•Zo Odori (Popular Dance)

The Okansen Odori classical dance created and cultivated during the Ryukyu Dynasty is distinguished from the Zo Odori (Popular Dance) created since the middle Meiji Period (1868-1912) which came out of working class playhouses. The Okansen Odori (Crown Ship Dance) ceased being performed after 1879 when the Ryukyu royal government was dissolved and the prefectural system was established. The leading performers of the Okansen Odori came to the commercial town of Naha. Performance artists, having lost their samurai stipends, began living off the admittance fees from the commercial playhouses. The common folk were able to get the chance to appreciate the gorgeous royal performance arts by paying the modest admittance fees to the playhouse. At first the dynastic performance arts were thoroughly enjoyed by the commoners, but gradually the audience was not satisfied with just the stylized performance arts and came to pursue a new style.
The performing artists devised ways of meeting the demands of the audience. They incorporated the folk songs and popular songs sung amongst the common folk and began to wear theatrical costumes other than the gorgeous court costumes, brought in such costumes as the konji indigo, Ryukyu Kasuri, and banana cloth and started to dance barefoot. They also took in innovative choreography. What developed was Zo Odori, or Popular Dance. Popular Dance is different than Classical Dance -- the choreography, genres and costumes were renewed with the addition of the energy of the common folk, establishing the genre as a folk performing art.
Riding on nimble rhythm, danced brightly and joyously, Zo Odori gained popularity quickly. Zo Odori was termed Angwamoi (maiden’s dance) in the beginning. They were dances that showed the customs of the common women of Okinawa.
The first time Zo Odori was presented on stage was around 1894 or 1895. Dances performed around that time included: Kanayô, a song of the exchange of tokens of affection; Chijuya, a song about the desolation of travel symbolized by a beach plover; Tanchamê, about daily life in a fishing village; Hanafû, a song about a woman watching her beloved sailing out to sea; Munjuru, a song of the love and customs of a country girl, and others.

(1) Zo Odori Chijuya

Chijuya is a well-loved song. The term chijuya in the Okinawan dialect refers to a coastal bird, the beach plover. The dancers wear Ryukyu Kasuri kimonos with an indigo background worn in the ushinchi style, tucked into the undergarment belt and without the exterior obi. The performer wears a Ryukyuan hairstyle with a silver hairpin and a long purple headband tied in the back, the tails of which trail down the dancer’s back. The dancers wear white tabi socks. While some perform this solo or in groups of three, it is commonly danced in groups of four.
The dance features delicate finger movements, soft hand movements and nimble footwork. One of the highpoints of this dance is the making of a circle by the four dancers after they enter the stage in a line, forming a beautiful geometric shape. Hand gestures such as rolling of the hands, pushing hands, and moon viewing hand gestures as well as chin positioning and other such fundamental techniques are abundantly incorporated, giving the piece an overflowing grace.
Chijuya is danced to one song. The lyrics sing of the loneliness of travel in the first three verses and end in the fourth verse singing of the feelings and perspective of the person seeing the traveler off.

(2) Zo Odori Hatuma Bushi

Actor Iraha Inkichi (1886-1951) discovered this song while he was on tour in the Yaeyama Islands and arranged it with a faster tempo. Cleverly incorporating the comic Kappore style of mainland Japanese dance choreography, this dance is said to have achieved sudden popularity in the early part of the Taisho period (1912-1926).
The performer is lightly costumed in tight-sleeved kimono under a haori overgarment, tabi, leggings and a headdress. The lyrics of the song presage a fertile rice harvest. With its nimble and dynamic dancing, this piece is familiar to many.