にっぽんどまんなか祭り
Under the depressed Japanese society, local university students are planning to spur the local economy and raise the spirits of the community. A new type of thrilling dancing festival, “Nippon Domannaka Matsuri (The Central Japan Festival)” will be held on a large scale in this coming August 20-22. The festival will take place in Hisaya-odori Park, Yaba Park, Osu Kannon Temple and two other main streets in Sakae, the middle of Japan. The festival is modeled on “YOSAKOI Solan Festival” in Sapporo, which has a variety of dancing teams. University students in Chubu region who participated in the festival were very moved and absorbed in the festival. The city vibrant with life; the atmosphere was full of cultural enthusiasm and energy among all the generations. Besides, both the audience and the dancers in the whole city felt a sense of togetherness that the students had never experienced in Chubu area. They came upon an idea to establish a new festival in Nagoya, which will stamp out economic woes, reflect the vigorous spirit of community and attract people from all parts of Japan. Students nowadays are regarded as inactive in community activities, however, there are some who enthusiastically take part in the society. The inactive students just don’t have the opportunity to find something absorbed in and don’t know the enjoyable spirit of creating co-existing society. Here then is a trigger of the exciting spirit, Domatsuri (abbreviation of Nippon Domannaka Matsuri) created by young generation. This festival will be consisted of 20-25 teams from all parts of Japan and each team has around 50 to 150 dancers. There are two rules for the participants; one is to use their regional folk songs that can be arranged for jazz, hip-hop, rock, samba etc. The other is to use Naruko, traditional wooden instruments in Kochi. All the dancers shake their Naruko in synchronized fashion, producing a unified splash of sound and motion. Those rules are derived from “YOSAKOI Solan Festival” and “The Yosakoi Festival” in Kochi, both of which are the same kind of festivals. Domatsuri aims at awaking and developing our co-existing society culturally and economically. A number of dancing teams leaps and sways through Nagoya City, spreading their energy to all people who encounter them. Consequently, every generation will gain the vigorous energy to participate in the community actively. In this way, Domatsuri tries to revitalize the community and remove the depression of Japanese economy. Let’s make our co-existing society sprout with full of vigor through Domatsuri! It is the time to burst into blossom. Written by Sanae Iwase     |