Location: Fukumezawa, Oga City
Site(s) of performance: The cemetery and other places in the community
Date(s): August 16
Designation: Prefecture-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property
Category: Taiko-Furyū and Matsuri-Bayashi
Taiko bayashi (drum music) is played at the Bon rituals of Fukumezawa. This Bon ritual was practiced already in the 17th century. The Bon festival is held to receive and see off the spirits of the ancestors. The taiko bayashi is played only at the rituals of seeing them off. There is no particular name for this taiko bayashi. The performers make a procession and the drummer holding and hitting the drum leads the procession. Players of sasara (a wooden percussion instrument played with a rubbing stick) and the players of Japanese flutes follow. The players go around the community and play the music loudly, especially in front of houses where someone died within the last year, before visiting the cemetery and finishing the entire ritual.
