More than 800 lion masks used in the traditional dances at Japanese festivals are exhibited in this small museum. The purpose of the dances is to purify the path of the procession before the altars bearing the deities pass along it. More interesting is the small but amusing collection of karakuri puppets, wooden automata dating from the Edo period. They sit on top of the floats while their operators, concealed below, make them perform acrobatic feats to the sound of drums and flutes.