spread it to others after returning home.
AWA ODORI WORLDWIDE
The tourism policy section of the Tokushima prefectural government said there are at least 14 ren groups outside Japan.
Awa Odori has wide recognition in part because its images are often used to publicize Japan abroad.
But the groundwork of today’s global presence was laid by Japanese groups, including Tokushima prefectural associations set up by Tokushima expatriates living in countries such as the United States and Brazil.
One Tokushima resident who considers it his mission to teach overseas is 82-year-old Hideaki Oka, a former head of the well-known ren group Godyahei.
In 2021, Oka visited Seattle at the invitation of a prefectural association there. It was no easy journey as travel restrictions were in place because of the pandemic.
In Seattle, Oka taught 20 to 30 Japanese-Americans the Awa Odori dance moves. And the results were impressive.
“I watched them dancing cheerfully and joyfully in formation. It made me feel (the dance) was accepted globally and had taken root,” he said.
Oka first became involved in teaching dancers overseas in 2008. He had joined a delegation sent by the prefectural government to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Brazil.
On that occasion, he taught basic dance steps to about 100 members of a Brazil-based Awa Odori group, Represa-ren.
“I still remember how they got it right so quickly, and how they lost themselves in the dance,” he said. “Maybe because it’s quite similar to the rhythm of samba.”
Oka has been dancing Awa Odori for 60 years. He retired as head of Godyahei in March 2022 after more than 40 years.
“I want to keep teaching, at home and abroad, for as long as I’m physically able,” he said.
SAMBA FUSION
Awa Odori first arrived in Brazil in 1972, carried there by a prefectural association.
Represa-ren was founded in 1979 by Eikichi Fujioka, an immigrant from Tokushima Prefecture.
Since then, the dance has had an interesting development, according to Nobue Kasai, a samba instructor who has worked in Sao Paulo since 2009.
Kasai, 50, said while Awa Odori dancers have performed at festivals for Japanese-Brazilians, the traditional Japanese dance has become fused with Brazilian culture.
During the Brazilian Carnival in Sao Paulo in February, a team of Japanese-Brazilian dancers wore costumes with Awa Odori motifs. They drew applause from the crowd.
“It was a costume that mixed Awa Odori with the culture of samba,” said Kasai, who was on the team.
Kasai joined an Awa Odori group in her native Saitama Prefecture about 20 years ago as a dancer of the dynamic, energetic “otoko odori” (men’s dance).
“Someday, I want to see Awa Odori in Tokushima, home of the festival,” she said.