around a wooden scaffold where is played. Dancers use no drum. A dozen to twenty songs are performed in a fast tempo. Female : distributed in the northern end of Okinawa. A dozen to twenty songs with varying tempo are performed solely by women. Kobayashi Yukio analyzes modern Eisa as a result of the effort by each community's newly organized youth associations, an influence from sophisticated theatrical performance of Naha, and a social movement of modernization that forced young people to turn from "sexually explicit" gatherings to the "healthy" dance. was to be performed at the Bon Festival. It is not known when it extended to other occasions. Newspaper articles confirm that , together with other folk performing arts, had been performed as an attraction at various government-sponsored exhibitions in central Okinawa already in 1900s. Post-World War II transformation underwent drastic changes in post-World War II Okinawa. In 1956, then under U.S. occupation, the first Contest was held in Koza (part of the modern-day Okinawa City). It was originally an effort to recover from the great damage to the base-dependent commercial city caused by the "Off Limits" ordinance by the U.S. military. As a contest, participating groups were judged by screening criteria such as costumes, formation, technique, the number of performers, and innovativeness. Folklorist Kumada Susumu noted values imposed by the criteria. They clearly emphasized group dynamics, although earlier groups were not necessarily large. Contrary to today's perception of as Okinawa's tradition, they did encourage the creative nature of . In fact it was not uncommon to wear Western clothing during the performance. Another major event, the "Youth Festival," began in Naha in 1964, originally under the name of "All Okinawa Contest." At first, both events were competitive. In 1975, the latter abolished the contest and changed itself into a non-competitive festival, which was followed by the former in 1977. One reason behind the change was that some youth associations started showing their dissatisfaction at values imposed by the contests. had changed itself into spectacular group dynamics that was to fascinate the audience. To give the performance more punch, participating groups adopted an increasingly large number of drums. The adoption of luxurious uniforms was another effort to win the contest. A theme park, Ryukyu Village, is created showcasing traditional Ryukyuan attire and the daily work of weaving cloth, grinding sugar cane, and performance of the dance. Creative The 1980s saw