Samba sensation
For the past few months, Brazilian music and samba dancers seem to have claimed the streets in Chofu city, in western Tokyo, where I live. A few weeks ago, Brazilian musicians and dancers from the famous Rio carnival revved up a parade through the modest shopping streets nearby, creating a sensation in the normally quiet community.
On another day, the sounds of samba thundered from a nearby soccer stadium. I later learned that the arena was holding its annual Brazilian Day, where leading Tokyo samba teams performed between the games.
Record crowds attended a recent moon-viewing evening, organisers said, because this year it held samba dancing for the first time. At all these events, the onlookers shake and shout to the exciting samba rhythms and gawp at the young, sexy, and almost naked dancers. Most of Japan is in love with samba, and event organisers in my neighbourhood were finally taking advantage of it to attract people.
Japan's best-known samba success story is in Asakusa, a traditional downtown area of Tokyo and a popular tourist spot for foreign visitors drawn to its old temple, pagoda and shops. Asakusa was in trouble in the late 1970s, losing tourists to more posh and sophisticated areas. The local shop owners looked for a collective boost, and found their answer in 1981: samba.
This year, in late August, they celebrated the 25th Asakusa Samba Carnival, which now draws more than half a million people - spectators and participants. Brazilian samba musicians and dancers fly into Tokyo to put on a 'genuine' samba show, while dozens of Japanese amateur samba groups take part in the highly competitive contests. It has become one of the best-known summer festivals in Japan, according to the organisers.
During the 1990s, hundreds of grass-roots samba groups sprouted up across Japan. Many of the clubs at universities and colleges formed an umbrella organisation, Uniao dos Amadores. One Tokyo citizens' group is Libeldade, formed in 1991 and one of the frequent Asakusa contest winners. Its members have even visited many Brazilian carnivals because, as one said: 'We could not go on living without samba.'
The samba beat went truly native last year, with the hit song Matsuken Samba. The singer, actor Ken Matsudaira, performed it wearing a samurai costume with his face painted white like a kabuki theatre actor. Devoted samba groups may sniff that his song is not the real thing, but it has made every Japanese familiar with the Latin rhythm. It seems Japan will remain hooked on samba for a long time to come.
