More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

Uzume Mask It has been a very long time since I finished any masks , but the last few weeks I have been hard at it. Most of my older blo...

Sada Shrine, located north of Matsue, was once the most important shrine in the Izumo region. Enshrined in the central honden are 5 kami...

Went to a charity kagura event today and saw a dance I had never seen before, Momiji-gari. The dance opens with three maidens dressed in gor...

    Today was the matsuri at Tsunozu. Last night was the all night kagura, but I was feeling a bit under the weather so didn't make it, ...

For our next matsuri we headed up into the mountains to Mizuho, near the border with Hiroshima. Sekai Daijingu is a "New Religion"...

It is believed that the root of Japanese religion, AND the root of Japanese performing arts lie in shamanic trance. Shamanic kagura was once...

This short video is of a kagura performance on the small island of Iwaishima, or as some people say, Iwaijima, off the southern coast of Yam...

A couple of months ago we were driving along a backroad in SE Hiroshima on our way to Shikoku when we saw a small shrine at the side of the ...

Red Hanya mask For the past couple of years, I've been making masks in the Iwami Kagura style. Iwami kagura is the local form of sa...