Nebuta: light for the northern night

According to the Aomori Prefectural Board of Education, Aomori's nebuta developed from nemuri-nagashi — a custom around Tanabata of casting away the summer drowsiness that hindered work. Akita City likewise introduces the origin of the Kantō festival as one form of nemuri-nagashi.

In Aomori, the prefecture explains, large nebuta are sent out by companies and organisations, and smaller ones by neighbourhood and children's associations. With musicians and haneto dancers, the festival rests on a broad base of local people.

Akita's Kantō has been handed down as a prayer for a rich harvest: the whole pole is likened to an ear of rice and its lanterns to bales of rice. Performers balance the poles with techniques called nagashi, hirate, hitai, kata and koshi.

'Aomori no Nebuta', 'Hirosaki no Neputa' and 'Akita no Kantō' were all designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties on January 28, 1980. Together they speak quietly of why light gathers so intensely in the short northern summer.