Some festivals are supposed to ward off bad spirits, while others are intended to invoke a rich harvest or to ensure the continuation of future generations. The Awa Odori falls under the larger umbrella of Bon festivals that celebrate ancestors’ brief return to earth in late summer. However, unlike the slow, rhythmic promenading of Bon dances around a central tower stage, Awa Odori dancers are free to roam and cover a lot of ground, snaking through arcades and boulevards and making a joyous and frenetic racket of taiko drums, flutes and shamisen along the way.
Except for the COVID years, the Koenji Awa Odori in western Tokyo has been held annually since 1957, when it launched under the name Koenji Baka Odori (Koenji Silly Dance). According to James Hadfield’s tribute to the tradition for its 60th anniversary, the original event was “a cultural hodgepodge born of good-natured ignorance.” Over time, it became an official off-shoot of the larger Awa Odori festival held yearly in Tokushima, but it is still very much in touch with its carefree foolishness and joie de vivre. As the refrain of one traditional festival song goes, “The dancers are fools, the watchers are fools, we’re all fools, so dance!”
Indeed, there is plenty of dancing in the streets of Tokyo during August, be it samba in Asakusa or Super Yosakoi in Omotesando, but the Koenji Awa Odori is probably the city’s most well attended, attracting more than 1 million people who turn out to watch almost 10,000 participants over two days. Throughout the years, crowd control has been refined, and while bottlenecks occur here and there, it somehow all works and miraculously manages to feel like a giant block party, as locals and visitors line both the long shopping arcade or share bento and beer on plastic roadside tatami.
As Matt Schley wrote about the event in 2023, the proximity of performers and spectators is a big draw. “Both groups feed off each other’s energy, and spectators get fully enveloped in a shower of sound,” the festival executive director told him.
Despite blistering heat, that seemingly limitless energy was on full display at the most recent Koenji Awa Odori. Here are a few scenes from Sunday evening.
(Images: Johan Brooks; text: Mark Thompson)
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