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Asako Kitamura, Japan’s Only Female Nebuta Float Artisan
In Japan, summer is the season of fireworks, beautiful flower fields, and eye-catching festivals held across the country.Giant floats paraded down the streets of Aomori last week for the Nebuta Matsuri, one of Japan’s most heavily attended summer festivals.
This festival for which Aomori is most famous takes place in Aomori City
during the first week of August. It was held for the first time in three years after a long
covid-induced hiatus. A total of 18 floats featuring scenes from scroll
paintings depicting warriors and mythology lit up the heart of the city. Pictured (top) is a float by Asako Kitamura, Japan’s only
female Nebuta float artisan. 
The main procession of the festival consists of large internally lit floats depicting kabuki scenes that are wheeled around wildly from side to side.
Members of the public are free to join
in as long as they are wearing the required haneto costume. But before that can happen, there is the designing and building of the floats. The floats are all handmade and take several months to construct. And
once the initial design is decided upon, the construction process can
largely be broken down into five steps. 
Step 1: building the skeleton: Massive amounts of wood and wire are intricately tied together to create
the skeleton. Not only does the skeleton create the final form but it
also supports the may lights that go inside the float. Typically
from late May to early June.
Step 1: building the skeleton: Massive amounts of wood and wire are intricately tied together to create
the skeleton. Not only does the skeleton create the final form but it
also supports the may lights that go inside the float. Typically
from late May to early June. 
Step 2: attaching the paper: The next step is covering the skeleton with skin. Paper skin, of
course and once this step is complete the skeleton will never be seen
again. Given how large the floats are (5 meters high, 9 meters wide)
it’s a time-consuming process that lasts through mid-June.
Step 3: creating the outlines: Once the exterior skin is all attached, outlines are added to the
structure and the initial design begins to emerge. Another part of this
process is adding wax to areas that are intended to resist paint. This
process usually lasts until early July.
Step 4: color painting: The floats are now more than halfway done and they begin to come to
life with color. Working with her team, Kitamura hand-paints the entire
structure. It’s a combination of brush strokes and spray paint with
newspaper used as a way to shield certain parts from the paint. The
August festival is now approaching and the painting should be done
before the end of July.
Step 5: lifting the structure onto the float: After some final touches to ensure the facial expressions are just
right and the support joints are in place the paper structure is lifted
onto the float and secured. A few electric tests and the float is now
ready for showtime.
Asako Kitamura was born in 1982 to Takashi Kitamura, a 6th generation
Nebuta float artisan. At the age of 25 she decided to pursue her
father’s footsteps after seeing his work and being inspired by it. In
just 5 years she became an officially recognized Nebuta artisan in her
own right and has been contributing to the festival ever since. See her on Instagram. 
A very short video, here.
A mostly silent roommate.
The past five days, Granddog, Laker (12) has been boarding at Grandma's. His alter ego, Zoey (4) was boarded at Dogtopia, where she can socialize, which is her forte. Laker, not so much.
On Thursday, WonderWoman and her friends played golf, Heidi their social director, decides on the theme for each month. This month was "Back to School" and they dressed accordingly. Cute?
WW and Superman had a lot of stops to make during their four day stay.
On Saturday, WW picked me up, we took care of errands. At lunch someone got the salmon salad & the other got a fish taco?Who ate what?
We went to order a new mattress for me, long overdue. Then a pedicure.
Sunday the Superheroes picked up Laker, and Zoey, stopped to see family and ...
were on the road.
Short and very sweet!
Just because ...
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| Collared Puffbird |
Smiles for Monday ...
Thanks for coming by today
4 comments:
Not only does it have a Japanese cultural feel to it but this face also has a NW Native
American feel. The colors are perfect. :-)
Thank you, John. I did this in my graffiti stage, and decided to re-use it. I added a bit to make it new.
How wonderful that you could spend some time with your daughter. These happy hours keep us young.
It was quite interesting to read what goes on in Japan in summer. Never heard this before. Jacki, thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Elenor. Yes, I have been in Japan in the summer and have enjoyed the many festivals. The float building is amazing.
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