Ава-одори: Японский танцевальный фестиваль в Токусима

Obon festival in Tokushima, Japan

The Awa Dance Festival (阿波踊り) is held from 12 to 15 August as part of the Obon festival in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku in Japan. Awa Odori is the largest dance festival in Japan, attracting over 1.3 million tourists every year. Groups of choreographed dancers and musicians known as ren (連) dance through the streets, typically accompanied by the shamisen lute, taiko drums, shinobue flute and the kane bell. Performers wear traditional obon dance costumes, and chant and sing as they parade through the streets. Awa is the old feudal administration name for Tokushima Prefecture, and odori means "dance".

During the daytime a restrained dance called Nagashi is performed, but at night the dancers switch to a frenzied dance called Zomeki. As suggested by the lyrics of the chant, spectators are often encouraged to join the dance. Men and women dance in different styles. For the men’s dance: right foot and right arm forward, touch the ground with toes, then step with right foot crossing over left leg. This is then repeated with the left leg and arm. Whilst doing this, the hands draw triangles in the air with a flick of the wrists, starting at different points. Men dance in a low crouch with knees pointing outwards and arms held above the shoulders. The women's dance uses the same basic steps, although the posture is quite different. The restrictive kimono allows only the smallest of steps forward but a crisp kick behind, and the hand gestures are more restrained and graceful, reaching up towards the sky. Women usually dance in tight formation, poised on the ends of their geta sandals. Children and adolescents of both sexes usually dance the men's dance. In recent years, it has become more common to see adult women, especially those in their 20s, dancing the men's style of dance. Some of the larger ren (dance groups) also have a yakko odori, or kite dance. This usually involves one brightly dressed, acrobatic dancer, darting backwards and forwards, turning cartwheels and somersaults, with freestyle choreography. In some versions, other male dancers crouch down forming a sinuous line representing the string, and a man at the other end mimes controlling the kite.

Kōenji, an area of Tokyo, also has an Awa Dance Festival, modeled on Tokushima's, which was started in 1956 by urban migrants from Tokushima Prefecture. It is the second largest Awa Dance Festival in Japan, with an average of 188 groups composed of 12,000 dancers, attracting 1.2 million visitors. The Japanese production company Tokyo Story produced a version of Awa Odori in 2015 in Paris by bringing dancers from Japan in order to promote Awa Odori and the Japanese "matsuri" culture abroad.

Awa dance is a 2007 Japanese movie starring Nana Eikura. The festival is also prominently featured in the 2007 movie Bizan starring Matsushima Nanako. The novel series and anime Golden Time prominently features lead cast members along with their friends in their college club, the Japanese Festival Culture Research Society, performing the Awa dance multiple times during the story. Posters representing popular anime characters practicing the Awa dance are also printed every year for the festival. They featured "Fate/stay night", for example, in 2014. In the 1994 Studio Ghibli film Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko (released as Pom Poko in English speaking countries), during the scene where the film's tanuki use their transformation magic to put on a parade of yokai, part of their display includes a procession of tiny Awa dancers.