Honestly, the sand sculptures themselves were just so-so. I got tired after looking around for a while and was taking a break in the area with the food stalls and souvenir shops, when all of a sudden a troupe of young women performing Tokushima’s Awa Odori dance showed up.
Like this…
They dance in a pose that looks like they’re riding a horse, calling out “Yatto yatto!”, and it really gets you in the mood. So I followed them around and took some photos.
They’re circling around on their way to the plaza.
The dancing is pretty vigorous(?), so the hems ride up a little.
They gather in the plaza and start dancing for real.
All sorts of people join in, so there is plenty to see.
I feel like our Korean nongak (farmers’ music and dance) is a bit short on this kind of flashiness. Traditional culture needs something with a bit more mass appeal if it’s going to survive, and Japan is really good at that.
It was so much fun that I’m thinking about visiting Tokushima during the next Obon holidays. The problem is I might be going back to Korea then… hmm… well, I’ll decide next month.