Location: Nishinosawa, Osarizawa, Kazuno City
Site(s) of performance: Hachiman Shrine
Date(s): May 5 and September 15 (the day of the annual festival of the shrine)
Designation: City-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property
Category: Miko-Kagura and Yudate-Kagura
This lion dance has been performed since around 1481. At Hachiman Shrine, it is performed as an offering every year at the spring festival and the fall festival. The performers start the procession from the house of the Kainuma family, the shrine’s administrators. They walk to the shrine and, after the rituals, perform the Gongen Dance. The dance performance has three parts, the last of which is the rice scooping dance. The dancing lion replicates the movement of scooping and drinking water from a barrel.
