By TATSUYA SHIMADA/ Staff Writer
February 19, 2024 at 18:33 JST
NAMIE, Fukushima Prefecture--Locals celebrated a centuries-old festival held at a Shinto shrine here that was reconstructed after the tsunami caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake destroyed it.
Praying for good fish hauls and safety at sea, the traditional Taue Odori dance was performed on Feb. 18 outside Kusanojinja shrine as part of the Anba Matsuri Festival, which dates back about 300 years.
The new shrine was completed earlier this year.
Despite the disastrous meltdowns caused by the tsunami at the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, displaced residents of the town’s Ukedo district kept the festival alive at their temporary housing community.
“(The new shrine) serves as a spiritual home for the people of Ukedo,” said Mitsuo Igarashi, 76, the head of the shrine's parishioners.
He joined the festival from the neighboring town of Tomioka, his current home.
In 2017, when the evacuation order was lifted in part of Namie, the beloved festival finally returned to its hometown.
“As I danced, I thought about the time before the disaster,” said Wakana Yokoyama. “I enjoyed dancing in front of so many people again, just like in the old days.”
Yokoyama, 25, was a sixth-grader at Ukedo Elementary School near the shrine when the magnitude-9 earthquake struck the region.
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The traditional Taue Odori dance is performed on Feb. 18 outside the reconstructed Kusanojinja shrine in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture. (Tatsuya Shimada)
