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Asakusa Samba Carnival
Dancing To Samba In Summer Tokyo
Date:14, Feb, 2023
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
About our introductory articles


Samba is the popular music of Brazil. If you keep living there during several months, you will be easy to find the people who dance to samba there for a reason. And you can see some samba carnivals in Japan far from the South America. One of them is Asakusa Samba Carnival that holds in summer Tokyo. Asakusa is the area belonging to Taito-ku, Tokyo. They firstly held the carnival there in 1981 August. Then people had held it on every last Saturday of August until 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic made it cancelled 2020 to 2022. They say they are going to revive the samba festival in 2023 September after an interval of 4 years.



Asakusa Samba Carnival
File: Wikimedia Commons
(Photoed on August 29, 2009)

What made them hold a samba carnival in Asakusa? you may ask. We can hardly find the connection between Brazil and Tokyo. It is so difficult to guess that Asakusa people had a unique perspective upon samba in 1981. The area one day prospered as the town of public entertainment. Countless theaters and halls proudly stood there in the first half of the 20th century. Televisions spread in 1960's, that slowly had the entertainment area on the wane. Asakusa people were worried, had to promote the area somehow. They happened to hold the samba carnival in 1981 as one way to attract many visitors. They made it, kept the festival.

Irrespective of age or sex, you can entry the samba carnivals as long as that executive committee admitted. The performers wear each costume and dance to each theme.


Asakusa Samba Carnival Official Website (Japanese)





 

浅草サンバカーニバル
「芸能の町」で老若男女がサンバを踊る

長岡まつり
明治の世から第二次世界大戦を経て