Workshop Features Lanterns Styled Like Aomori’s Nebuta Floats

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:02 JST, March 25, 2026

AOMORI — Participants of a workshop got to try their hand at making lanterns styled like nebuta floats at a community center in the district of Arakawa in Aomori.

Ten participants, including elementary school students, drew their designs on washi Japanese paper to create colorful lanterns at the workshop held at the Aomori Prefectural Community Education Center on March 7.

The class was held to provide people an opportunity to learn about the city’s Aomori Nebuta Festival, a traditional festival featuring large floats called nebuta. Tomoya Kudo, a nebuta artist, served as the instructor.

After learning about the art materials and production methods used in the festival, participants drew designs with lines and dots using wax on washi paper, the same type of paper used for the large festival floats. “Colors like purple and green tend to easily fade when exposed to sunlight,” Kudo explained. The participants used 14 different colors, including red and blue.

“I’m happy I could color it well. It was great to learn how to make a nebuta float,” said a 9-year-old from Hiranai, Aomori Prefecture, who made a lantern by wrapping washi around a desk lamp.