Rice planting dance in Fukushima

November 16, 2014

Tsunami survivors revive rice planting dance in Fukushima

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201411160023

By MASAKAZU HONDA/ Staff Writer

MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--A group here performed a traditional local dance on its home ground on Nov. 15 for the first time since the 2011 tsunami killed 30 percent of the organization’s members.

The Taueodori (Rice planting dance) took place on the compound of Kibunejinja shrine in the Murakami area of the city’s Odaka district.

The dance had been performed in spring every two years to pray for rich harvests. Handed down through the generations, the dance was at risk of disappearing after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.

The ensuing tsunami destroyed the homes of 71 of the 74 households in the Murakami area, killing 62 of the 280 residents there. Twelve of the dance-preservation group’s 39 members died in the disaster, and survivors were scattered around the country as evacuees.

A year after the disaster, some group members started making preparations for a revival of the dance.

“Amid the scattering of local residents, this was the only thing we could fall back on,” said member Tokiko Okawada, 63.

The members bought or made costumes and tools for the dance. They practiced and performed at festivals and events held in other parts of Fukushima Prefecture.

When the tsunami hit, Kibunejinja shrine, which is located on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, served as an evacuation center.

On Nov. 15, about 30 people gathered in its compound, including Hisayoshi Nakajima, 79, former group chairman who played a “fue” flute for the dance, and Kazuko Wakamatsu, 64, one of the dancers.

The Taueodori dance starts with the playing of a local folk song, “Soma Nagareyama.” Women, wearing traditional “hanagasa” hats, use elegant hand moves to reproduce scenes of rice planting.

After the dance, Yukari Murata, 30, the youngest member of the preservation group, said: “It was good that we were able to revive the dance on its home ground. Our next challenge is to look for young people to inherit it.”

Murata currently lives as an evacuee in Minami-Soma’s Haramachi district.

Officials of the Fukushima prefectural board of education took video footage of the dance to show to future generations.