It was not a normal Saturday afternoon at the Park Dome in Kumamoto, Japan, as the official opening ceremony of the 24th IHF Women’s World Championship set pulses racing inside the 10,000-capacity, sold-out venue.

The Taiko Doshin drumming group officially commenced the ceremony with a trio of drummers, including the 2017 solo Dadaiko drum performance world champion. As part of the wider group, their junior band – Minami Aso Daiko, features young people from the Minami Aso area which suffered severe damage from the 2016 earthquakes in the Kumamoto region.

Once the drummers finished their vibrant display the ‘Nanikore? Troupe’ street performance unit performed an energetic storytelling set through a variety of popular modern songs before the ‘Merry Hoppers’ baton twirling team performed their magic on court.

Following the dances, all 24 flags of the nations appearing at Japan 2019 were led on to court with a background sound of the official theme song ‘Hand in Hand’ played by the Kumamoto High School Students’ Brass Band and sung by the Kumamoto Boys and Girls Choir.

Accompanying each flag were members of the Shokei High School Kimono and Japanese Etiquette Club wearing traditional kimono outfits, uniquely depicting each country through its design. Each individual kimono was handwoven and hand-dyed, and took 30 minutes for each member of the club to dress in.

The 24 designs form part of the ‘KIMONO project’ which was started by the ‘Imagine One World’ company from Fukuoka in 2014 and aims to create original kimonos and obi (kimono belts) with patterns that depict the culture, history and landscapes of 206 countries and regions from across the world.

Toshiro Shimada, President of the Kumamoto Handball Association then brought out the one-of-a-kind, specially designed winning trophy, before the Japanese national anthem was sung by the Kumamoto-born, multi-award-winning singer Yu Todoroki.

Ikuo Kabashima, Governor of Kumamoto Prefecture, then gave a welcoming speech for the crowd inside and everyone visiting the region.

“I sincerely welcome every member of the 24 national teams from all around the world to Kumamoto,” he said. “It is an honour for me to be in the presence of many guests from across the world and to hold such a wonderful opening ceremony of this long-awaited world championship.

“In April 2016 Kumamoto was severely damaged by huge earthquakes that we had not experienced before, so I am really happy that this day has arrived today at last. As we are taking steps towards recovery, the hosting of this championship has become to us an important goal that will help bring hope for tomorrow.”

IHF 1st Vice-President Joel Delplanque then declared the world championship open, before the closing ceremony ended, ahead of Japan taking on Argentina.

“I would like to welcome everyone in celebrating the opening of the 24th IHF Women’s World Championship,” said Delplanque. “We are happy to be back in the beautiful region of Kumamoto 22 years after the 1997 IHF Men’s World Championship which was one of the best ever.

“I want to congratulate I all 24 teams on their qualification and I hope to see, as always, high performance from all the players, coaches and referees and a good co-operation between players and coaches on one hand and between both of them, and referees, on the other hand.

“Japan is a nation with a long and rich sporting tradition,” he continued. “Therefore we expect an excellent organisation and I wish the Japan Handball Association and Japan 2019 Organising Committee all the best. I wish all the delegates a good and nice stay and I hope the best team will reach the final under the motto of fair play.”

Photo: Yukihito Taguchi/Japan 2019