On Sunday, January 5th, JANM rang in the New Year and the Year of the Horse with fun arts ‘n crafts, food, exciting cultural activities, and performances!
Oshogatsu Family Festival is one of JANM’s biggest events of the year, and we were glad to see so many guests come to join in on the fun. From folding a prancing horse origami, to jumping around in a horse bounce house, all of the activities celebrated the New Year and the Year of the Horse.
Thank you to all the JANM staff, volunteers, and friends who helped out at Oshogatsu Family Festival, and of course, thank you to all the guests for helping JANM kick off the New Year with a fun and exciting day!
Check out these photos from the 2014 Oshogatsu Family Festival (click on the thumbnails to see the full pictures):
Excitedly crafting a stick horse!
Customizing a stick horse in celebration of the Year of the Horse.
Prancing around the Museum with a newly made stick horse!
Constructing a horse wall-hanging craft.
Beginning the New Year with lucky zaru soba with Kidding Around the Kitchen.
Tours of “Common Ground” are given throughout the festival.
Posing with newly made stick horses.
Purchasing a fukubukuro (lucky bag). What was in your mystery grab bag?
Successfully folding a prancing horse origami with Ruthie!
Forming a line to sample some osechi-ryori, or traditional Japanese New Year foods!
World-renowned candy sculptor Shan Ichiyanagi sculpts candy into a horse.
A lucky raffle winner gets a special horse candy sculpture.
Bouncing around in a horse bounce house.
Enjoying free rides on ponies!
Learning how to make onigiri rice balls and entering the Onigiri Design Contest.
Rushing to finish an onigiri for the design contest!
Decorating onigiri for the Design Contest.
Common Grains presents a gift to one of the winners of the onigiri design contest.
Waiting to watch the mochitsuki demonstration.
Kodama Taiko performs a demonstration of mochitsuki, a traditional rice cake pounding ceremony.
Taking turns pounding the mochi.
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Good Effort”
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Happiest”
Onigiri Design Contest winners for most “humorous”
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Kawaii” (Cute)
Onigiri Design Contest winners for “Personality”
Photo Credits: Richard Murakami, Caroline Jung, Russell Kitagawa, Richard Watanabe, and Tsuneo Takasugi
Don’t miss our next Target Free Family Saturdays: Aloha from Hawaii with KoAloha Ukulele on Saturday, February 8th from 11AM to 4PM. It’s FREE all day! Visit www.janm.org/target for more information.
Esther graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in the Summer of 2013 with a Bachelor's degree in History and a minor degree in Japanese. She was the curatorial intern at JANM for the 2013 Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Program, and has also completed a marketing internship at the museum. Esther currently works as a Development Assistant for JANM.
