Sagimai, the Dance of the Herons, is an elegant, medieval dance that originates in the Gion Matsuri, the Kyoto festival that is the most famous of all festivals in Japan.
The best place to see it is in the former castle town of Tsuwano in the mountains of western Shimane close to the border with Yamaguchi, where the dance has been kept alive for more than four centuries after it disappeared from Kyoto.
Two male dancers dressed as herons, one male, one female, perform a kind of mating dance, and while the two "birds" are the stars of the show, there are plenty of other characters in the performance.
Two dancers called bofuri, wearing bright red wigs and carrying long rods slowly circle the two herons, twirling the rods to keep the space free from evil spirits. One bofuri moves clockwise, the other anti-clockwise.
The Toya, festival head, with some guards. Historically a hereditary position of the influential Hori family, the position of Toya is nowadays rotated among parishioners of the Yasaka Shrine.
The remaining halberds, or kasaboko. Originally 13, one for each month plus the largest for the whole year. Because of depopulation, there are no longer enough people to carry the halberds so they are left on display at the community center where the dance begins.
The dance takes place at several locations along Tonomachi, a street of preserved historical buildings from the Edo Period. All the dancers and musicians have their own "guards" as they walk the short distance. The crowd, never that big, usually accompanies the procession to the next venue.
While the herons are dancing, and the bofuri are circling, another pair of dancers called kakko mai are dancing. Kakko is the name of the small drum attached to their waists which they don't actually play. Their movement do not mimic, but is synchronized with, that of the herons.
Behind the kakko mai, the musicians playing flute, cymbal, and drums sit or squat, and behind them stand the singers.
The dance takes place on July 20th and 27th, the start and end days of the Gion Matsuri in Tsuwano. It was probably introduced from nearby Yamaguchi in 1542. The Ouchi Clan who ruled much of western Japan had introduced a lot of culture and tradition from Kyoto including the sagimai.
It stopped being performed in Kyoto during the time of the Onin War in the 15th century when Kyoto was a smoldering ruin and the dance died out there. Later it also died out in Yamaguchi, leaving Tsuwano as the only site in Japan where the dance continued until modern times.
In the late 20th century the people of Tsuwano took the sagimai back to Kyoto and taught them the details. Nowadays it can be seen at Yasaka Shrine in Gion, though it would be best to be in possession of a powerful telephoto lense if you want to see much of anything.......
In 1958 Tsuwano created the Kosagi Odori, literally the Heron Chick Dance, as way to get the towns children involved , and it has now become a feature of the festival every year.
Young boys have recently taken part in the Chick Dance, a result of the dwindling population. In a similar vein, women have started to take part in the main Sagi Mai, though so far only as guards of the procession.
One final note,.... Herons are quite a few species of different birds, with the one represented in the sagimai most likely a Little Egret. There are several egret species in Japan, all white. What I would call a heron is the Grey Heron, called Ao Sagi, blue heron in Japanese, and the egret is shira sagi, white heron.
Every year on July 20th and 27th the Sagi Mai is performed as part of Tsuwano's Gion Matsuri.
Though known as the Heron Dance, the birds being imitated are in fact Egrets.
The dance, like the Gion Matsuri itself, was originally from Kyoto, but during the time that Kyoto was a burned out, war-destroyed, ghost town many aristocratic refugees fled to Yamaguchi, and it was from here that the dance was introduced into Tsuwano.
The people of Tsuwano faithfully kept the dance in its original form and in 1953 they went to Kyoto to teach the dance and it is now performed there again.
As well as the 2 dancers dressed as egrets, there is a full complement of other dancers, musicians, singers etc all dressed in period costume. The music accompanying the dance seems to be based on ancient Chinese-derived court music rather than any folk tradition.
On both days the dancers perform at various sites around the center of the town, starting in the afternoon.
Also performed is the Egret Chick dance, a recent invention of the town. The young girls didnt smile much, which may be due to the solemnity of the dance, or the summer afternoon heat.
As the dates for the festival are fixed they often fall on weekdays which means that the events are not too crowded.
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