Yosakoi Information Center

Every year, from the 9th to the 12th of August, Kochi City erupts in a sea of music and dance as approximately 18,000 dancers take to the streets to celebrate the Yosakoi Festival.

 

The dancers are split into roughly 180 teams, each of which has its own unique costumes, choreographed dances and Jikatasha trucks which blast all sorts of musical genres, ranging from traditional Japanese folk songs to techno and rock-and-roll.

 

The festival was first held in 1954 during an economic recession as an effort to liven up the population and has been celebrating every year since then.

 

The only rules are that the music must contain the theme and lyrics of the original Yosakoi song, and that dances must incorporate wooden clappers called Naruko. Young people of Japan have embraced the creative freedom of the festival, and Yosakoi has now spread beyond Kochi to many different parts of the country.