Location: Maeyama, Akita City
Site(s) of performance: Raikō Shrine and other places in the community
Date(s): August 13 and 20
Category: Sasara and Horse Dance
Maeyama Folkloric Performance Art was also called Maeyama Bon Dance. It is a Bon dance with a lion dance and yakko dance (samurai servants’ dance). In the middle of the Edo era, an old family moved after the flood of the Yonashiro River and built a new village here. They performed the dance as an offering to the local shrine to pray for bumper crops and health and safety. The composition of the dances is said to imitate Lord Satake’s procession to Akita in 1602.
