The Dance Style from Kochi Taking the World by Storm
Every year, from 9th to 12th August, roughly 20,000 people from Japan and abroad travel to Kochi City on the island of Shikoku to take part in the Yosakoi Festival. The festival is comprised of competitions and performances across 16 different venues, and participants flock from 29 different countries to be a part of this dynamic and energetic event.
One of the charms of Yosakoi is its diversity, as anyone in the world can share and participate in it. The basic rules for the dance are very simple. Dancers move forward while operating naruko, small wooden clappers that were originally used in Kochi Prefecture to scare away birds from rice fields. Some groups also make use of other hand held items, such as drums, flags, batons or fans. Yosakoi offers a lot of freedom for each team to create their own unique style, and part of the fun is watching what each unique team can bring to the table.
One of the things that makes the Yosakoi Festival such a vivid spectacle is that each team has wildly different costumes and choreography, bringing their own style to the performance. Often the teams are accompanied by ornately decorated music trucks, called jikatasha , another fun element of the celebration. Seeing Kochi City transform into a massive open-air stage filled with dancing and music is something you need to experience for yourself!
One of the charms of Yosakoi is its diversity, as anyone in the world can share and participate in it. The basic rules for the dance are very simple. Dancers move forward while operating naruko, small wooden clappers that were originally used in Kochi Prefecture to scare away birds from rice fields. Some groups also make use of other hand held items, such as drums, flags, batons or fans. Yosakoi offers a lot of freedom for each team to create their own unique style, and part of the fun is watching what each unique team can bring to the table.
One of the things that makes the Yosakoi Festival such a vivid spectacle is that each team has wildly different costumes and choreography, bringing their own style to the performance. Often the teams are accompanied by ornately decorated music trucks, called jikatasha , another fun element of the celebration. Seeing Kochi City transform into a massive open-air stage filled with dancing and music is something you need to experience for yourself!
