Hikiyama Exhibition Hall — Year-Round Festival Float Museum

The Hikiyama Exhibition Hall stores all 14 Karatsu Kunchi festival floats in climate-controlled cases when not in use during the November festival. Each float, representing a different creature or mythological figure — the Red Lion, the Blue Lion, the Sea Bream, the Helmet, the Sea Dragon — is displayed at eye level with technical information about its construction. The largest (the Red Lion, built 1819) is 7 meters tall; the oldest component materials date to the original construction over 200 years ago, repaired but never replaced.