Japanese Trivia: Waraku Odori Dance

( Photo Caption: Japanese women performing the Waraku Odori Dance. Source: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/South_America/Brazil/photo424741.htm )

While waiting for my taxi to the train station in Nikko on the way back to Tokyo, I read a poster in Nikko Park Lodge lounge area about Waraku Odori Dance:

Waraku Odori

The Waraku Odori dance is a bon dance performed on 5th and 6th of August at the Nikko factory of Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. An illuminated yagura, or stage, is set up in the center of Waraku pond, and a large number of people dance around outside the pond, attracting many spectators.

The Waraku Odori dance was started to commemorate the first visit of the Imperial family to a Nikko factory. This visit took place in the summer of 1913, when the Imperial household went to Nikko.

Additional information: The odori is a traditional Japanese dance that originated in the Edo period. "The Edo period (江戸時代, Edo-jidai ), also called Tokugawa period, is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the restoration of imperial rule by the 15th and last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The Edo period is also known as the beginning of the early modern period of Japan." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_Period )

Cheers,

Raffy
7/30/07, 9:20 a.m., Nikko, Japan