“Goshogawara Tachineputa” is one of the biggest summer festivals in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The characters displayed on the floats are huge lanterns.
Back in the early 1900s, Neputa was a symbol for power and wealth for people like farmers, land owners and merchants. It mostly meant “rich merchants”, especially in Goshogawara. The Nunokas were known as the richest merchants in this area. A carpenter, Suekichi Akimoto, who worked for the Nunokas, designed a huge Neputa for them. Approximately 100 people shouldered the 20 meters tall Neputa and paraded the streets. They said that people could even see it from the neighboring town Kanagi because of the hugeness.
However, electricity spread in the Takisha era and electric wires were set up all around town. Neputa needed to be made shorter, but wider, after that. There were two conflagrations in Goshogawara in those days( in 1944 and 1946). People thought that all of the blueprints of old Neputa or any way to produce it had been lost in the fires. Fortunately some photos and blueprints of Neputa were found in 1993.
Now, after an interval of almost 80 years, the restoration and revival of Neputa in Goshogawara had begun. Many volunteers work hard for the production of Neputa every year. This new Neputa in Goshogawara was named Tachineputa.
