A small child chooses to participate in the festivities during a street music performance featuring traditional Japanese music.

The child, full of confidence and elegance, dances over to the band that is playing, much to the amusement of everyone present that day.

The name of this dance festival is ‘Awa Odori.’ It happens during the Obon Festival in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku,

Japan, from August 12 to August 15. Over 1.3 million visitors attend this year’s dance festival, which is the biggest and most well-known in all of Japan.

Performers in traditional Japanese garb parading as dancers and musicians fill the streets. The musicians,

known as ‘REN,’ are supported by the kane bell, shinobue flute, shamisen lute, and taiko drums.
Tokushima Prefecture was once known as Awa, the name of the feudal administration; odori means ‘dance.’