By MAMI OKADA/ Staff Writer
October 8, 2023 at 13:24 JST
NAGASAKI--The Nagasaki Kunchi festival’s Hono Odori (dedication dance), a government-designated important intangible folk cultural property, kicked off at Suwajinja shrine here Oct. 7.
The three-day festival, with a history going back nearly 400 years, is being held for the first time in four years as it was canceled while the COVID-19 pandemic was raging.
The venue was packed with seated spectators.
Towns in the old part of Nagasaki city rotate once every seven years to perform their own traditional dances. This year, six towns took part.
Spectators broke out into loud applause when the “kawafune” (river boat) float from Funadaikumachi town was spun vigorously.
Oct. 9 will cap three days of Nagasaki being filled with the sounds of flutes and drums.
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
The “Kawafune” (river boat) float from the Funadaikumachi town (Minako Yoshimoto)
