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Kawagoe Festival Museum is a museum in Japan. It opened in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, in 2003, with the purpose of displaying various materials, photographs and actual floats used for Kawagoe Festival.
The Kawagoe festival (officially named the Kawagoe Hikawa Festival) is a traditional Japanese festival held annually on the third weekend of October in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture. This is Kawagoe’s biggest event and the festival has more than 360-year history. It attracts around 1 million tourists during the two days. The grand pageant of the festival takes place in the castle town of Kawagoe including old storehouse zone called Kurazukuri Zone.
In 2005, the festival was designated as a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property under the title of “Kawagoe Hikawa Festival Float Event”, and in 2016, the festival was put on the list of “UNESCO” Intangible Cultural Heritage as one of the “Yama,Hoko,Yatai,float festivals in Japan”.
Features
editThe building of the museum was modeled after traditional fire-resistant storehouse style known as ‘Kurazukuri’.
At each section of the museum, not only the history of the festival is explained, but also preparations for the festival are displayed. Also, the real excitement of the festival can be seen on a screen.
In the exhibition hall, two real floats used in the festival are displayed, with a regular change of its kind. Gorgeous floats are the main attraction of the festival. There’re 29 floats kept by each neighborhood in the town, and about 20 of them actually take part in the festival. The floats are characterized by two-storied construction topped with an imposing doll and its luxurious decoration. Each float is coated in gold leaf and lacquered in black and red. The carvings on the balustrades and edges are made of Japanese zelkova and in an inlaid style. The designs of the curtains stitched with gold and silver color string are associated with the doll at its top. Although they look similar, each floats assumes its own pride and characteristics.