Dance for Owara Kaze-no-Bon!

Owara Kaze-no-Bon has long remained a local festival, only for the inhabitants of Toyama, but lately it has started attracting more and more tourists from all over Japan who are attracted to its melancholy songs and mysterious dances.

Originally, at Owara Kaze-no-Bon, Toyama people prayed to calm the winds and get abundant harvest. The festival is three-day long from September 1st, 210 days after the beginning of spring when referring to the Japanese traditional calendar. It used to be a doomed day because of the typhoons that usually ruined the crops at this period. 

During Owara Kaze-no-Bon, the inhabitants stop working and light up little candles covered with paper. They spend the night dancing and singing a traditional folk song from the village of Yatsuo-machi, Ecchu Owara Bushi. They are accompanied with the melodies of shamisen and drums. Women all wear the same summer cotton kimono and same black belt, and wear a straw hat. Men wear a short coat and an amigasa hat. There are dancers spread over three kilometers North to South and eleven groups performing in the Owara district.