Every country has its own special customs and traditional festivals, and hey, when you hear that, don't you instantly think of Tanabata? Recently, the Internet exposure of the Japanese street "hundred ghosts night walk" related news, it is reported that this move is to celebrate the Awa dance festival, the festival is four days, attracting about 1.2 million tourists to participate in each year? The festival is a four-day event that attracts about 1.2 million visitors each year. Local people have been dressing up and getting into the spirit of the event, which looks spectacular from afar!
Local people celebrate the Awa Dance Festival with a joyful street parade and dance on August 16, 2017 in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. The festival lasts for four days and attracts about 1.2 million visitors each year.
The Awa Odori dance usually involves dozens of people who form companies and dance in the street as a company, usually consisting of men and women dancing in separate small groups stepping to a 2-beat rhythm in front, with the accompanist following in the back, and with musical instruments that basically consist of shamisen, taiko (drums), kane (gongs), and yokozuna (cross flute).
Awa is the former name of Tokushima, and Odori is the dance. The origin of the Awa Odori dance goes back more than 400 years. The origin of the Awa Odori dance is not clear, but it may have been transformed from other religious forms of dance, but the most common theory is that in 1587, the lord of the Tokushima Clan, Iemasa Hesuka, celebrated the completion of Tokushima Castle by hosting a banquet in the castle town and saying to the people below the castle, "In order to celebrate the completion of the castle, everyone can dance as they please.
For four days from August 12 to 15 every year, the whole of Tokushima is filled with enthusiasm, and the mood of the Awa Dancing Group is at its peak. The Awa-odori dance in Tokushima City is held from 6:00 p.m. in the evening until 10:30 p.m., with the city center as the stage. The main venue consists of dance halls (8), dance plazas (4), dance corridors (2), and corner plazas (6) located in parks and streets in the center of the city.
In addition to Tokushima City, the Awa Odori is held in Naruto City, Ikeda Town, Kamishima Town in Yoshinogawa City, Sadamitsu in Kenmachi, and other places in the prefecture, and Tokushima is abuzz with Awa Odori in the summer.