What is よさこい　"Yosakoi"?

 

*On 9/10 (Purple Day) a guest from Kochi, Japan will be teaching the class how to dance the Yosakoi.

 

Every year during four days from 9 to 12 August, the Yosakoi Matsuri summer festival is held in the city of Kochi in Shikoku. In the local dialect "Yosakoi!" means "Come on over tonight!"

 

In 1954, during the severe recession which affected throughout the country, the festival was proposed and  promoted mainly on the initiative of the local Chamber of Commerce as a means of dispelling the gloom and encouraging the local people.

 

Each of the participating groups orchestrates their own dance performance at various places in the city's downtown commercial districts. The festival currently features roughly 15,000 dancers in about 130 groups.

 

The prefectural governor and the mayor also join in the lines of dances and during the four days of the festival the entire city is given over solely to the event.