Kochi Yosakoi Festival WWW Home Page

Matsuri Kaisha
Copyright © 1997, Tadashi Mori. All Rights Reserved.

This WWW page provides information about the Kochi Yosakoi Festival

About Yosakoi Festival

Yosakoi Festival is held for four days from Aug.9 to Aug.12 every year in Kochi. People dance passionately to the Yosakoi music in Otesuji street, Central Park, Masugata and Obiya-machi with Naruko(Clappers) in their hands. It's like a Carnival!
Costumes worn at Yosakoi Festival vary from traditional Happi and Kimono to modern ones. Also modern music like Rock n' Roll and Samba have become popular now, although years ago traditional music was played.
Please come here and join us!

The 44th Yosakoi Festival,1997

A large amount of rain fell this summer in Kochi and just before the festival period a Typhoon approached the area. So the fireworks display had to be postponed from Aug. 9 to Aug.12 The Internet staff's early enthusiasm was dampened too. But luckily the festival-eve show was held according to plan as the heavy rain stopped just before the start of the show.

Contary to the forecast little rain fell on Aug.10 and Aug.11 making the southern festival city feel even hotter. The staff members were busy working, coming and going between NTT Kochi and RKC. Also the multi-point live session with Phoenix TV conferencing system, the "Hokago-Club" (which was used for the first time) and the i-BOX from JCC was used as an information kiosk and many staff worked hard.
And two teams made vivid live reports of the festival using TransCam via a cellular phone system from NTT DoCoMo while walking around the city.

Central Park The post festival show was held on Aug.12. The weather was not so good and some rain fall, but luckily it stopped raining when the show begun. But due to the bad weather some of fireworks didn't go off correctly. The Internet live team climbed up on the roof of the NTT Kochi building and broadcast images of fireworks and run a lively commentary describing the display.

While other staff worked very hard, I went to Otesuji street and Central park to take photographs. Several of them are shown here. Enjoy!

Scenes from the 44th Yosakoi Festival in 1997

	Daijiro Hashimoto, The Governor of Kochi Prefecture / Kochi Prefectural Office Team The Governor danced very well. He is very popular amongst women in Kochi.
	Tetsuto Matsuo, The Mayor of Kochi City / Kochi City Office Dancing Team The Mayor seems to enjoy himself.
	Wakako Shimazaki, Actress / Shikoku Bank Ms.Shimazaki came to Kochi where she was born. She distributed fans to spectators in the stands.
	Shikoku Development Team This team's costume and dance style was very sophisticated. They were awarded a "Dance spot union encouragement prize".
	A la colette? 4 pra This team came from the "Yosakoi Soran Festival", which was held in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
	"Yebisu Shibaten Ren" Kyomachi & Shinkyobashi Saying "Shobai Hanjo-de E-ja-naika! E-ja-naika!..." (We go happy with prosperous trades) they danced around the city. They were awarded a "Music Prize"
	Sunny Group The indefiable Sunny group. They danced energetically at the festival-eve show. They were awarded a "Dance spot union encouragement prize".
	Kawaruni-Kaaran "Kawaruni-Kaaran" means "It seems to change" or "It must change" in Tosa-ben (Kochi dialect)... as I wrote previous year. They were awarded a "Dance spot union encouragement prize".
	Asahi Foods This team was awarded the "Chairman's Prize" previous year. This is one of the most influencial teams. They were awarded a "Music Prize" last year.
	Kochi Daimaru This team was awarded the "Chairman's Prize". They displayed "Daimaru-ya"(Daimaru Store).
	Fujitsu Group This team is well organized. They were awarded a "Dance spot union encouragement prize".