Otoroe: The Astonishing World of Giant Lantern Paintings

Period: September 13 ~ November 4, 2024
Venue: Special Exhibition Room
Opening Hours: 9:30am - 5:30pm (last admission: 5:00pm)
Closed: Mondays (if Monday falls on a national holiday, the following weekday)
Charge:
・Adults: 1,200yen
・High school and University students: 800yen

   *The chicket includes admission to the Permanent and Feature Exhibition Rooms.
　*No charge for Junior High School Students and younger.

  

Ohama Nagarekanjo Otoro,
Tangible Folk Cultural Property by Fukuoka Prefecture
 (Taken on August 24, 2023)

In areas along the Hakata Bay coast in Fukuoka City, there are places where giant lanterns called "Otoro" are displayed along roadsides during summer festivals. The lanterns are often decorated with striking depictions of warriors and legends.

One of the famous events in which giant lantern paintings ("Otoroe") are displayed is Ohama Nagarekanjo, a local summer festival held every year in August in Fukuoka City (photo above). This festival’s original purpose was to pray and hold a memorial service for people who had died in a severe natural disaster in 1755 and the plague of the following year. The giant lantern paintings, which have been adorned with prayers for the dead and the safety of the town at festivals, evoke feelings of extraordinary excitement and fear.

“Igagoe vendetta,” giant lantern painting/ Hakozaki Hachiman Shrine

This exhibition brings together – for the first time – approximately 60 giant lantern paintings from across Fukuoka, including 9 designated as Tangible Folk Cultural Property by Fukuoka Prefecture. Some exhibits are photographs to protect the originals. The exhibition also focuses on the artists responsible for these paintings, and introduces other prints, posters, and hanging scrolls they created.

We hope you will take this opportunity to view these unique and highly impactful paintings and learn about the local customs of Fukuoka at the exhibition site!

This room has a section that reproduces the altar (for a Buddhist service to placate the dead) that is set up during the Ohama Nagarekanjo summer festival. Buddhist paintings, lanterns, stupas (wooden grave markers), and a boat, believed to carry the spirits of ancestors, are also on display. The lanterns crowned with an umbrella and flowers on either side of the section were made by participants in a workshop held at the museum in May.