October means Matsuri. Matsuri means Kagura. Part 6

We headed downriver to Matsukawa, the village of Oda, who have their matsuri during the daytime.

The village no longer has its own kagura group, so Kamiko Kagura group from Hamada were playing.

The dance being performed when we arrived was Gojin, concerning the 5 elements played out as 5 kami with territorial disputes. One of the kami is a buffoon, seen here with a long trail of green snot hanging from his nose. The group leader told us that Gojin was traditionally the final dance in a kagura performance, but nowadays the finale is usually Yamata no Orochi, as it was today.



It was a really great performance of the dance, unusually with all 8 serpents. It's one thing to see this dance performed on a stage, quite another to literally have it in your face. This first video shows some of the choreoraphed dance of the 8 snakes. As far as I know there is nothing else like this anywhere else in japan. If anyone has seen anything like this, please let me know.



This next video shows Susano battling the serpents. At one point he seems to be overpowered, but fear not, he triumphs.

2 of the heads of the serpent were laid right at our feet.

Typical Japanese Landscape 24

The view from the top of Sangaisan (378m) looking SW towards Taimasan.

Looking SE, inland towards Kanagi.

NE along the coast towards Gotsu.

Looking down over the university and port at Hamada.

Back to Water Country

We had some friends from upcountry visiting this weekend, so we took them to our favorite museum, Mizunokuni.

A strong contender for the Least Visited and Most Underrated Museum in Japan, as usual we were the only people there.

Lots more posts on Mizunokuni can be found here

Everyone we've taken there has really enjoyed it. I'm guiding for 3 groups in the next few weeks so will be going back.

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.