Location: Osato Kawara, Hachimantai, Kazuno City
Site(s) of performance: Inari Shrine and other places in the community
Date(s): August 15 and 16 (annual festival of Inari Shrine)
Designation: City-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property
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. This dance was brought here from Anihata (present-day Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture). Probably in 1949, a representative of the Ōsato community went to Anihata and learned how to perform the Sakibarai Dance and, back in Ōsato, started the annual dance probably in 1950. To emphasize that the Sakibarai Dance of Kawara Inari Shrine is different from the Anikawa (Sakibarai) Dance, the dance here is also called the Anihata Dance.

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