JANM Celebrates the Oshogatsu Family Festival and Launches JANM on the Go on January 5, 2025

Editor’s note: JANM’s Pavilion to close for renovation on January 5, 2025; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo. 

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will host the Oshogatsu Family Festival from 11 a.m.–5 p.m.on Sunday, January 5, 2025. The popular annual New Year celebration will include free crafts, performances, and cultural activities for all ages to help ring in the Year of the Snake. Admission to Oshogatsu is free, and advance tickets are recommended. Tickets are available at janm.org/oshogatsu2025.

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. The 2025 Oshogatsu Family Festival will include souvenir photos, fun snake-themed crafts and origami, a snake-themed scavenger hunt, a mochitsuki (rice pounding) performance, and so much more.

Festival highlights include a candy sculpture demonstration with Shan Ichiyanagi. Known as Shan the Candyman, he will demonstrate the ancient, and now rarely practiced folk art of candy sculpting by making candy in the shape of snakes and other animals of the Asian zodiac. The finished pieces will be offered as prizes in the Kids’ Raffle. Other Year of the Snake activities include making a spiral snake to ring in 2025 and a snake bookmark to keep new year’s reading resolutions on track. Author Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson will give two readings of her new book, The Mochi Makers, that celebrates family, tradition, and the most poignant memories. Visitors can also watch an exciting Women in Kendo demonstration, purchase fukubukuro (lucky grab bags) at the JANM Store while supplies last, and participate in Kodama Taiko’s unique mochitsuki demonstration, which incorporates taiko drumming with the making of fresh mochi.

Oshogatsu will also launch JANM on the Go, the Museum’s schedule of special exhibitions, public programs, family festivals, education programs, and more on its campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond, while JANM’s Pavilion undergoes an ambitious renovation and reimagines its core exhibition. It will also be the final day to see JANM’s original core exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of a Community, and other exhibitions before the Pavilion closes for renovation. Programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo.

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About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM 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 center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over 100 exhibitions onsite while traveling 40 exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion will close for renovation on January 5, 2025 and programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo. For more information, visit janm.org or follow us on social media @jamuseum.