Awa Odori
13 August 2026 — Dance with us under the stars – Fools who dance, fools who watch – if we're all fools, let's dance under the stars!
Awa Odori is the largest dance festival in Japan. It takes place every year in the city of Tokushima, on the island of Shikoku, from 12 to 15 August, during the Obon holiday (a time of remembering ancestors). The dance has its roots in traditional Bon dances and flourished during the Edo period, and its name comes from Awa, the old name of the region. Dancers perform in groups called „ren“. Women dance with light, graceful steps in straw hats and yukata (light summer kimono), while men move with bigger, more energetic gestures. The music is played on flutes, drums, gongs and the shamisen, a three-stringed instrument. A well-known chant says that those who dance are fools, and those who only watch are fools too – so spectators are invited to join in. The festival draws more than a million visitors each year. Its dates go back to the old lunisolar calendar: after Japan switched to the Gregorian calendar, many regions began observing Obon about a month later, in mid-August, and in mid-August the sky is full of shooting stars from the Perseids (a meteor shower).
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure of a dancer made of light points and thin lines, like a constellation, wearing a crescent-shaped straw hat and swaying in a graceful dance step
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