Visit one of the most famous festivals in Japan : Awa-Odori

Every year in the city of Tokushima, in the east of the principal island of Shikoku, one of the biggest and famous festivals of Japan takes place. During 4 days, from 12th August until 15th of August, the Japanese folk dance is performed through the city. This festival is also called as "the dance of fools", because the phrase which refrains as "The dancers are fools, the watchers are fools. Both are fools alike so why not dance?"

The night of the festival, when the excitement reaches to the peak, the dancers overrun in every corner of the city and all the people join the dancing.

The origin of the dance of Awa-Odori dates back to 400 years ago when the feudal lord Hachisuka Iemasa offered the sake to every person living in the city for celebrating the achievement of the construction of the castle of Tokushima. The inhabitants got really drunk and started to dance with irregular steps inconsistently.

The citizens were so amused until they make that Awa-Odori as an anual tradition.

The Awa-Odori dance is caracterized with the dance of a drunken person in happy rhythm of the tambours, gongs and many more instruments.

Awa-Odori takes place in the same timing of the festival to honour the spirits of the ancestors, called o-bon, the famous dance of Awa became so popular. Today, in many other festivals, as the Awa-Odori is to welcome the spirits so that it is not rare to find out the same type of choreography in many other region of Japan.