Nagoya City Week started at Japan Pavilion last night with premiere of the musical “Sanbasou.”
Nagoya has a history of 1,900 years, one of Japan's oldest cities and is the home of lots of samurais and warlords such as Oda Nobunaga (the strongest warlord at his time and the latter two were both his followers), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (unified Japan in 1590) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan), said Takashi Kawamura, Mayor of Nagoya City.
Four hundred years ago, Nobunaga opened free trade in Nagoya and now the city has the most tax cut in Japan to attract investments, Kawamura said.
Lion dances and dragon dances were staged by performers from Nanjing University of Science and Technology. Japanese artists performed musical Sanbasou.
The events of the Nagoya City Week will last until August 12, including Kimono performance, ballet, magic show, erhu playing, three-string playing, a musical, can recycling technology demonstration and demonstration of using old cloth as decorations. The week will also exhibit items such as the picture illustrating the restored palace in the inner ring of the Nagoya Castle, a replica of a helmet said to have been worn by Maeda Toshiie (one of the leading generals of Nobunaka), a replica of Nagoya Castle's golden dolphin at Japan Pavilion.
Nagoya is in central Japan and capital of Aichi Prefecture. The city is also the main site of Aichi Expo 2005 as well as an industry centre. The city also had a shrine holding the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, a Japanese legendary sword once hold by the Japanese Emperor.
