Interesting Green: Asakusa Samba Carnival (Japan)

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By Harumi Gondo, Published August 30, 2008

Tokyo's Brazilian Carnival "not so Brazilian"

Organizers reported that hundreds of thousands braved heavy Tokyo rain to attend the 28th Asakusa Samba Carnival on Saturday, August 30th.

PHOTO: 010-08-28 Samba_4493 2010 Asakusa Samba Carnival.

By forrestbro Forrest Brown. This photo was taken on August 28, 2010 using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

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PHOTO: Harumi Gondo, Tokyo Japan,
Twitter: @hgondo

Journalistic Interests: Online journalism, social media, international journalism, development, journalism, the interaction between religion and media as well as journalism and social media.

Bio: Harumi Gondo is the Regional Director for UPIU for Asia and Oceania.

She holds a B.A. in world religions from the University of Bridgeport and an M.T.S. from Harvard University. She served as a lecturer in world religions at Bergen Community College.

Harumi gained overseas experience briefly as an analyst for Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, and at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

In April 2008 she trained with UPI Asia and transitioned to UPIU in July 2008.

She lives in Tokyo with her husband and daughter.

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The carnival has become an annual tradition since 1981, when the mayor of Tokyo’s Taito ward invited winners of Brazil’s Rio Carnival to perform in his ward.

PHOTO: 2010-08-28 Samba_5199 2010 Asakusa Samba Carnival.

By forrestbro Forrest Brown. This photo was taken on August 28, 2010 using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

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Still, many braved the rains, prepared with umbrellas, to attend the event.

PHOTO: Samba Carnival 2009 Annual Samba Carnival at Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan (29-Aug-2009).

By Crazywolfdl Ân Nguyễn. This photo was taken on August 29, 2009 using a Canon EOS Kiss Digital X.

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With the end of feudalism (Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, for ordering society around - derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour - Wikipedia) in Japan, poverty spread in the rural areas of Japan and many Japanese began to emigrate out of Japan. Facing the ban on Japanese immigration to the United States, the Brazilian and Japanese governments signed a treaty making Japanese migration to Brazil possible. In 1908, 791 Japanese—mostly farmers—left the Japanese port of Kobe and moved to Brazil, most becoming laborers on coffee plantations. Many more followed in subsequent years. While their original plan was to get rich quick, the majority faced increasing debt and were forced to stay longer.

PHOTO: Asakusa, Tokyo Japan, Asakusa Samba Carnival 2006 - With Service
By OiMax. This photo was taken on August 26, 2006 using a Canon EOS 20D.
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With the upward surge in the Japanese economy in the 1980s many Japanese Brazilians—called _dekasegi_—migrated back to Japan. There are an estimated 275,000 to 300,000 _dekasegi_ currently living in Japan. The largest population of Japanese living outside of Japan reside in Brazil, and the Asakusa Samba Carnival is an illustration of this cultural bond.

PHOTO: Asakusa Samba Carnival

By Scott Edelman. This photo was taken on August 24, 2007 using a Cannon powershot SD850 IS.

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The four-hour event took place near Sensoji Temple, Japan’s oldest Buddhist temple located in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. Various annual events take place there and the Samba Carnival is one of the most famous. The event’s popularity has not gone unnoticed by companies wishing to advertise. The organizing committee’s website had detailed explanations for the cost of things from commercial time to float cost to the privilege of handing out free paper fans with company logos to ease the hot Tokyo summers of eager carnivalites.

PHOTO: Asakusa, Tokyo Japan, Asakusa Samba Carnival 2006 - With goddess
By OiMax. This photo was taken on August 26, 2006 using a Canon EOS 20D. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/87/225696534_a845dece55_o.jpg
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The main event of the carnival is the parade contest, which draws samba groups sponsored by companies and samba schools and clubs across Japan to compete for the honor of first place, and a US $60,000 prize. 27 parade groups made up of 5,000 people won the privilege of registering to dance the Asakusa streets this year. The competition is not cheap. Participation fee for companies wishing to sponsor a team is about US $15,000 and parade floats and costumes can cost from US $36,000 to US $45,000.

PHOTO: Asakusa, Tokyo Japan, Asakusa Samba Carnival 2006 - With joy
By OiMax. This photo was taken on August 26, 2006 using a Canon EOS 20D.
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Ivette Farias, who was wearing the yellow and green colors of Brazil, arrived in Tokyo from Brazil three weeks ago for vacation. She explained that she had previously lived in Tokyo for four years and had made her way to the carnival all four years of her Tokyo residency.

PHOTO: Asakusa Samba Green
The woman who is the most wonderful in Asakusa samba carnival of 2007.
By kodamatic. This photo was taken on August 25, 2007 using a Nikon D40.
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This year, though, she noted that the carnival was “so-so.” In the past, she remembered seeing many more Brazilians in the parade. “Now they are mostly Japanese—of course it is beautiful when there are Japanese people in the parade, but Carnival is supposed to have Brazilian people and you can’t see many of them in the parade.” She also noticed that there were fewer people in attendance than in previous years.

PHOTO: Asakusa samba festival 2008
By stopakix Juliusss De Guzmannnn. This photo was taken on August 30, 2008.
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Nasumi Nakamura, a Japanese man in his mid-70s, was standing a little apart from the crowd lining the streets, his arms folded. He did not look happy. Nakamura had arrived early—around 11:00—in anticipation for the parade. “I like dance,” he explained in Japanese, “so I came to see the carnival to see real Brazilian dance and I’m so disappointed! It’s just Japanese people dancing.” Having spent 40 years of his life practicing Japanese traditional dance and watching all kinds of dance, he declared that he knew right off the bat that what he was seeing—Japanese people dancing the samba—was not the real thing. “Brazilians dance from when they are children and they know how to dance—they dance from their hips—their hips come alive. Japanese just move their hips.” With that, he announced he was going home.

PHOTO: Asakusa 28th Samba Carnival (4)
By lovebird21c langdu. This photo was taken on August 30, 2008 using a Canon PowerShot G9.
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Mayumi, a native Tokyoite, was on her way home with her French husband and two children. She

recalled attending the Asakusa Samba Carnival 20 years ago. This year, she reflected, “I didn’t think it was very good because of the rain and Japanese are not so good at samba dancing. 20 years ago there were more Brazilians. And I have traveled a lot more throughout the world and now I know what real Latin dancing looks like.”

PHOTO: Asakusa samba festival 2009

By karlkewl Carlo Alvarez. This photo was taken on August 29, 2009 using a Canon EOS 450D.

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Others, however, proved to be more excited.