4Yosakoi Festival in Tokyo July 4th on YouTube!

Short (sometimes) videos or stories about interesting Japanese culture, language, entertainment, and many other things.

On July 4th at 2pm (Japan Standard Time / GMT +9) there will be a YouTube livestream of a Yosakoi Festival in Tokyo! You can find it on the プレミアムよさこい channel. The direct link to the livestream is here , and it will last about 2 hours. Dance teams from around the country participate in this festival wearing different costumes, you have probably seen something like this before in videos about Japan.

While the dancing in the festival can be traditional Japanese dance, the Yosakoi festival originated in 1954. The first one was held in the town of Kochi, in Kochi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku. The first festival was held in 1954, and has been held in the month of August every year since; with the exception of 2020. There are now various Yosakoi Festivals of all sizes held throughout Japan, and even the world. The dancing features wooden clappers called Naruko. The dancers can perform to modern music, even though the dances are traditional. The festival in Kochi is so popular that in 2005 there were over 10,000 dancers that participated.

Here is an event announcement trailer for the livestream:

And here is a video with instructions on how to dance, it does have English subtitles:

And here are some videos of various Yosakoi festivals and dance teams: