BON ODORI - 'BON Dance'

Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist-Confucian custom to honour the spirits of one's ancestors. It is a family reunion holiday where people return to their family places when the spirits of their ancestors are supposed to revisit the household. It has been celebrated for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

In Kyoto beside the famous GOZAN NO OKURIBI, 'Mountain Bon Fire', Kamishichiken, one of the five and the first ever Geisha~districts in Kyoto, Maiko and Geiko together perform every year a BON-ODORI.

This, maybe, is the only opportunity where one can dance together with Maiko and Geiko in the streets. The ODORI begins slowly with Maiko and Geiko wearing YUKATA dancing in a circle in front of their theatre. Slowly people begins to expand the circle until it develops into a two long lines that travel, "by dancing", along the Geisha-distric main road.
The dance begins around 05:00PM and last until two hour after the sunset when Maiko and Geiko return in front of the theatre forming again a circle.

MAIKO previous BLIP: NOVEMBER 21st. (I was surprised of her dance skills. Slowly she is evolving in a full-fledged MAIKO.)