JANM’S ANNUAL OSHOGATSU FAMILY FESTIVAL SET FOR JANUARY 5, 2020

Los Angeles, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM), will hold its annual Oshogatsu Family Festival on Sunday, January 5, 2020, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The New Year celebration will include free crafts, performances, and cultural activities for all ages to help ring in the Year of the Rat.

New Year’s, or Oshogatsu, is one of Japan’s longest and most important holidays. Although Oshogatsu originally referred to the whole month of January, most people associate it with the first three days (sanga nichi) of the month.

Highlights of the festival will include demonstrations of the ancient art of candy sculpting, sample bowls of lucky zaru soba, a performance by Los Angeles-based TAIKOPROJECT, and a mochitsuki (rice pounding) demonstration with Kodama Taiko.

JANM’s 2020 Oshogatsu Family Festival is sponsored by MUFG Union Bank, N.A.; City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs; Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and The Nissan Foundation. Media Sponsor: The Rafu Shimpo.

Full schedule of activities for Oshogatsu Family Festival on Sunday, January 5, 2020:

All Day Activities:

• Learn to fold origami rats and make them into pins, as well as make rat and cheese finger puppets and 2020 vision magnets.
• Transform into your favorite zodiac animal, or anything of your choosing, at our face painting booth.
• Surround yourself with plush rat and mice toys at the mouse house. Year of the Rat coloring sheets will also be available in this area.
• Fun props will be available to pose for souvenir photos taken by Nerdbot Photo Booth.
• Kids can explore JANM’s exhibitions with a Year of the Rat themed scavenger hunt for a chance to win a candy sculpture created by Shan Ichiyanagi (Shan the Candyman) through a kids’ raffle. While supplies last. Limit one (1) raffle ticket per child. (Members receive two chances to win a prize.)
• Toddlers can have fun or relax with an adult who brought them in the JANM toddler room. The animated Disney film Ratatouille will be screening there throughout the day.
• Fukubukuro (lucky grab bags) will be available for purchase at the JANM Store.

Scheduled Activities:

• 11 a.m.–3 p.m.: Kidding Around the Kitchen will offer free sample bowls of lucky zaru soba (buckwheat noodles) to bring good health in the new year (while supplies last). Kids can top the soba with their choice of tofu, vegetables, and nori.
• 11 a.m.–5 p.m.: Shan Ichiyanagi (Shan the Candyman) will demonstrate the ancient, and now rarely practiced, Asian folk art of candy sculpting, as he makes candy in the shape of rats, mice, and other animals of the Asian zodiac. Finished pieces will be offered as prizes for the Kids’ Raffle noted above.
• 11:30 a.m.–4 p.m.: Sample a selection of Osechi-Ryori, traditional Japanese New Year foods, including various sweets and vegetables, and learn about what each dish means.
• 12 p.m.: Join JANM volunteers for a traditional Japanese visual and interactive storytelling of how the zodiac calendar came to be and learn how the rat outsmarted everyone and won the race to be first in the cycle.
• 1:15 p.m.: The award-winning group TAIKOPROJECT will perform a lively demonstration of their unique and contemporary audience participation style of taiko.
• 2 p.m.: Story time will feature a reading of Thank You Very Mochi, a children’s book written by Paul Matsushima, Sophie Wang, and Craig Ishii and published by Kizuna, a Japanese American youth organization. Matsushima and Wang will do the reading and sign books afterwards.
• 2:45 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.: Kodama Taiko will present its unique mochitsuki (rice pounding) demonstration, which incorporates taiko drumming. Mochi samples will be available while supplies last.

JANM members enjoy special benefits at Oshogatsu Family Festival. These include express lines at some activities and reserved seating at the storytime readings.

Admission to all exhibitions are free during Oshogatsu Family Festival. These include Common Ground: The Heart of Community, Under a Mushroom Cloud: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Atomic Bomb, and Fighting for Democracy: Who is the “We” in “We, the People”?. For more information and to RSVP, visit janm.org/oshogatsufest2020. Attendees who RSVP in advance and scan their ticket(s) at the JANM Membership table during the festival, will be entered in a drawing to win a one-year Family/Dual Level membership.

About JANM, a Smithsonian Affiliate Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented nearly 100 exhibitions onsite and traveled 20 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America.

JANM is located at 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. General admission is $12 adults, $6 students and seniors, free for members and children under age five. Effective August 16, admission will be $16 for adults, and $7 for students and seniors. Admission is free to everyone on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every third Thursday of the month from noon to 8 p.m. General admission prices and free admission times may not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Closed Monday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information visit janm.org or call 213.625.0414.

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