Wearing a Hyottoko mask, they dance while comically stumbling. In Hyuga, Miyazaki, the Hyottoko Summer Festival sends dancers in three masks, the goofy Hyottoko, the round-cheeked Okame, and the fox, dancing through the town with clownish gestures. The movements are absurd, knees bent, heads cocked, bodies lurching, and onlookers cannot help but laugh. The dance comes from a local folk art called the Hyuga Hyottoko dance, performed to pray for good harvests and prosperous business. At the festival, more than a thousand dancers gather from across the country, professionals, amateurs, children, it makes no difference; once the mask is on, everyone is Hyottoko. Laughter becomes prayer, clowning becomes art. A laughing god, perhaps, is better than a stern one.