Some 2,000 Sudburians converged on Bell Park on July 19 for the fifth annual Japan Festival Sudbury, a chance for the city’s Japanese community to celebrate their culture.
Grace Hartman Amphitheatre was the place to be that day for food, fun, cultural expositions and more.
Organizer Takako Shoji Boyle launched the festival in 2019. It was a solo effort at the time, with Boyle doing all the organizing herself, including booking acts and even providing funding from her own pocket.
Five years later, the festival is a much more expansive undertaking, blanketing the area around the Grace Hartmann Amphitheatre with booths and tents of food, entertainment and vendors.
“This is a very special event for me,” Boyle told the crowd on Saturday during the opening ceremony, adding “a big, heartfelt thank you” to all the performers and vendors who travelled from Montreal, Toronto, North Bay and Vancouver for the event. Gesturing toward the crowd from the stage, she added, “We couldn’t have done this without you — I’m so grateful for the support every year.”
A special visitor to the event was Japan’s ambassador to Canada, Kanji Yamanouchi. He was joined on stage by Marie-Paul Charette-Poulin, the former senator from Sudbury. Saying the festival had grown from a few hundred people in its first year to some 2,000 by its fifth edition this year, Yamanouchi thanked the crowd for gathering, the city for welcoming the Japanese community and Boyle for her efforts.
“Thank you for celebrating the Japanese people. The city has shown kindness, hospitality and diversity,” Yamanouchi said. “This festival was created with the passion of one woman — I pay my deepest respect to Takako Shoji Boyle.”
Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe and Sudbury MPP Jamie West also addressed the crowd, as did Mayor Paul Lefebvre, who said it was important celebrate the many cultures that call Greater Sudbury home and to foster good relations personally and in business with those cultures, so everyone can benefit.
New to the festival this year was a sumo wrestling demonstration by the Toronto Ronin Sumo Club. Club members were on hand to explain the sport and give people a chance to the see the wrestlers in action and try on a mawashi. The bravest can climb onto the dohyo and try out sumo with a club member.
Cultural dances and drumming performances were also offered, with festival-goers enjoying a performance by the NAE Project, a musical and and theatrical work by Toronto-based composer Kokichi kusano, “featuring traditions of Japanese music and theater for the modern stage.”
Also performing was the Kizuna International Team, which uses its talents to promote yosakoi in countries worldwide. Yosakai is an energetic type of Japanese dance often performed at festivals.
Traditional Japanese dance Sakura Kai, which is based out of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, also performed semi-classical and minyo (folk) dances, much to the delight of the crowd.