419-459 Thames St
Bristol
RI 02809
Odaiko New England is very pleased to return to Rhode Islands’s 36th annual Black Ships Festival, August 9th and 10th.
Friday evening, catch our full performance at 7pm at Independence Park. The event is free. Bring chairs and blankets to sit out on the grass.
Saturday will feature multiple small performances throughout the day as part of the Arts & Crafts and Martial Arts Fair featuring demonstrations, workshops, and displays. And in the evening, we’ll be performing at the Black Ships Festival Gala.
The Black Ships Festival is a weekend-long festival celebrating the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa, which opened the Japanese ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to United States trade. The “Black Ships,” or “Kurofune,” refers to the Japanese term for foreign ships.
To celebrate this friendship, the Japanese city of Shimoda also celebrates this festival.
The Black Ships festival is hosted by the Japan-America Society of Rhode Island.