The first Yosakoi Festival was held in Kochi prefecture, southern of Japan, in 1954 to stimulate the economic recovery and rehabilitation of post war Japan. In 1970, during the Osaka Expo, the Yosakoi Festival was chosen as one of ten major festivals to represent Japan to the world. More than 50 years after the first Yosakoi festival, the festival has spread all over Japan and it is held in more 200 locations.
The 52th Super-Yosakoi festival was held on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 August in and around the Yoyogi Park and Harajuku district, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. This year, dispatched on several performance sites (Harajuku Omotesando, Meiji Jingu, Yoyogi Park, Yoyogi Park Event Square and NHK Keyaki Namiki Street) the festival presented more than 50 teams.
Yosakoi ("Please come at night" in the dialect of Tosa, the former name of Kochi Prefecture) is a colorful, very energic parade mixing traditional and contemporary elements, and a contest based on the "Yosakoi Naruko Dancing" written by Eisaku Takemasa.
The musical style vary from the original Yosakoi melody, to rock'n roll, samba or dance music. Wearing free designed yukatas ( japanese summer kimono), young people, middle aged and children parade playing Naruko castanets (as a symbol instrument of Naruko prefecture).
47 images were added under the reference #001-000040.
