More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

  Day 7 of my walk along the old Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, and for the first time I have crossed into Hamada Domain from the Shogunate-cotrol...

Ichiyama Hachimangu is a much bigger shrine than the one we just visited over the river in Eno. We come to most matsuris at Ichiyama as a fr...

One of the things that attracts me to Iwami kagura is the sheer dedication and professionalism of the dancers, though in fact there are no p...

Gozamai The mat dance Izumo Kagura I have only ever seen this dance twice, and both times it was by the Ichiyama Kagura Group at an Omoto ...

This is a scene from the Kakko-Kirime dance performed last night at the shrine in Kawado. In the opening part of the dance an inept priest b...

Last night was one of my favorite matsuris. It was the Kids kagura matsuri in the nearby village of Ichiyama. We've been every year for ...

The first dance in any Iwami Kagura performance is the Shioharae, in which the dancers purify the dance space in readiness for the kami. Wh...

The Yato River starts at about 900metres up in the mountains of the Mizuho Highlands, right where there is a small ski area. It then travels...