Shirone Kite Museum

Shirone Giant Kite Battle is annually held at Shirone ward in Shirone city in early June.
This is a festival of a battle of Giant kites, two giant kites fly from the opposite banks of the Nakanokuchi river, entangle each rope and drop into the river, when one kite cuts a rope of the opponent’s, victory is decided. Shirone Kite Museum located in Minami ward is a rare museum in the world which exhibits kites, which introduces about this traditional event that lasts about 300 years since the Edo period.

The giant kites used for battles are displayed at the hall, the Great Kite Square, which is 15m high and diameter. A kite’s size is 7m in length and 5m in width. It is an unbelievable size equivalent of 24 sheets of a Tatami mat (about 37 square meters). There is a special space for the introduction about the history of the Giant kite battle and 3D video room where 3D vision of the battle appears from the screen, with which you will surely get a lot of knowledge about this traditional event. About 500 kites which are characteristic of each area collected from Japan and over 30 countries in the world are displayed. There are leading must- see collections in the world.

In the facility, Tako kobo, the experience class for making a small- sized kite, is open every day. You can choose a kite from Japanese style or Western style to make, a 3-year old kid can make Western style one. In the Fudo Jikkenshitu (a wind-tunnel test room), you can fly your original kite with the wind blowing at 4 meters per second. If you want to learn about the lifestyle in Shirane in the old time, it is recommended to see folklore documents and dioramas or a replicated farmer’s house displayed in the history exhibition space.