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Miyako Odori Dance and Tea Ceremony

Gion Kobu Kaburenjo

　　March 2024　

　The Miyako Odori will have had its 151st performance in 2025. Ever since I was a child, I have believed that the opening cry of the Miyako Odori, “Miyako Odori wa Yoiyasaa,” is the signal for it to begin. “Yoiyasaa” is a call filled with prayers for prosperity, meaning “prosper more and more,” “prosper for generations,” or “prosper at last.” It is believed to be derived from the word “Iyasaka,” and it may have been a wish for the prosperity of homes and towns through events and festivals.

　Reverence for nature has given birth to sounds, songs, and dances, which have given rise to traditional performing arts. Lullabies, rice planting songs, rice harvesting songs, coal mining songs, and nature also contains ultra-high frequency sounds that are inaudible to the human ear.

　Since ancient times, the Japanese have had a history of singing and dancing to praise and give thanks for the blessings of heaven and earth. The metallic sound of the “konkonchikitin” at the Gion Festival was apparently a tool for communicating with the heavens. Professor Nakagawa Makoto of Osaka Municipal University speculates that, based on the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the metal sounds Hue, Koto, Tsuzumi, and Kane were used in rituals to communicate with the heavens and pray for the elimination of epidemics.

　Tokushima’s Awa Odori dance begins with the line, “If you’re all fools, you’d be missing out if you didn’t dance,” and there is a theory that it may have its roots in Kyoto’s Harvest Dance.

　There is a record of the song “A fool who dances and a fool who watches; if we’re both fools, the better to dance” being used at a harvest dance in Kyoto in

　The rhythm of the Awa Odori is two beats, and that of the Miyako Odori is slightly different, but the stomping of the feet and the rotation of the wrists in the Awa Odori seem to activate the energy in the body. The Kyoto dance of the Miyako Odori is not as rhythmic as the Awa Odori, but the fact that the roots of Japanese dance, that the dance was dedicated to the gods and used to communicate with them, is an origin that will make some sense to anyone from Kyoto who has enjoyed the Miyako Odori since childhood.

　Originally, geisha and maiko dances were performed in a small tatami room, and were elegant dances. Even today, they are performed in the tatami rooms of tea houses and traditional Japanese restaurants. This Miyako Odori was created in a style where maiko dance in a line in front of a large audience, and it marked a major turning point for Japanese dance. The combination of dance and dance, “Odori,” was created 151 years ago.

　It is a style devised by Yachiyo Inoue III, a master of the Inoue school of Kyomai, and Jiroemon Sugiura, head of the Ichiriki school. Japanese dance starts from the abdomen, and one movement of the hand envelops the spirit. Spanish flamenco is dance that starts from the solar plexus, appealing to emotions and erupting, and I was surprised when I saw it in Madrid. I remember being keenly aware of the differences in culture and history through dance. The opening of the Miyako Odori dance signals the arrival of spring in Kyoto every year.

(We have posted information about the Miyako Odori in the past, so please enter Miyako Odori in the search box on our website to see it.)

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Translated by Masami Otani

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