Chakkirako

Chakkirako (Japanese: チャッキラコ) is a dance performed at a festival in Miura, Japan to celebrate the New Year and bring good fortune, especially in fishing.[1] In 2009, it has been inscribed in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[1] In 1976, Japan's government recognized this dance as an intangible cultural heritage to be protected.[2]

The dance originated in the Edo period with influences by the dances of visiting sailors.[3] By the mid-eighteenth century, it had become a showcase for local girls. Every year in the middle of January, ten to twenty girls in colorful kimonos between the ages of 5 and 12 perform the dance at a shrine or in front of houses.[3] They are accompanied by five to ten older women singing a capella.