Gujo Dancing Geta (wooden japanese clogs)

Time flies! The summer will be over very soon. What I love most in this summer are the memorable dancing nights in Gujo while it is the first time for me to wear the cypress-made wooden clogs to dance for 6 hours on the streets!!

For over 400 years, Gujo has been holding the dancing festivals in summer from mid-July to early September. Overnight dancing, the highlight of the festival, is held during Obon (from 13 to 16 August) every year while locals and tourists from all over the world can meet at Gujo and dance together. For all the dancing nights, the streets of Gujo is filled with sound of clip-clopping wooden clogs and traditional Gujo dance music. Can you imagine how amazing it is?

This summer, I stayed 2 nights in Gujo areas to enjoy the lovely dance festivals while I can rent the Japanese wooden clogs (Geta in Japanese) to dance. For the last night, I had a chance to wear the geta made by the local shop in Gujo-hachiman and it is the best clogs I have ever worn in my life!!!

The clogs made by the shop are all made by the Cypress in Gujo area while it is strong enough to withstand 32 nights dancing in a row!! While searching fro the website, all clogs are made by the owner for the belief of connecting the culture, human and the forest. I am deeply moved by his motive while making the good quality clogs in order to preserve the local culture of Gujo!!! The lively sound of wooden clogs are not only essential for dancing in the festival, but also help preserving a traditional japanese culture.

Let’s buy a pair of geta and visit Gujo for dancing next year!!!

For more information about the festival and clogs, please refer to the links below:

https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/spot/festival/gujoodori.html

http://www.gujohachiman.com/kanko/odori_e.html

http://gujomokuri.main.jp/en.html#sec4