October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 5

After Ichiyama matsuri we stopped in at Kawado, the village just across the river from mine, for the last matsuri of the night.

I've watched hundreds of kagura dances, and yet am still learning something new almost everytime I see a dance. Every village has developed their own variations on the dances and stories, and I suppose I have also become more knowledgable about details.

The last dance we watched was Shoki, a 2 person dance with Shoki and a single demon.

Shoki was a "demon-quelling" Chinese God who has become equated with Susano in Japan. The Susano and Shoki masks are interchangeable, though here at Kawado Shoki did not where a mask at all.

I learned an interesting thing about Kawado's version of Shoki. The person chosen to play Shoki is not set. It is chosen each year by the group depending on whoever has had good fortune that year. Usually that means someone who has gotten married or had a child. This years dancer had recently celebrated the birth of his fourth child.



In this video there is something I hadn't seen before. After the demon has pranced about the stage, Shoki climbs up and starts shaking the tengai over the demon. The tengai is the canopy over the kagura stage, and the kami descend through the paper streamers to possess the dancers.

The Heights of Eternal Hope for the Future

Miraishin no Oka is a 5,000 sq. m. sculpture park on the hilltop overlooking Kosan-Ji on Ikujima, a small island in the Inland Sea off Hiroshima.

The brainchild of Environmental sculptor Kazuto Kuetani, all the sculptures and the marble that coveres the hillside was shipped from the Carrera quarry in Italy, where he has worked for the past 18 years.

The only way to visit the hill is through Kosan-Ji, which charges 1,200 yen entrance, but what you get for that price is quite astounding.

On a sunny day the hilltop is blinding. There is also an Italian restaurant in the park.

The island can be reached easily from Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku or Ohnomichi Town in Hiroshima.

Kobe Maritime Museum

The Kobe Maritime Museum is located in Meriken Park next to the Kobe Port Tower.

Built in 1987, and designed by the cities Harbor Maintenance Group, it's most dominating feature is the roof constructed of white pipe in the form of sails.

I didn't go inside, but I've heard that as maritime museums go it's not that great, the displays being nearly all models and not real boats.

It's open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday thru Sunday, and entrance is 600 yen for adults, 300 for kids.

While I was there a storm approached and the dark cluds gave me a dramatic background for the photos.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 4

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 friend, Toshi, dances there.

When we got there they were still dancing Iwato.

Toshi dances the character Ame no Koyane, the mythical ancestor of the Nakatomi. Its quite a hard part to dance as Koyane is an old man so the dancer must move and dance with bent legs all the time.

Toshi danced in the next dance too, which must have been tough as kagura dancing is a hard workout. He played Hachiman's sidekick in the Yumi Hachiman dance.

Around 2 a.m., not long after the demons entrance we headed off to the next matsuri....

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 3

Our next matsuri was in Eno, a small village on the Yato River. This was our first time to matsuri here. It's a fairly new shrine, established under the orders/instructions of Omotojin during shamanic possession at Omoto kagura across the river in Ichiyama. Next month there will be Omoto Kagura here.

The matsuri was well attended! After sitting down we were given 2 steaming bowls of wild boar stew, and later warmed Omiki, the sacred sake. :)

The first dance after the ceremonial dances (shinji) was Iwato.

Something I've never seen before in performances of Iwato was that during Uzume's dance the other "kami" joined in playing the intruments.

Playing before the home crowd is always tough as locals are the toughest critics.

The next dance was Yumi Hachiman with the usual spectacular demons entrance. Around midnight we had to leave as there were 2 more matsuris to visit this night.

October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 2

For our next matsuri we headed up into the mountains to Mizuho, near the border with Hiroshima. Sekai Daijingu is a "New Religion", an offshoot of Omottokyo, and the head shrine is here in Iwami.

I don't know a lot about this religion, but one of the priests spent an hour chatting with me and the 2 points he stressed were that the kami worshipped are the "old" kami of Japan, the Sun, Moon, and Earth, and he stressed a disassociation from Shinto which he considered a version of the State Shinto which he linked strongly to the war.

Unlike a usual matsuri, here there were many groups each dancing once. The first up was Miho Kagura Dan, from northern Hiroshima. Hiroshima Kagura developed out of Iwami Kagura, but the costumes are a little different, and for the "good guys" Hiroshima Kagura doesnt use masks but make-up.

The dance they performed was Akko Den, another name for Kurozuka, a famous story taken from the Noh repertoire.

Its a popular dance especially among kids as it involves an evil white fox that devours people.

The dance involves several mask and costume changes as the fox transforms from its human form as a beautiful woman into its true form.



Before the kagura began there was a performance of a Taiko group from Oda.

Princess Yakami

Yakami Hime was a beautiful princess ( as all such princesses must be) in the land of Inaba, now western Tottori. She appears in the old myth The White Rabbit of Inaba.

In Izumo, Okuninushi's 80 brothers, known as the Yasogami, head off to Inaba to try and win the princess's hand. Okuninushi was relegated to baggage carrier for his brothers.

On a beach they discover a sick rabbit, and the yasogami are cruel to it. When Okuninushi arrives he helps the rabbit, and seeing his kindness, Yakami hime falls in love with him.

Eventually Okuninushi marries her, but later dumps her so he can marry one of Susano's daughters.

The photos are from the kagura dance Yasogami, performed here by the Tsuchi Kagura Group at last years Gotsu kagura Festival.

A view of Izumo Dome from the mountain

More pics of the dome here

Yamane Family home.

On Sunday afternoon we were walking along the waterfront at Nagahama on our way back to the van after visiting the sailship Nadezhda. I stopped and took a couple of photos of some nice, old, empty houses. A man in the garden of the house inbetween asked me why I took the photos. I told him I liked these old buildings, and he asked me if I'd like to look inside. I though he meant inside the empty buildings, but what he meant was inside his house.

Mr Yamane is the 18th generation of his family to live here. I didn't think to ask how old the house was, but the beams and some of the floors ( 5cm thick slabs of wood) looked to be at least 200 years old.

The house was filled with family heirlooms, most seemed to be from the Edo Period.

There were 2 huge Kamidana.

Lots of weapons, including this thing that was attached to a 2 metre long pole. Not much up on samurai and such so I doin't know what its called.

There were lots of old dolls, and this lovely pair of statues of Daikoku and Ebisu.

My favorite object though was this miniature set of samurai armor.

On the way out through the covered courtyard between the buildings Yoko remarked that the 2 huge stone sinks reminded her of a sake brewery and Mr. Yamane told us it was a Soy Sauce brewery. That was has the family became wealthy. I mentioned that if his house was in Kyoto it would be open to the public for a hefty entrance fee. He laughed and said "everything in Kyoto is expensive"

I wondered if he had a son that would continue on living in the ancestral home, but I kind of think probably not. His kids probably live in a big city now.

Last years October moon

When I posted about the matsuri at Imada I was reminded of a photo from last years Tanijyugo Matsuri which occurred also on the full moon.