F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-248

Takizawa no Houka Odori (Takizawa Houka Dance)

滝沢の放歌踊りたきざわのほうかおどり

Held in the Takizawa district of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, this Bon memorial event pairs the Enshu great nenbutsu with the houka dance. On August 13, performers first hold a memorial service for all the village's ancestors in the grounds of Ringeiji temple, then visit the homes that have observed their first Bon since a death that year, presenting the great nenbutsu and the houka dance in two parts in the front gardens. Wearing yukata with leggings and gaiters, red sashes, and woven hats, the dancers move to drums and flutes, and at the climax masked okame and hyottoko figures dance while wielding enormous fans — each as tall as a person and bearing a single huge character, 'kami' (deity) on one and 'hotoke' (Buddha) on the other. The houka dance descends from the nenbutsu dancing transmitted by wandering hoka monks in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, and a connection to the houka dance of Mikawa (Aichi) is noted. As a distinctive Bon rite where solemn ancestral memorial and the lively, comic swinging of giant fans coexist, it is designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Shizuoka Prefecture.