Hayashi Festival Musicians
The Nebuta Festival would not be what it is without its sounds and, much like the floats, the music is all hand-powered. The hayashi or hayashigata (traditional festival ensembles) each consist of 50–100 musicians and three types of instruments. During the parade, spectators first hear the pounding beat of the drums (taiko) from a distance, followed by high-pitched bamboo flutes (shinobue), and then the jingle of small hand cymbals (teburigane).
Two main melodies are played throughout the parade, with all hayashi performing the same tunes. This has been the case since 1952, when the festival organizers decided to adopt a common repertoire, known as seicho hayashi, instead of letting the committees try to outdo each other with different compositions. The seicho hayashi originally comprised 10 melodies. Eight of these were for the taiko and functioned as a means of communication within the float unit, signifying commands such as “Assemble,” “Forward,” and “Backward.” The latter two remain in use today, with “Forward” (Shinko) now considered the “theme song” of the Nebuta Festival. Played when the Nebuta float is moving forward, it contains the double meanings of summoning and seeing off the gods.
