![]() The women's steps are described as graceful and harmonious while the men's more lively and wild. The women's and men's dance steps are different. The men and children wear happi jackets, shorts and split-toed tabi socks. The female dancers wear yukata (summer kimono), gehta (wooden sandals) and perhaps the most distinctive part of all the festival, semi-circular straw hats best described as “inverted tacos”. The festival in Koenji has been celebrated since 1957 and now in its 58th year has long become a major city event. Other cries heard such as “ yatto-sa” generally have no translatable meaning and are just in encouragement to the dancers. The song, known as the Awa Yoshikono chant, goes like this: 踊る阿呆に Others picked up commonly available instruments of the time and the song and dance were born. Locals spilled out onto the streets and in their drunken state started swaying back and forth. ![]() Legend has it that the dance emerged spontaneously after Lord Hachisuka Iemasa distributed free sake (rice wine) to locals in celebration of the completion of Tokushima Castle in 1586. This Awa Odori festival attracts around 1.2 million visitors each year, and is second only in size to Tokushima's Awa Odori Festival in Shikoku where the “Fool's Dance” originated, making it one of the larger events on Tokyo's summer calendar. The Koenji Awa Odori Festival sees more than 12,000 dancers and musicians in around 200 groups known as ren, parade through shopping promenades and streets around Tokyo's Koenji Station. Held annually on the last Saturday and Sunday of August, the Koenji Awa Odori Festival (高円寺阿波踊り) is a dance festival that takes what energy Tokyo has left after the long hot summer days and endless fireworks displays and festivals, and turns the dial up for one last hurrah.
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