Location: Uwa-Nawashiro, Hachimantai, Kazuno City
Site(s) of performance: Yasaka Shrine, Amaterasu Sumemioya Shrine, and other places in the community
Date(s): August 15 and 16 (annual festival of the Amaterasu Sumemioya Shrine)
Category: Furyū
The Sakibarai Dance is a kind of exorcism dance that is performed before the departure of a mikoshi (a religious palanquin carrying a deity) at Shinto festivals. Around 900 years ago, Hachiman Tarō Yoshiie died of disease at Hachimantai during his Northern Campaign against the Abe clan. One of his vassals settled in Anikawa (Hachimantai City in Iwate Prefecture) and danced at rituals of the Inari Shrine. That dance was said to be brought to Taninai around 1750. As it first started at Anikawa, it was also called the Anikawa Dance.

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