Owara Kaze no Bon Festival - A Traditional Festival Praying for Bountiful Harvest

Owara Kaze no Bon Festival is a wind festival held in the Yatsuo district of Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture. Dating back to the mid-Edo period, it began as a ritual to calm destructive winds and pray for a good harvest around the "210th day" of the traditional calendar, when typhoons are most frequent. Today it takes place every year from September 1 to 3. Against the backdrop of Etchu-Yatsuo's stone-paved streets and lattice-fronted townhouses, dancers wearing wide braided straw hats pulled low over their faces move slowly through the night-time lanes.

The festival's hallmark is its "art of quiet," a striking contrast to the shouts and drums of livelier matsuri. To the haunting strains of the Etchu Owara-bushi, supple women's dances and sharp, precise men's dances unfold. Small, sliding steps and restrained hand movements create graceful silhouettes in the soft glow of paper lanterns, and even the audience seems to hold its breath. Each of the 11 neighborhoods presents its own refined style and lyrics, making it a special pleasure to wander and compare the subtle differences.