Takachiho-no-Yokagura (夜神楽)
An 800-year-old all-night harvest ritual in which 33 sacred Kagura dances are performed by firelight across some 20 mountain villages in the Takachiho gorge region, designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
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"At the foot of Mount Sanbe, the Tane Kagura Transmission Hall keeps alive an Iwami Kagura tradition embedded in the Japan Heritage site of Sabimeyama Shrine."
Tane Kagura Denshokan Teiki Kouen (多根神楽伝承館 定期公演)
"On the tiny island of Tsuken-jima off the Okinawa coast, men perform a rare circle dance of Chinese origin in traditional summer dress to hand-held drums, a centuries-old communal rite confined almost entirely to this one small island community."
Too Udui Dance
"Youth seinenkai groups carry odaiko and paranku drums through the streets of Yomitan village on all three Obon nights, performing ancestral eisa in the living community tradition rather than on a stage."
Okinawa Obon Eisa Michi-uchi (Village Street Eisa)
"Praying for the five-grain harvest and plentiful fishing from Lake Ogawara, neighbourhood teams in Tohoku-machi's Kamikita district parade hand-made dashi floats to the cry of 'Yare, Yare' along a one-kilometre course in one of Aomori's most community-rooted autumn customs."
Tohoku-machi Aki Matsuri Kamikita (東北町秋まつり上北地区)
"Elegantly costumed dancers in deep sedge hats drift silently through lantern-lit cobblestone streets to mournful kokyu strings in one of Japan's most atmospheric rural autumn customs."
Owara Kaze no Bon (おわら風の盆)
"In this remarkably preserved samurai village, eighteen hikiyama kabuki floats weighing several tonnes are hauled through cherry-lined streets and deliberately rammed into one another at crossroads in the centuries-old buttsuke collision ritual."
Kakunodate no Matsuri (角館祭り)