Daihanya is a big dance and music event in Kagoshima. It had been held annually for a few years up to the start of the pandemic, but has been on hiatus for since 2020. It was supposed to be held on April 23 and 24, and in the past has had upwards of 100 dance groups making appearances at 5 different locations around the city, with the main outdoor stage down at Waterfront park.
Unfortunately, we had heavy rain on Saturday, and the Waterfront park stage was closed for the day. I had to work in the afternoon, and one of my students said they'd seen one of the dance groups going to Ten Park, but there was nothing happening there when I got out.
At 4:30 PM on Saturday, I found about 5 or 6 groups in the open area in Tenmonkan, being given certificates. Usually, there's a big contest on Sunday to determine the best group. But, with the activities so scaled back, they may have just held the contest in Ten Park for 1-2 hours then called it quits.
The dance is called "yosakoi," and is used for cheering people up in the Summer. The groups can be company employees, university students, or workers at specific hotels. Each one can come up with a story and costumes to go with the dance.
Representatives of one group getting a certificate.
Of course, it stopped raining on Sunday. Two of the groups were loitering around at Central Park, and over at Ten Park, but it looks like everything was over by 2 PM. This group is from Japan Rail, Kyushu.
More of the JR Kyushu employees.
Back at the main event space, some of the dancers from the Southern Cross pop group were performing for the closing ceremonies
The audience was made up almost completely of Southern Cross fans wanting to take photos of their idols. The dancers had a lot of trouble remembering the moves, and the singing was off. I assume they've been out of practice, or that they brought in all new members.
I did find one yosakoi group walking around Tenmonkan, and they agreed to posed for me.
One other group, at Ten Park on Sunday, looking really subdued. Overall, not a great weekend.
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