Bonodori Drummers

In July last year during the strict electricity savings I took these photos at a bondori festival in Zoshigaya near Ikebukuro in central Tokyo. Bonodori festivals are always in the summer, hot, sticky and very intense, one of the classic Japanese summer festivals. It is usually difficult to take photos in the lights from the bonodori lantern decorations, but this summer the festivals were even darker than usual, just as dark as in these pictures, and the only light being a bright red. This particular festival is usually visited by a group of young and very talented taiko drummers. Just editing these pictures I really started to long for summer, before spring has barely started!

Okinawan Drummers – Furusato Matsuri

In January I visited the furusato matsuri at Tokyo Dome and saw, among many other things, these Okinawan drummers perform! I have been twice to Okinawa but never seen anything cultural so this was a treat. Scores of drummers and dancers showing us their traditional high stepping dance complete with a very un-japanese drum rhythm, slow and methodical, with high pitched singing voices and the almost drone like string instruments they use. Almost hypnotic. Any man looks better with a drum but I guess these handsome men wouldn’t look bad even without their drums.

I’m posting quite a few photos to give you a sense of how the movement looks like, not sure if it works! The performance took place on a massive stage and I was nowhere near the dancers, luckily though I had my Bigma with me (a Sigma 50-500mm 3.5-6.3 super tele), also known as “Dr. Backercracker” and the “Widow Maker”. A huge lens I bought second hand that I almost never have the energy to carry around with me. My back is thankful to me for not using it too often. It was dark and with a dark lens like this I had to crank the ISO up to almost unacceptable levels to bring the shutter speeds up and above 1/500 (for handheld photography). Enjoy!

Even More Yosakoi Dancers – Furusato Matsuri

The beauty of digital cameras, there is no budget stopping you from shooting too many photos and I just kept the camera going as the procession whirled, danced and jumped past me! Yosakoi to me is like the cross between a Japanese pop band and a folk dance group, it is colorful and loud and even though this team had very well made costumes and is probably one of the best yosakoi teams in Japan it is great fun to watch all levels of dancers, from the beginners to the professionals! I hope I can see more of this festival come summer.

More Yosakoi Dancers – Furusato Matsuri

I didn’t think last weeks blog post about the Yosakoi dancers I saw outside of the Furusato Matsuri here in Tokyo would be popular at all, but I thought I should follow up with some more photos, I think we need to see their bright smiles and colorful costumes on these long winter evenings! Soon summer will come and we can see these kind of dancers almost every weekend around Tokyo. I can’t wait!