A Loach Scooping Dance at Kawagoe Million Lights Festival

I was surprised and thoroughly delighted to see a Loach Scooping Dance at the Kawagoe Million Lights Festival today. It's a dance I have seen performed occasionally at festivals over the years, but I never got a photo of it - until now. In Japanese, the dance is called どじょう救い (Dojō Sukui), which literally means “loach scooping,” hence the English name.

Dojō Sukui is one of Japan’s popular comedic folk dances, originating from the Yasugibushi tradition of Shimane Prefecture. The dance humorously reenacts the challenge of scooping slippery loaches from a basin, using exaggerated gestures, playful expressions, and rhythmic footwork to entertain festival crowds. 

The props seem to vary by region. This Kawagoe troupe uses a woven bamboo basket, along with a bamboo container at the hip and they wear the standard polka-dot tenugui on their heads. In some areas performers wear comical masks, and perhaps this troupe does too, but they weren't wearing them today, possibly due to the heat.