Floats: architecture in motion

In 2016, thirty-three national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties were inscribed together on UNESCO's list as 'Yama, Hoko, Yatai, float festivals in Japan' — festivals centred on processions of floats, carried out by whole communities in prayer for peace and protection from disaster.

The Takayama Yatai Preservation Society traces Takayama's floats to a kagura float at the Hachiman festival of 1708, and describes how townspeople and local craftsmen refined their design from the early nineteenth century. Mechanical karakuri puppets perform as an offering atop the floats.

The mikurumayama of Takaoka are said to have been distributed by Maeda Toshinaga to the neighbourhoods of his castle town, and have been kept by those neighbourhoods ever since. Takaoka City also notes that few records survive to corroborate the story.

At Chichibu, floats unfold into stages for kabuki performances; in Hakata, decorated yamakasa more than ten metres tall are displayed in the streets. Every one of these floats has been preserved, repaired and pulled by its neighbourhood. Architecture in motion moves only because a community carries it.