It is however in Tokushima that the spectacle of several thousand dancers is the most impressive. All major matsuri (festivals) in Japanese cities invite Awa dancers to perform. We now find the ren, the groups of dancers, in all the cities of Japan and even, in May 2015 in Paris for a special edition. Today, it is classified as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO and holds its main festival in Tokushima, on Shikoku Island between August 12-15, for the Obon festival. The Awa Oodori was once frowned upon by the authorities, too popular, too vulgar. A jig that dates back to the 16th century (at least), when the Lord of Tokushima distributed large quantities of alcohol to celebrate the completion of his castle.

The above quote comes from the words of the one that has become the quintessential Japanese traditional dance. “I wanted more proper measures to be taken.'Crazy people dance, crazy people watch, if you're going to be crazy, you might as well dance !' A local celebration

“Unless someone takes measures, infections will occur,” the expert said. The instructor noted that this year’s Awa Odori differed from last year’s scaled-down festival, including holding a “so-odori” dance (gala dancing where many participants dance together) as well as dancing on streets along a river. In addition, 6 percent of the groups didn’t observe the rules such as “avoid the three Cs and provide adequate ventilation in dressing rooms,” “wash hands and sanitize hands and fingers before meals,” and “practice social distancing even at break times.”Īn expert on curbing infections who is an instructor at Tokushima University and supervised the creation of the guidelines criticized the organizers. In contrast, among rules on how participants should behave on the days of the events, as many as 11 percent of the groups said they didn’t follow one that required their members to “change into costumes at home and refrain from using dressing rooms.” These rules included “Members should not participate in dance rehearsals when they don’t feel well,” and only between zero to 1 percent of the groups replied that they didn’t follow them. The survey found that almost all groups observed the guideline’s anti-infections rules that applied to dance rehearsals. “We don’t know if all new cases reported by the groups were attributable to the Awa Odori event,” an official of the organizing committee said. The daily count remained in single digits on or after Aug. The survey found that the number of new COVID-19 cases among the groups’ members spiked from Aug. A total of 86 groups, or 70 percent of all, responded. The survey also asked the groups how they observed the anti-infection guidelines. It asked them the number of daily new COVID-19 cases found among their members between Aug. 9, the committee surveyed the 123 dance groups that participated in the Awa Odori this year. However, some of the guidelines, including avoiding the “sanmitsu” (the three Cs of closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings) in dressing rooms, were not strictly adhered to.īetween Aug. Last year’s event was scaled down to prevent infections.Īccording to the organizing committee, anti-infection rules in its guidelines were largely observed by participants. The Awa Odori festival organizing committee believes, however, that the actual number of cases was higher as some dance groups didn’t reply to its post-festival survey.

25 was 819 of the estimated 3,425 people among the 86 groups that returned questionnaires about infections to the organizers.

The total number of new COVID-19 cases reported between Aug. 15 were infected with the novel coronavirus, the organizers disclosed. 22.Ībout a quarter of the participants, including dancers, of this year’s Awa Odori festival held from Aug. TOKUSHIMA-A famed dance festival that was held for the first time in three years on a full-scale basis in August here resulted in a COVID-19 superspreader event among participants, the organizers reported on Sept.

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