Greater Tokyo · Tokyo · Suginami, Tokyo

Tokyo Koenji Awa Odori

東京高円寺阿波おどり

Dance troupes called ren move through the shopping streets around JR Kōenji Station and along Kōnan-dōri, each with its own band of drums, gongs and flutes. Begun by a local shopping street in 1957, it has grown into one of Tokyo’s largest dance festivals. Held over a Saturday and Sunday in late August.

28–29 August 2027

303 days away

Every year, the first Saturday on or after 23 August, for 2 days

Future dates: 28 August 2027 · 26 August 2028 · 25 August 2029

Origin

According to Suginami City, the festival began in 1957 on what is now the Kōenji Pal shopping street, as a way of bringing life to the neighbourhood. The organisers’ anniversary book records that the street’s newly formed youth group marked the occasion with a “Kōenji fool’s dance”, and that it was later renamed Kōenji Awa Odori under the motto “learn from the home of the dance”. In 1961 the dancers took lessons from a group of people from Tokushima living in Fukagawa, Tokyo; in 1965 its leaders went to Tokushima on what they called an Awa Odori study trip; and in 1979 a Kōenji troupe danced at the Tokushima festival for the first time. The festival spread to the neighbouring shopping streets and residents’ associations, and Suginami City says it now draws about 10,000 dancers and well over a million visitors across the two days.

What to look for

The draw is the heat and force of the street dancing, with the troupes passing within arm’s reach of the crowd. In 2026 nine dance routes were laid out along the shopping streets around JR Kōenji Station and Shin-Kōenji Station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line and along Kōnan-dōri, and a total of 166 troupes performed, each with its own style of dance, music and costume, to cries of “Yattosā!”. The routes had numbered eight since 1994; a ninth was added in 2026, the first new one in thirty years. During the day, troupes also give ticketed stage performances at the Za-Kōenji theatre and Sesion Suginami.

How to watch

The organisers forbid reserving spots by taping the road or kerb, and ask people not to stand or sit where they block the shops. Stepping into the dance routes to take photographs is not allowed, nor is photography using tripods, monopods, stepladders, chairs, selfie sticks or drones, and you may not join in with a troupe while it is dancing. Smoking is banned on the streets around the festival. Because of the crowds, visitors are asked not to come by bicycle or with a pushchair. You are expected to take your rubbish home, though there are large sorting bins at the information points. The festival goes ahead unless the rain is very heavy.

If you go

The festival takes place around Kōenji Station on the JR Chūō-Sōbu Line and Shin-Kōenji Station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, with dancing from 5 to 8 p.m. on both days (2026). In 2026 Chūō Line rapid trains did not stop at Kōenji on the festival days, and visitors from Shinjuku were told to change at Nakano to the Sōbu Line local train or the Tokyo Metro Tōzai Line. From 4:10 to 8:30 p.m. on both days, roads are closed in the area bounded by Ōme-kaidō, Kannana-dōri (Ring Road 7), Waseda-dōri and Mabashi-dōri, and the organisers ask visitors to come by public transport. Reserved seats at the dance routes are not sold: tickets are given as a thank-you to people who make a donation to the organisers (¥10,000 or ¥15,000 per unit in 2026).

Where

Around JR Kōenji Station (shopping streets and Kōnan-dōri)

Suginami, Tokyo, Tokyo

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Sources

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