Taiko drums, lolita fashion and samurai armor are taking over City Park this Saturday as Japan Fest Presented by Hancock Whitney marks its 32nd year at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The daylong festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 10, spreading across NOMA and the Sydney and Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden with food, music, martial arts and fashion.
The festival is organized by NOMA, the Japan Club of New Orleans and the Consulate General of Japan in Nashville, according to NOMA. Visitors can sample Japanese cuisine, catch traditional dance groups and martial arts demonstrations, and tour the museum throughout the day, per the museum's event listing. Tables in the sculpture garden and a market area will offer Japanese food and crafts, as reported by nola.com.
Fashion, Cosplay and a Full Day of Taiko
A Lolita Fashion Show takes the museum steps at 2 p.m., open to a range of Japanese styles including lolita, decora, menhera, jirai kei and kimono, the nola.com report notes. A cosplay contest welcoming anime and video game characters, with categories for kids and adults, follows the fashion show on the same stage, according to the same account. New Orleans Taiko leads a drumming workshop at 2:15 p.m., and Kaminari Taiko of Houston, a Japanese drum group based in Texas per ilovetaiko.org, performs on the museum steps at 3:30 p.m.
Candy Mix Maids, described as a local group of J-Pop enthusiasts, presents its Kaigai Idol show at 3:15 p.m., the nola.com report states. Attendees can also try on samurai suits, join go workshops and take Japanese language lessons throughout the day, the same source notes, alongside tours of the exhibit Second Nature: Japanese Rinpa Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection.
Jazz Musician Satoru Ohashi Headlines at Noon
Musician Satoru Ohashi leads a band at noon inside NOMA's Lapis Center, playing traditional jazz as well as jazz arrangements of enka, according to the nola.com account. Ohashi studied music in Tokyo before attending Berklee College of Music and later studying jazz at the University of New Orleans and the Juilliard School in New York, the report notes. He has lived and played at least half his time in New Orleans, where Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen once invited him to play with his group, and he went on to perform with Hannibal Lokumbe, Richard Davis and John Hicks.
Ohashi, whose father taught classical music, later became a member of Walter “Wolfman” Washington's Roadmasters and recorded with the New Orleans Nightcrawlers, per the same nola.com report. His noon set bridges the festival's blend of Japanese tradition and New Orleans musical heritage before the afternoon's fashion and drumming programming takes over.
Exhibitions, Tickets and Getting There
Japan Fest coincides with NOMA's exhibition Second Nature: Japanese Rinpa Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection, which features nearly 60 hanging scrolls, folding screens, fan paintings and handscrolls, along with the connected installation Good Fortune: 50 Years of Japanese Art at NOMA, according to the museum. General admission costs $10, NOMA members pay $5, and attendees 19 and under get in free, the museum's event page states.
Some vendors at Japan Fest accept cash only, so NOMA recommends bringing cash for purchases. Costume masks that obstruct or cover the wearer's face are prohibited, though face masks worn for health reasons are permitted, per the museum's guidelines. NOMA sits at One Collins Diboll Circle in City Park, with free parking available on Lelong Drive and surrounding streets, according to the museum's visitor information.
