Japanese traditional dance

Common card · No. 436709

Japanese traditional dance describes a number of Japanese dance styles with a long history and prescribed method of performance. Some of the oldest forms of traditional Japanese dance may be among those transmitted through the kagura tradition, or folk dances relating to food producing activities such as planting rice (dengaku) and fishing, including rain dances. There are large number of these traditional dances, which are often suffixed -odori, -asobi, and -mai, and may be specific to a region or village. Mai and odori are the two main groups of Japanese dances, and the term buyō (舞踊) was coined in modern times as a general term for dance, by combining mai (舞) (which can also be read as bu) and odori (踊) (which can also be read as yō). Mai is a more reserved genre of dance that often has circling movements, and dances of the Noh theatre are of this tradition. A variation of the Mai style of Japanese dance is Kyomai, or Kyoto-style dance. Kyomai developed in the 17th century Tokugawa cultural...

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