Kotsubo-kagura Shrine Dance 小坪神楽

Official explanation

Kagura is a form of dance performed as an offering to Shinto deities, most often during shrine festivals. Kotsubo-kagura is performed at the Kotsubo Hachiman Jinja Shrine Festival in the Hirokotsubo district of Kure. The performance consists of 21 different dances and continues for six hours, well into the early hours of the morning. During the first five dances, the deity Hachiman is summoned, and the 16 dances that follow are intended to entertain the deity (and the human audience). The performance is staged over two days on the weekend closest to October 20, a date that signifies the beginning of the last 18 days of autumn according to the traditional lunar calendar.

The origin of kotsubo-kagura dates back more than 200 years. Hirokotsubo has been producing lime since the late Edo period (1603–1867), but because the area is surrounded by mountains, prior to the advent of railways the lime could only be transported by ship. During one of these deliveries, sailors from Hirokotsubo stopped at Ōyamazumi Jinja Shrine on Ōmi Island (now part of Ehime Prefecture). Impressed by the shrine’s kagura, which belongs to the kagura tradition of Ise Jingū Shrine, the sailors learned the dance and performed it at Kotsubo Hachiman Jinja’s autumn festival.

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Traditionally, kotsubo-kagura was performed by unmarried men between the ages of 16 and 30; however, women have been allowed to participate since 1985. Today, the flutes accompanying the dance are played by elementary- and middle-school students from the town. In 1969, kotsubo-kagura was designated an Intangible Cultural Property by the city of Kure due to its importance to the community of Hirokotsubo.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.