Bon odori is a Japanese folk dance most often performed during the Obon “ancestor appreciation” holiday in the public square and danced in concentric circles around a raised wooden platform called a yagura.
The dance developed several hundred years ago from a Buddhist chant to welcome the spirits of the ancestors. Bon odori is a public, participatory dance — as we see in this video — that is meant to attract young and old in Japan, both trained dancers and those who just want to celebrate Obon with their community.
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
