Seki no Yama Kaikan (Seki Float Museum)

Seki no Yama Kaikan displays two of the four surviving floats used in the Seki Juku Gion Summer Festival, a tradition dating to around 1700. These two-story floats can stand over six meters tall and weigh up to six tons, built from oak and zelkova with lacquered and gilded decoration. The festival once featured 16 floats when the town was at its most prosperous. The Nakamachi-Yonbancho float is elaborately finished with gold leaf and a check-pattern washi paper roof; the Kozaki float has a large front stage for musicians. The museum also holds festival costumes, lanterns, and embroidered curtains. A video shows the butai-mawashi, when the upper float structures rotate at speed.