Nishimonai Bon Odori Dance - Japanese Dance for the Dead

http://samuraidave.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/nishimonai-bon-odori-japanese-dan...
In the small town of Nishimonai in the northern prefecture of Akita, the locals perform a Bon Odori - a special dance for Obon which is a time for honoring the ancestors.

The Nishimonai Bon Odori is unique in that some of the dancers were a black hood to represents the spirits of the deceased. Other dancers wear a patchwork kimono of silk fabric known as hanui and a woven straw hat called a amigasa.

You can't see the faces of the dancers which gives the whole dance a kind of surreal quality.

For those practicing Japanese, take the challenge in seeing if you can comprehend the Akita-ben (dialect) of the singers.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Japan
• dance
• obon
• o-bon
• Akita
• Tohoku
• Bon-Odori
• Nishimonai
• Nishimonai-Bon-Odori
• spirits
• tradition

[thatjapanesegirl]

Wow. I've never seen this kind of Bon odori.

[RoninDave]

not surprised - Tohoku is a different place. During Nebuta a few years ago, I met a guy from Kyoto who told me he couldn't understand when Aomori people spoke to each other. He felt like it was almost another country.

[ElevenColors]

1:22 samuria...?

Still though, oddly relaxing to watch.

[RoninDave]

dammit I hit the keys in the wrong order - though I could just say that's Akita-ben for samurai

[MattyTheMole]

Hello, I am "Inde" also known as Apache Native American. We have similiar traditons among our dancers. Our Crown Dancers also wear a mask of the dead during our Gaan dances which guard from bad spirits entering each dancers soul while the dancers preform sacred medicine in the form of a dance among the earth and everyone involved. Sometimes I like to think my most distant ascestors came from somewhere in Asia. I mean look at us, our eyes and facial structure...

[Chihuahua2Tokyo]

This is kinda scary if you think about it.

[sniperyuri]

bon odori

[jensenfu]

how can you tell witch are girls?

color of robes????

[DreaMxCatch3r]

ahhh. akita. thats too far up north for me. maybe ill go up ther sum time.　おもしろい踊りだな。

[mrnabal17]

al-qaeda dancer???

[ElevenColors]

RoninDave,

New feature on YouTube: Automatic recognition of faces and text in videos, with searching and spell checking of the text. Maybe someday.

[theuglyninja]

great vids ronin thanks for sharing