The Awa Odori festival grew out of the tradition of the Bon Odori which is danced as part of the Bon "Festival of the Dead", a Japanese Buddhist celebration where the spirits of deceased ancestors are said to visit their living relatives for a few days of the year. The earliest origins of the dance style are found in the Japanese Buddhist priestly dances of Nembutsu-odori and hiji-odori of the Kamakura period (1185–1333), and also in kumi-odori, a lively harvest dance that was known to last for several days. History The Dance of Fools (in Kōenji, Tokyo) Performers wear traditional obon dance costumes, and chant and sing as they parade through the streets.Īwa is the old feudal administration name for Tokushima Prefecture, and odori means "dance". Groups of choreographed dancers and musicians known as ren (連) dance through the streets, typically accompanied by the shamisen lute, taiko drums, shinobue flute and the kane bell. Awa Odori is the largest dance festival in Japan, attracting over 1.3 million tourists every year. The Awa Dance Festival ( 阿波踊り, Awa Odori ) is held from 12 to 15 August as part of the Obon festival in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku in Japan. ( September 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īwa Odori dancers (in Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku) Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill ( documentation) and Citation bot ( documentation). Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Whichever style you choose, you will wear a hachimaki (head scarf), haramaki (kind of belt), short pants, and tabi (kind of Japanese shoes made of cloths, where the big toe is separated from the other toes to accomodate geta).Īfter two years off due to COVID-19, it looks like the Awa Odori festival might finally take place again this coming August.This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Happi is a kind of Japanese traditional costume that you usually wear during festivals. Kinagashi is a kind of yukata that can be casually worn by men on a daily basis. Left is the kinagashi style, right is the happi style. It changed Awa Odori from a dance performed by everyone to a dance that is watched by an audience. Since 1965, the city installs big stands in four different locations near Tokushima Station every year, where you can sit and watch the performers. When you visit Tokushima city in this period, you can enjoy seeing Awa Odori all day.ĭuring the day, selected Awa Odori ren ( Awa Odori dancing group) dance on the stage. About one million and three hundred thousand people visit and one hundred thousand people dance Awa Odori for 4 days. This is the most famous and largest festival in Japan. The Awa Odori festival is held in Tokushima city between August 12 th and 15 th every year. These three stories is having the same point that Awa Odori was born from the people and developed along their life and culture.Īwa Odori was stopped for a while because of World War II, but the number of people who danced Awa Odori increased as a symbol of post-war recovery and Awa Odori culture spreaded to the whole country of Japan. Furyu (風流) means elegance, and represents kimono or decorations which are have elaborate designs. The third story says that it comes from the Furyu Odori, which was danced in Shozui castle at the end of Sengoku period (1467-1615). The second story says that an ancestral memorial service from the Kamakura period (1185-1333), Nembutsu Odori, eventually evolved into what we is known today as Awa Odori. It is the most well-known story of the three. The first story says that when a samurai of Tokushima became the head of castle, people around the castle started dancing.
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