Tashkent hosts Bon-Odori Dance Festival

Tashkent, The Gulf Observer: The International Caravanserai of Culture named after Ikuo Hirayama, the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, the Embassy of Japan in Uzbekistan, the Uzbekistan-Japan Center, and the Community for the Study of the Japanese Tea Ceremony operating in Tashkent, organized a traditional Japanese dance festival – Bon-Odori.

The festival included an exhibition of traditional Japanese furoshiki scarves, traditional Japanese competitions in origami, a Kendama game, a tea ceremony, and master classes in calligraphy and wearing a light summer yukata kimono.

Bon-Odori is a traditional Japanese dance performed on holidays and symbolizes gratitude to the ancestors. This dance is performed around a wooden structure – the Yagura Tower, specially erected for this holiday.

Yagura serves as a stage for musicians and singers. Dancers can move around the tower clockwise or counterclockwise. The direction may change in some dances, although it is usually constant.

Individual dances, such as Ohara Bushi and Awa Odori, are performed as a procession through the city.