Although many of these old festivals have been abandoned in the bigger eitfes, the Bon Odori is still observed in various parts of the country, remisfling one of a Japan, that is fast dying out. In some of the suburbs of Tokyo, too, thi ancient dance i still performed, one of them being the industrial suburb of Komatsugawa, within easy approach of the capital. The Komat-Sugawa district is in strange contrast to many other industrial regions of Japan. Here are no gaily lighted streets as elsewhere:
toy-like shops ablaze with multi coloured kimono, no temples. with shady groves and sweeping roofs. Few visitors venture into this area which seems to be just a mass of ugly, frowning factories, in which are employed some thousands of girls whose lives are extremely drab, But once a year, merriment ant laughter, fun' and frolic, invade The night of the O-Bon dance arrives. Prayers are recited before the shrine attached to the factory, and votive offerings are made to the spirits of the girls who have died-while working here. Then begins the dance. First of all for the younger girls, inside the main hall, that is for those operatives who are enrolled in scheat classes at the factory because they have not fulfilled the requirements lof elementary education, either because of their tender age (some of them are hardly more than twelve or thirteen years) or for some other reason. These little ones have two work. hours of school besides their factory
The Dance These girls form concentric circles eeause the room is too small to hold all of them in any other are rangement. They sing the Kiré-no-Ontaésan, a ballad many stanzas apostrophizing the beauty of rural regions and the austerity sublime mountain scenery. As they sing in childish treble, clapping their hands and tapping their fect, they form beautiful tableaux, singly and in groups, reminding one of living. statues, In the meantime, the factory yard is agleam' with multi-coloured lan-items, and (horror of horrors!) Kitson lights, Here high platforms are erected for the musicians, who are principally drammers. The bigger girls, regarded as the better performers, have gathered. in the wide yard outside. Thay too. sing the Ksé-no-Ontaleé, and whist round the platforms, in spontaneous. ahd graceful gyrations Dances from. various pasts Japan are performed, Sone. Inst for a full half-hour and, asa votee announces the next ong, these Yotaries of Terpsichore who look though they were naiads Just come {from the pine-studded woods in the alatance, mediately. change into the next rhythm, No-one. seems tired, neither the' dancers, not the rammers, nor the crowd gathered for the occasion. The doums besin to beat faster, bourse eries come from those perched on the platform, the girls retort, and the calm and graceful postures of an hour ago fro now lost in an utter abandon Stil the drums continue to youthful Yorms whit) through dite rs of alen chant and th Feult mazes until the hours of dark ness have worn into the glory of new davn,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.