Japanese traditional dance

Japanese traditional dance has a long history, the oldest known ones may be among those transmitted through the kagura tradition, or folk dances relating to food producing activities such as planting rice (dengaku) and fishing, including rain dances. There are large number of these traditional dances, which are often subfixed -odori, -asobi, and -mai, and may be specific to a region or village. Mai and Odori are the two main groups of Japanese dances, and the term Buyō (舞踊) was coined in modern times as a general term for "dance", by combining mai (舞, which can also be pronounced bu) and odori (踊, can also be pronounced yō).