Fukuyama Yosakoi

Fukuyama Yosakoi

After exploring Tomonoura I headed back into downtown Fukuyama one more time and went to part of the second nights festiviies of the Fukuyama Summer Festival.

The performers were gathering outside the library in Central Park.

Niagari Odori dancers in their traditional outfits were milling around so I guess there would be more of that later, but for now, everyone was preparing for the Yosakoi dancing.

Yosakoi is a fairly new type of dance in Japan, invented in Kochi in the early 1950's it has become very popular throughout Japan and has even spread abroad.

Compared to most traditional Japanese dances, Yosakoi is wildly energetic and exciting.

The costumes are also very colourful and tending towards the flamboyant.

The rules are quite loose and so dancers can be quite creative in choreographing their routines.

The music is almost always prerecorded and quite varied as the rule is that just "some" of the original Yosakai song should be included....

Many Yosakoi teams utilize a  very large flag or flags

Another rule is that dancers must carry or use naruko, a kind of clacker used originally as bird scarers.

Earlier I posted on the previous evenings Niagari Odori dancing

The previous post in thi series on day 10 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the very large Fukuyama Hachimangu Shrine with 30 colourful photos.

Goods From Japan