Tanadui Festival in Taketomi Island

This article is a report about “Tanadui Festival” in 2014. The festival will be held between October – December every year in Taketomi Island. For more detail on the festival, check the organizer’s website. 

On every fall, a festival called “Tanadui Festival” takes place in Taketomi Island.

This is the biggest event on the island to pray for the productiveness of grain and prosperity of descendant. 

It has 600 years of history, and it is designated as the nation’s significant intangible folk cultural asset.



The whole program will be held for 9 days, and the 7^th and 8^th day are the main program to dedicate the traditional entertainment to the god of utaki (sacred place).

The residents of Hazama Village perform entertainment on the 7^th day, and the residents of Nakasuji Village perform on the 8^th day. In 2014, their performances took place on November 15^th and 16^th.

On the 15^th, a ceremony to wake the God of fertility named Miruku God was started at Miruku Houanden. The ceremony started at 6:00, and it was still dark outside at that time.

People started to get crowded at Yomochi Otake (the venue) around 9:30, and I heard the sound of sanshin and drums.

When I looked at performers, I found a boy who was playing a whistle among adults!



“Kakeru Nohara, the 5^th grader at Taketomi Elementary School. He is making a debut as a musical performer this year.” The crowds whooped and gave a big hand to him!

The entertainment had started at the garden of venue, and the venue was crowded with many people.



It gave me a smile when I saw them dancing with smile and using their whole bodies.



Nmanusha (horse riders) performed with their rhythmical call saying “Hiya! Hiya!” This is a popular performance of the program.

After 8 performances, the next performance took place on another stage.



Miruku God brought children and got on the stage. Those children at the stage looked very adorable!

Performers with stage make-up on and in colorful costumes performed dance and traditional kyongin (Okinawan traditional kyogen play) play. 





My friend played the main character in kumi odori (narrative traditional Ryukyuan dance). He spoke looooong lines in Taketomi dialect along with melody and acting with confidence!



Dance and drum performance by women in the village. Their costumes look very gorgeous.

Children of the island were sitting in a front row. They will be performing on this stage in the future.



Performers made audience laugh by making a funny move and doing improvisation, and sometimes they made audience cry. 35 performances were performed at the stage on this day.

Here were some of the traditional entertainments of Hazama Village!

The festival will be held between October – December every year, so would you like to plan a trip to Taketomi Island this year to attend this event? 




Okinawa CLIP photo writer Masumi Sasamoto


■ Additional Info by Editorial Team

Tanadui Festival in 2017 will take place between the dates as below.
 

Dates: between October – December, 2017 (September – October in lunar calendar)
*the exact dates of festival vary every year

Detail: Taketomi Island Yugafu Kan