Location: Kosaka, Kosaka Town
Site(s) of performance: Various places in the community
Date(s): August 6 and 7
Category: Taiko-Furyū and Matsuri-Bayashi
The origin of the Kosaka-Tanabata Festival is traced back to when the miners at Kosaka Mine from the Hirosaki area started to replicate the Nebuta Festival in their hometowns on Tanabata days (the days of the festival to commemorate the love of stars Vega and Altair in the sky). The main feature of the festival is large lanterns being carried around on floats. Lanterns represent samurai, heroes, and other personalities or objects. Players of big drums, small drums, and gongs are on the floats. At Kosaka, quite characteristically, not only Japanese flutes but also harmonicas follow the floats to play music together with the players on the floats.
