Local Events Many citizens enjoy "2012 Yosakoi Kamagaya"! Published: October 27, 2012
"The 6th Yosakoi Kamagaya Festival" took place on September 8. This event, which was exceptionally canceled last year to mourn for all the victims of the deadly earthquake on March 11, is held in every autumn by Kamagaya City and the Kamagaya Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 28 groups in and around Kamagaya entered the first of the Yosakoi Kamagaya in September 2006. The festival started as the attempt by the chamber to revitalize the city with the "Yosakoi dance" that was popular in many festivals of Japan. The original version of the Yosakoi dance was created mainly by the Kochi Chamber of Commerce and Industry as citizen's dance. Kochi Prefecture is located in Shikoku Province of Japan, and neighboring Tokushima Prefecture had already had a traditional and famous dance that were called the Awa dance. "The 1st Yosakoi Festival" was held in 1954. Narukos, agricultural implements to drive birds or other animals from a field with sound, have been indispensible for the dance, since a musician in Kochi suggested the dancers hold it. Participants in the dance form ren with about 20-100 people, and dance with colorful clothes and narukos. The Yosakoi dance spreaded across Japan later as the Yosakoi-Soran dance, which some students in Sapporo, Hokkaido, began in June 1992. This year's Yosakoi Kamagaya Festival kicked off with an opening ceremony at 10:20 am. After mayer of the city and deputy head of the chamber delivered speeches each, the judges and organizers of the festival on a stage were introduced one after another. Performances began at about 11:50 am. At first, three of guest teams showed dances. They facinate audiences every time with eccentric clothes and makeup and soffisticated props.
The venue consists of three areas. The first venue is the square in front of the city hall, the second is the Shin-Kama Street, and the third is the Pear Road Shopping Street. Each groups that take part in the festival show their performances in all the venues one after another. They are judged thoroughly in the second venue. The result is announced in the evening, and the winner is awarded flags by the city and the Chamber. Around a thousand people or 33 groups participated in this year's festival from several cities in Chiba Prefecture, such as Kamagaya, Funabashi, Ichikawa, Kashiwa, Matsudo, Nagareyama, and Yotsukaido. Guest teams came from Saitama Prefecture. A lot of boothes were open in the first venue. They sold various kinds of drink and food such as grilled sausages, fried noodles, sweets, and bread. The heat made many visitors buy bottles of water, juice or canned beers.
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