The Awa Odori Festival in Tokushima is one of the most
famous in Japan and is the largest dance festival in the entire country. It
occurs right after Yosakoi Festival on August 12-15
th and Tokushima
is only a few hours drive from Kochi.
So
why not go dance!?
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| Lanterns set up for Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
The location of the festival is also right in the center of the city nearby the Tokushima Station so it was very easy to get to with a highway bus. We arrived mid-day and since the majority of the festival occurs at night we just wandered around the area where the festival was being held for a few hours. You could smell the BBQ coming from the food stands starting to cook and some dancers were even warming up with dancing down the covered shopping street.
The Awa Odori festival is quite old and literally translates
from Awa being the old feudal age name for Tokushima Prefecture and Odori
meaning dance. The dancing style started
around 1185-1333 during a harvest dance festival. The festival transitioned to
a “Festival of the Dead” as part of the obon festival when ancestors return
home during the 16th century. Awa Odori really grew in size and fame
in 1586 when the lord hosted a drunken party to celebrate opening Tokushima
Castle.
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
Rules of the festival
were that the dancing may only last three days, samurai were forbidden from the
public celebration, no masks, no carrying weapons, no quarrels and no dancing
on temple grounds. The rule of no masks is no longer abided by since many
stands sell fun masks for kids or adults.
Now the festival in the areas largest tourist attraction and
hotels get very very booked and even increase their prices just for the
festival time. Since we went very last minute we just barely found a place to
stay and it was about $100 a night for a Japanese style tatami room for two
people in a place that had a communal bathroom and kinda smelt like mould. BUT
it was right in the centre of the festival area, which is actually only 7
locations in a span of a few blocks.
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
Performers at the festival wear traditional obon dance
costumes, however these are not as variable, colourful
or elaborate as the Yosakoi dancers.
Women do wear amigasa straw hats
and Japanese geta sandals and restrictive
kimono
that look quite tricky to dance
in. As such most of the womens dancing is very much the same simple moves
repeated over and over. Some women, all men and most children doing the dance
wear the mens costume which is much easier to dance in and allows for more
energetic and funny dance moves.
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
Music is actually chanted and played by accompanying
shinobue flutes, kane bell, taiko drums and shamisen lute (Japanese string
instrument with 3-strings), rather than from a large truck. The famous song of
the festival is
Awa Yoshikono and is a localised version of the Edo
period popular song
Yoshikono Bushi.
踊る阿呆に
|
Odoru ahou ni
|
The dancers are fools
|
見る阿呆
|
Miru ahou
|
The watchers are fools
|
同じ阿呆なら
|
Onaji ahou nara
|
Both are fools alike so
|
踊らな損、損
|
Odorana son, son
|
Why not dance?
|
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
I didn’t actually
recognize people singing this song at all during the festival but all teams were chanting hayashi kotoba
call and response patterns such as "Yattosa, yattosa", "Hayaccha
yaccha", "Erai yaccha, erai yaccha", and "Yoi, yoi, yoi,
yoi".
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
Spectators are often encouraged to join the dance and when
teams are not parading down the streets they frequently create dance circles.
On the last day of the festival a thunderstorm damped some of the festivities
but dancers took to the covered streets to parade, perform and create many of
these fun engaging dance circles with the crowds escaping the rain.
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
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| Awa Odori in Tokushima, Japan |
Overall I would say that Awa Odori is very different than Yosakoi. I can't really compare them and chose which I prefer. I enjoyed the energetic and colourful costumes and music of Yosakoi, which is much more variable in terms of costumes, music and moves. But the real fun part about Awa Odori is being able to join in and actually be able to dance the more simplistic repetitive moves. The dance circles on the last rainy night were one of my favorite moments in the dance festival. The fact the dancers are so into it and just randomly start performing in the streets even after the festival ends and people start going to the bars or drinking on the street definitely adds to the atmosphere.
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