JANM Celebrates the Oshogatsu Family Festival on January 11, 2026

Editors please note: JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; 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 bring its popular annual Oshogatsu Family Festival to the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) from 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 11, 2026. The 2026 Oshogatsu Family Festival will include free crafts, performances, and cultural activities for all ages to ring in the Year of the Horse. Admission to Oshogatsu is free, and advance tickets are recommended. Tickets and details are available on janm.org/events.

New Year’s Day, or Oshogatsu, is one of Japan’s longest and most important holidays. One of the highlights of JANM’s Oshogatsu Family Festival is a mochitsuki performance where sweet sticky rice is pounded into a smooth and elastic dough called mochi. The online JANM Store also has horse-themed merchandise available for purchase, including a t-shirt, plushy, tea cup, and more to get in the spirit of the new year. The Oshogatsu Family Festival is part of JANM on the Go, the Museum’s schedule of special exhibitions, public programs, family festivals, and more on its campus and beyond while the renovation of JANM’s Pavilion continues until late 2026. 

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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 one hundred exhibitions onsite while traveling forty 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 is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.