Obon is a great time to be in Japan–the summer festivals fill the country with nights of folk music, stall food, and, of course, dancing. While the cops may not approve of you tearing it up in a club, surely no one could complain about the traditional circle dances of Obon.
But it turns out there’s a critic for everything!
Obon, as you may already know, is a special time in Japan when the spirits of the dead return to the world of the living–or at least that’s how the legends go. (Those of us terrified of ghosts may want to focus on the “legends” part.) During this time, people will traditionally return to their “ancestral homes” in order to clean graves and celebrate their lineage. While grave cleaning might not seem like much fun, it’s also a time of dancing!
Fortunately, Obon dances aren’t too difficult–you basically just go in a circle swing your arms, if you’ll forgive some overgeneralization. Hell, even a clumsy writer with two left feet and no sense of rhythm can (kind of) do it!
Though until now, we’ve never had to wonder how you do the Obon dance with more than four limbs…
The (kind of gross) picture you see above is a cicada Obon dance–or, to be more specific, an Obon dance model made with shedded cicada husks. Cicadas, or “semi,” are one of the symbols of the Japanese summer. They are incredibly loud and obnoxious, waking up tired revelers early in the morning just after they’ve gone to sleep! The insects also litter the ground with their empty husks for the few weeks they’re out looking for mates. One creative (demented?) Japanese Twitter user apparently decided to collect the husks and put on a little play!
Everything was going great for the dancing insect shells until Catzilla appeared! Apparently the giant feline wasn’t such a big fan of their dancing. What did they do wrong? Were they off rhythm? Was their handwaving wrong? Did they put their yukata on backwards?!
As with any act of nature, we may never know the reason why…
With the merciless hunger known only to hunting felines, the calico cat tore into the stage. As the miniature-taiko-playing cicada husks fell to the ground, their companions froze in fear. Would they be next?
Nope, apparently not. Luckily Catzilla has an extremely short attention span.
And the moral of the story is, um, don’t leave your toys out? Okay, this might not have been the most logical fable we’ve seen…
It also had a pretty good reception online, getting plenty of retweets and replies. Here were some of our favorite comments.
“That cat is vicious! (；´Д｀)”
“What a horrible disaster!”
“It’s the catpocalypse!”
“There’s definitely no way they could win against the cat…”
“The cat’s eyes in the third picture were the eyes of a cold-hearted hunter.”
“The kitty was absolutely merciless!”
“Wait, were you playing with semi husks? WTF? LOL”
Random Internet commenters are always the ones asking the really tough questions.
If you’re in Japan this month, do be sure to look for an Obon festival. Not only is it a great cultural event, but it’s just a ton of fun! And there’s kakigori. So much cold, sweet, delicious kakigori!
Just keep an eye out for any giant, disapproving felines!
Source: Hamusoku
Images: Twitter (@TENKOmorya)