photos of the "behind the scenes" of the construction process, but the download program is not working. I will add them when it is functioning properly--sorry! These amazing floats are designed and built each year for one parade and deconstructed every fourth year--the parts are salvaged. It is also the shop where the float for the next year is built by 7 people! The engineering to pull off moving the floats in and out of the structure is worth the price of the admission, the beauty of the floats and the effort to design and build them is the icing on the cake! I have attached a number of pictures (none can do justice to them because they are so big and there is no real way to give you a sense of scale) to give you an idea as to what you will see here. The building is the tallest one in the city--you can't miss it. It is well designed and very attractive in a functional sort of way. The engineering is spectacular--so many part of the building have to move to be able to safely protect the floats. The internal bridges you will walk across all move to allow the floats in and out. The entire wall opens to let them enter! THE FLOATS: These colorful floats are 72 feet tall! They are 17 tons and all moved by humans--no gas powered vehicles are involved. The wood frame is built on large wheels and the electrical wires are installed for the internal lights to put on a great night sow for the parade. Washi paper is glued and then painted on the wood frame for the "finishing touches." They are sculptures on wheels that have incredible paintings to capture your attention as you walk to the top of the building to see all the details. The souvenir shop is nice, but make it a point to stop in the little "grocery store" just outside the entrance. There is a REAL FISH MARKET inside it--not the tourists markets you have been taken to on the other stops. The prices here are reasonable the the food wonderful! If I can find my notes on the market, I will write it up separately. This is a stop not to be missed! We have put it on our bucket list AFTER we have seen--it not before! It is an experience you will not forget--I promise.