What is the Sadondeko Project?
The Sadondeko Project is an initiative launched by five students from Niigata University, which aims to pass on the culture of Ondeko, a traditional culture of Sado Island, by expressing it through stamps and art and promoting its appeal.
The traditional culture of Ondeko has been handed down on Sado Island. Ondeko are performed several times a year at festivals in each village, where demons dance to the beat of taiko drums in the hope of good health, family safety, a good harvest and a great catch of fish.
It is a warm tradition that strengthens community ties, and each of the approximately 100 villages on Sado Island has its own unique onidaiko. However, in recent years there has been a serious shortage of successors, and the survival of this valuable culture is in jeopardy.
This is why students from Niigata University, who have ties to Sado, have risen to the occasion and launched the Sadondeiko Project, to pass on the appeal of onidaiko to the next generation.
Through this project, we are working to pass on the culture of onidaiko to the future and make it widely known. We are involved in two main initiatives: the Onidaiko Stamp Rally, in which participants collect stamps throughout Sado Island, and Onidaiko Art, in which the unique characteristics of Onidaiko in each village are expressed in the form of artworks.
