F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-201
Tottori Shan-shan Festival: Mass Umbrella Dance (Issei Kasa-odori)
鳥取しゃんしゃん祭 一斉傘踊りとっとりしゃんしゃんまつり いっせいかさおどり
The Tottori Shan-shan Festival is one of the largest citizens' festivals in the San'in region, held every August during the Obon period in central Tottori City, and its centerpiece is the "Mass Umbrella Dance" (issei kasa-odori). Thousands of dancers fill the city's main avenues — from Wakasa Kaido to the station-front street — each holding a long-handled, jewel-toned parasol hung with many small bells, dancing a single unified choreography while the bells ring out "shan-shan." The festival traces its roots to 1961 (Showa 36), when a "Tottori Festival" was launched in conjunction with the annual rites of Hijiri Shrine and Omori Shrine; organizers adapted the "Inaba umbrella dance," a folk rain-prayer art, into a form anyone could perform. The parasols, patterned in geometric red, blue and gold, leave a powerful audiovisual impression when spun in unison with the ringing bells. In 2014, the 50th edition set a Guinness World Record for the "Largest umbrella dance" with 1,688 simultaneous dancers. It is a model case of postwar Japan reworking a rural rain-prayer ritual into an urban civic celebration.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01A staggering mass dance in which thousands spin red-blue-gold bell-hung parasols in perfect unison along the city's main streets
- 02The collective ringing of the parasol bells — the "shan-shan" sound that gives the festival its very name
- 03Guinness World Record for the 'Largest umbrella dance' set in 2014 with 1,688 simultaneous dancers
- 04A citywide stage, with the entire main thoroughfare from Wakasa Kaido to the station-front street given over to the dance
D E E P D I V E