Middle Ages: The birth of Bon Dancing. The peak of one of the most famous andrepresentative Nembutsu entertainment.
Modern Times: The formation of Bon Dancing. Bon Dancing takes root.Nembutsu Dancing and Furyu
Modern Period: Change, extinction, revival, born again, and to the future
Meiji Era: Being prohibited and became extinct
Taisho Era: Revival and change
Showa Era: Come up again and brought back. Tradition and Extinction
Extinction of Folklore¨wanting to go back to the pas
Future: Who will be the successor of Bon Dancing?
Now, I’d like to go into some small topics concerning Bon Dancing.
Festivals like Bon Dancing were one of the noble consuming life of the people. Our production activity was saved from being simply a work of materials, thanks to these festivals.
When is Bon Dancing danced?
“All night dancing”: the real nature of Bon Dancing There are regions in which “All night dancing” is danced in August 14th to 17th, the middle of Bon. It is danced from the evening to daybreak of the next day.
It was August the day of “Akiba Festival” when I first experienced Bon Festival at Gujou Hachiman. The next day, I was telling everybody that the festival is so wonderful. Then the people of the town said that “If you come to dance, you must not miss the “All night dancing”. All night dancing” is so attractive and beautiful as the people say. In Gujou, they dance for about 2 months, but it can be safely said that the highlight is “All night dancing”
There are many places in local Bon Dancing besides Gujou Hachiman where they maintain the tradition of “All night dancing” Although, it is changing through the history of Modern Period. Let’s go to Bon Dancing:
What kind of dress do you have to wear ?
You usually wear “yukata”. You can either purchase or simply borrow at kimono store.People wear “geta” as a footwear. If you are not accustomed of wearing it, you can get tired.
How do you learn the dance ?
Rather than learning from the video recordings, we’d like to learn in the real dance circle. Go after the person in front. A good dancer from the conservation association would be a nice model to follow.