The Sanriku coast struck by the tsunami on 3.11 is a coast with a long history of tsunamis and has suffered devastating damage the same as this time. Although there are still things we don’t understand about how these folk arts and festivals have survived the past disasters, but we do know that the wealthier citizens made efforts to help the people of their communities in times of disaster. It wasn’t because those wealthy citizens were so great or magnanimous but because society was such that if they didn’t help the suffering people that next they would lose their reputation and the trust of the people and eventually lose the source of their wealth. So, as things gradually got better after a disaster, they would say, “OK, let’s invite the kagura here, or, let’s hold a festival next year. I believe that is probably the way things went.
Rather than being the power of the arts themselves, I believe it was a case of the existence of the arts gave the people something to work toward and a means for them to draw inspiration from their efforts and spirit. I believe that in the process of seeking some way to leave a heritage of their lives and existence for the future, it was a very natural response to turn to the arts.
Takeshi Abe
“asapro Mukei Bunkazai Eizo Library” (Asahi Products Intangible Cultural Assets Video Library) http://www.youtube.com/ user/ asaproabe/ feed About the Kuromori Kagura English Link: http://www.jpf.go.jp/ e/ culture/ new/ 1110/ 10-01.html The Kuromori Kagura is centered on Kuromori Shrine located on Mt. Kuromori in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, and it is classified as a yamabushi kagura. The yamabushi are mountain ascetics, and this category consists of kagura they performed as a means of spreading their faith during the early modern era in Japan. It is precious as a folk performing art that is still practiced in the present day by processions that visit from village to village in an expansive area of the Rikuchu Coast of Iwate Prefecture ranging from a part of the locale known today as Kuji City in the north to a part of Kamaishi City in the south, proceeding from south to north and then north to south in alternating years. This is a region where numerous kagura have been passed down since the early modern era, and the procession makes short visits to the shrines and hamlets those kagura belong to. The Kuromori Kagura has assembled the most talented dancers and musicians from among these local kagura performers, who together engage in the long procession that takes a period of some months. One of the distinctive characteristics of this kagura is the way it has fused a spirit of reverence for Kuromori Shrine, a sacred mountain site linked to the lineage of Japanese mountain worship, with fishing village culture founded upon the fishing carried on along the Iwate coast since ancient times, their combination producing the unique, heroic dance and musical accompaniment of the Kuromori Kagura. This can therefore be considered the preeminent kagura of the region. There is no instance of kagura anywhere else in Japan that conducts a procession over such a wide range and such a long period of time. In recognition of this and the continuation into the present day of precious folkways that are enmeshed in the ways of life along the coastal region, the Kuromori Kagura was designated an important intangible folk-cultural property by the national government in 2006. The Kuromori Kagura procession (jungyo) begins with the ritual of commencing the dance (mai tachi) on January 3, then makes the rounds of locations on the Rikuchu Coast known as kagura lodgings (kagura yado) until March. The kagura lodgings are most commonly provided by important local people, and it is not just the families and relatives of those households but also other local residents that gather there to enjoy the kagura. Kagura embodies a world-view that is inextricably linked to the locality, and kagura performances invariably include a dance manifesting the presence before the audience of a divinity who purifies the world and promises blessings. In the Kuromori Kagura, this deity is in the lion masks referred to as "manifestations of the deity" (Gongen-sama), and a dance of the manifested deity (Gongen mai) is always included in the ritual of commencing the dance and in the dancing entry into the lodging (maikomi). The Kuromori Kagura also includes such representative pieces as the dance of the mountain deity (yama no kamimai), the dance of Ebisu, a deity who promises bountiful catches of fish (Ebisu mai), and other such pieces that are closely tied to ways of life in the local communities, in addition to the kagura associated with the Imperial court (mikagura) that represent myths passed down in every part of the country. There are also dramatic pieces with a strong story element, which are referred to as shikumi, warrior dances (bushi mai) based on the war between the Minamoto and Taira clans and other historical legends, and other audience-pleasing performance pieces that enthrall everyone from adults to children. What sustains the Kuromori Kagura, therefore, is the kagura performers, who have historically taken on the responsibility for carrying on this precious performing art, and the people of local communities who have provided the kagura lodgings and received the kagura performers. The Kuromori Kagura can be considered the combined form taken by the refined essence of these people's hearts and minds together with the traditional culture that is a living presence along the Rikuchu Coast.
(From Japan Foundation Website sources)
Kagura nenbutsu of Kuromori Kagura
(March, 2012 at Taro, Miyako, Iwate Prefecture
“Oni-kenbai Dance” of Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture
Dance of memorial service for victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami by KItakami Oni-kenbai Association (April, 2011)
“Ogatsu Hoin Kagura Dance” of Ishinomaki, Iwate Prefecture
Dedication to kagura dance at Ogatsu Reconstruction Market (May, 2011)
“Urahama Shishiodori Dance” of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture
Buddhist memorial service of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (June, 2011)