What is なんきん・たますだれ
”Nankin Tamasudare"?

*We are expecting a group of Nankin Tamasudare performers to perform on 11/25 (Purple Day).

Nankin tamasudare is a kind of traditional Japanese street performance. The name "Nankin tamasudare" is a play on words, as it can mean a kind of flower, as well as mean something like "a wondrous woven screen" (sudare is a kind of screen made by weaving straw with twine.)

The performance consists of a person skilled in manipulating special screens made of loosely woven sticks, as well as chanting an accompanying kind of poetry. The performer chants a rhythmic poem as he or she uses the screen to portray the objects in the poetry without stopping.

The screen is twisted, folded, extended, etc., in many different ways to portray an object, and then brought back quickly to its original screen shape.

Nankin tamasudare is said to have been a popular form of entertainment that began in the Edo period. Today, it is sometimes performed at Japanese cultural festivals.