Arimatsu Float Museum

It displays one float at a time and changes it every year: to see them all takes three years.

There is only one float in the hall, and you look at it from above instead of from below: the karakuri, the wooden puppets worked by strings and springs that stand on top of the float during the festival and stay far above your head, can be seen up close here. Next year another one will take its place, and the third the year after that.

The three floats of Arimatsu's autumn festival (the Hotei-sha of the east district, the Karako-sha of the central district and the Jingū-kōgō-sha of the west district) have been tangible folk cultural properties designated by the city of Nagoya since 1973. For eleven months a year they stay in their district storehouses; this museum keeps one of them on display at a time and changes it every year, so if you come back three times you will have seen them all. Besides the float there is a screening of the festival, with English subtitles, which helps you understand what the puppets do when the float is out in the street and the crowd lets you see nothing.

ℹ️ Open only on Saturdays and Sundays, from 10:00 to 16:00, closed over the New Year. Adults 200 yen, high school students 100, free below junior high. Five minutes on foot from Meitetsu Arimatsu Station, on the same street as the rest of the old town: if you come on a weekday you will find it closed and see only the façade.

🚉 Arimatsu · 5 min walk

Sources: nagoya-info.jp · arimatsu-tenmansha.com

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