Ikazaki Kite Museum

The museum is at Ikazaki in Uchiko, a district known for the kite battle held there every year on 5 May. It collects kites from all over Japan and from other countries, and shows new ones as well as traditional kinds.

The Ikazaki kite battle has been fought for some four hundred years. It is held on 5 May across the Oda River, and the museum exists because of it: the kites, the paper and the making are all part of the same tradition.

Visitors can make a kite of their own. The paper used is the washi made in this district, the same as goes into the kites flown in the battle.

In the usual workshop a picture or kite lettering is painted on a ready-made white kite and the lines are attached. A smaller decorative kite, about 28 by 19 centimetres, is built from the start, with paper pasted onto bamboo ribs, but it is made to hang rather than to fly. Fans can be made in the same way.

Building a flying kite from the bamboo up takes a full day and has to be arranged beforehand, as does a design of your own or a group of three or more.