Awa Odori

Awa Odori grew out of the Bon dances performed across Japan to welcome and send off the spirits of the dead. A popular story links its beginning to 1587, when Hachisuka Iemasa, the new lord of Awa, is said to have given the townspeople sake to celebrate the completion of Tokushima Castle, and they danced in drunken joy. The story is widely told but not documented, and historians see the festival as a local development of Bon dancing.

During the Edo period, when Tokushima prospered on indigo production, the dance grew exuberant enough that the Hachisuka domain repeatedly issued edicts restricting it. The name Awa Odori came into general use in the early twentieth century, and after the Second World War the festival was organised on a large scale as a tourist event.

The music, called yoshikono, is a brisk two-beat rhythm played by shamisen, large and small taiko drums, a small gong called kane, and shinobue flutes. The dancers call out 'Yattosa, yattosa' as they move.

Two main styles are danced. The men's dance (otoko-odori) is low, loose and energetic, with bent knees, hands raised and a comic swagger. The women's dance (onna-odori) is upright and precise: dancers in matching yukata and deep straw amigasa hats move in tight lines on the tips of their geta clogs, their hands tracing graceful movements above their heads. Many ren also include a children's section, and women increasingly dance the men's style too.

From early evening until about ten o'clock on each of the four nights, the ren perform along several routes in central Tokushima. Some stretches are set up as enbujō, stages flanked by ticketed grandstands where the troupes perform in turn; other streets are free to watch, and in the side streets and parks ren often dance informally at close quarters.

The most memorable sight for many is the sōodori, when numerous famous ren fill a stage together in a single mass performance. By the last night, 15 August, the dancing continues until the spirits are sent back and Obon ends.

Awa Odori has spread across Japan. The largest offshoot is the Kōenji Awa Odori in Tokyo, started by local merchants in 1957 and held on a weekend in late August. Tokushima itself keeps the dance alive all year at the Awa Odori Kaikan below Mount Bizan, where resident troupes perform daily.

Tokushima is reached by highway bus from Osaka or Kobe across Awaji Island, or by train via the Seto-Ōhashi bridge and Takamatsu. During the festival, hotels in the city are booked out long in advance; many visitors stay in Naruto, Takamatsu or the Kansai area and travel in for the evenings. The August heat and humidity continue well into the night.