In the steps of Bon-Odori

japanese socio-historical representations, nikkey culture and nipo-brazilian society

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the cultural plurality of Bon-Odori in the city of Marília / SP. Preliminarily, it’s known that this phenomenon is a ritual of Japanese origin and celebrates the spirits of the dead by the sacred circular dance. In the Midwest and Northwest cities of São Paulo, this ritual takes place in annual events organized by Japanese-Brazilian communities. Thus, the description of this ritualistic practice proved to be indispensable to capture the dynamics of its functioning system, and to understand the socio-cultural representations that compose it. Even of a foreign origin, the Bon-Odori practiced in the Midwest and Northwest of São Paulo would assume another feature due to the Nikkey culture: a symbolic system that integrates Japanese and Brazilian cultures. In a methodological point of view, the research applied a participant observation, in addition, photographs and videos of the events were necessary to understand the dances. In anthropological terms, it was concluded that in Brazil the Bon-odori is no longer a strictly Japanese phenomenon, but a Japanese-Brazilian ritual of sacred circular dance, because the ethnic-cultural differences are mixed in its social composition.