Location: Nangai, Daisen City Site(s) of performance: Arawa Shopping Street and the parking of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Daishōji Office Date(s): 3rd Sunday of August Category: Bon Dance Kamasaka is in the former Nangai Village in Daisen City, near Daishōji in Akita City. Aiya (or Haiya) music was born in Nagasaki, propagated northward along the …
Location: Chuo-machi, Yokote City Site(s) of performance: The festival space in front of the Yokote Regional Development Office Date(s): August 15 Designation: Prefecture-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property Category: Bon Dance The Yokote Citizens’ Bon Dance is a Bon dance for many citizens on August 15. It was started in the early part of the Showa …
Location: Towada-Oyu, Kazuno City Site(s) of performance: Daienji Temple and other places in the community Date(s): August 15 Designation: Prefecture-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property Category: Taiko-Furyū and Matsuri-Bayashi The origin of this big drum festival is that the local government of Nambu Domain hoped to lift the morale of warriors with the energetic beats of …
Location: Kami-Hinokinai, Nishiki-machi, Semboku City Site(s) of performance: The cemetery and Tozawa Community Center Date(s): August 7, 13, and 17 in the modern calendar, and August 15 in the lunar calendar Designation: Prefecture-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property Category: Sasara and Bon Dance The sasara dance at Tozawa is performed quite differently from the sasara dance …
Location: Yamada, Yurihonjo City Site(s) of performance: The lion head’s keeper’s house, Ōyama-Tsumi Shrine, and other places in the community Date(s): January 16 and August 14 Category: Shishimai and Bangaku Villagers of Yamada learned the lion dance from the neighboring village of Hataya in 1895. As it resembles Kamagadai Bangaku, there were probably some relations …
Location: Memeki, Yuwa, Akita City Site(s) of performance: Takao Shrine Date(s): July 7 (the evening before the annual festival of Takao Shrine) Designation: City-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property Category: Furyū Memeki Bayashi is dance and music performed as an offering at the annual evening festival of Takao Shrine at Memeki. A scaffold is set up …
Location: Ogida, Hinai-machi, Odate City Site(s) of performance: Ogida Elementary School Street Date(s): August 17 Category: Bon Dance The most characteristic of the dance numbers here is the Hatagi (grasshopper) dance. It is so called probably because the dancers jump up and down, or perhaps because they dance in a grasshopper-like waggling way. A legend …
Location: Sugayachitai, Nanokaichi, Kita-Akita City Site(s) of performance: Anywhere Date(s): Anytime (no longer performed as of the time of the survey conducted in fiscal year 2020) Category: Sasara and Horse Dance The origin goes back to the relegation of Lord Satake to Akita. It is now called the Kami-Funagi Horse Dance, but there used to …
Location: Nagano, Daisen City Site(s) of performance: Various places in the community Date(s): August 13–16 Designation: Prefecture Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property Category: Sasara and Horse Dance According to the scroll of ‘About the Lion King’ from this place, when Lord Satake made the procession to Akita in 1602 after reassignment by the shogunate to …
Location: Hajikamisawa, Osawagoshuku, Daisen City Site(s) of performance: Various places in the community Date(s): August 14 Designation: City-Designated Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property Category: Shishimai and Bangaku The bangaku at Hajikamisawa is performed every year only on August 14. As it is an Obon day, its performance is considered to appease the spirits of the ancestors. …