Cold Water Dance

Kanomizu no Kake Odori: A 300-Year-Old Drum Dance in the Mountains of Gifu

Tucked away in the steep green folds of Gifu Prefecture's Gujo City, the small mountain hamlet of Kanomizu erupts each September into a riot of color, drumming, and song. This is the stage for Kanomizu no Kake Odori — a "furyu" drum dance carried down through roughly 300 years of village life and now recognized both as a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan and as part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage element "Furyu-odori."

What sets this festival apart is its sheer scale relative to the community that produces it. Nearly 100 villagers transform into elaborately costumed performers, each filling one of 31 different roles, in a celebration that the entire settlement has spent weeks preparing for. Visitors who make the journey witness something rare in modern Japan: a living folk performance that is by and for the people who have inherited it.

What Is Kanomizu no Kake Odori?

Kanomizu no Kake Odori (寒水の掛踊) is a "furyu taiko odori," or "furyu drum dance," dedicated each year as an offering to the gods at Kanomizu Hakusan Shrine, the village's tutelary shrine. The performance unfolds over two consecutive days — the second Saturday and Sunday of September — with the first day called "shingaku" (rehearsal performance) and the second "hongaku" (main performance), though both days feature the full dance.

The visual centerpiece is the "hyoshi-uchi," a quartet of rhythm beaters who carry a stunning ornament called a "shinai" on their backs. The shinai is a soaring 3.6-meter-tall floral construction made from split bamboo wrapped in colored paper and adorned with paper flowers. Three of the four beaters wear a small drum strapped to their chest; the fourth carries a hand gong. As they dance, they pound their drums and gongs while the towering shinai sways above them — and in dramatic moments late in the performance, the beaters strike the shinai against the ground, scattering paper blossoms into the air.

The Roles and the Procession

Around this drumming core revolves a much larger cast: "akumabarai" (demon expellers), "tsuyuharai" (path purifiers), "naginata-furi" (halberd swingers), flute players, "ondo" and "jiuta" lead and chorus singers, "sasara-furi" players of the bamboo scraper, "tauchi" rice-paddy mimers, "daikoku-mai" performers playing the lucky god of harvest, "yakko" retainers, children in flower hats ("hanagasa"), the comic "okame-mai" dancer, and bearers of the sacred and festival banners. Each role has its own costume, its own movements, and its own place in the great rotating circle that forms when the dance begins.

A Three-Part Day

On each of the two festival days, the dance is performed three times. It begins around noon with the "Nakageta-mae no odori" at the Kanomizu Kake Odori Denshokan (Heritage Hall) — historically held in front of a house known by the "Nakageta" name. The performers then form a procession and walk through the village along the "Kamisama-michi" (Path of the Gods) to Kanomizu Hakusan Shrine, where they offer the "Oniwa odori" (garden dance) and finally the "Haiden-mae no odori" (dance before the main hall). The closing of the second day culminates in "niwahaki," when the beaters drag their shinai across the ground and the paper flowers fly free — chased and gathered up by the daikoku-mai and demon performers in a moment of joyful chaos.

Three Hundred Years of Inheritance

Local tradition holds that the dance has been performed in Kanomizu for roughly three centuries. The oldest surviving documentary trace is a record dated to 1781 (Tenmei 1) titled "Tomura Ujigami Hakusan Daigongen Sairei no Oboe (utsushi)" — "Memorandum of the Festival of the Village Tutelary Deity, Hakusan Daigongen (copy)" — which confirms that the kake-odori was already being offered at this shrine in the late Edo period.

According to local tradition, the dance was originally brought from the neighboring settlement of Motai (today part of Yamato-cho, Gujo City) in 1709, transmitted along with the worship of an Eleven-Headed Kannon and shrine-building documents. For generations, singers from Motai would cross the mountain pass each September to join the Kanomizu villagers in a "kake-ai" — a call-and-response singing match — and one widely cited explanation of the name "kake-odori" traces it to exactly this back-and-forth exchange.

Furyu Drum Dance: A Wider Cultural Family

The kake-odori (sometimes written as "kaki-odori") belongs to the great family of "furyu" drum dances that flourished in the Mino region and across the Kansai area. Furyu dances are characterized by elaborate costumes, eye-catching head ornaments, and the dramatic use of percussion. They are by nature inclusive — they require no special stage, and anyone in the community can take part. Within Gujo City alone, eleven settlements traditionally preserved versions of this kake-odori, but most are now performed only irregularly or have been discontinued. Kanomizu's version is the most ambitious in scale, and crucially, it is still performed every single year.

Why This Dance Was Designated a Cultural Property

On March 11, 2021, Kanomizu no Kake Odori was designated a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. The recognition followed an earlier 1975 listing as a folk performing art for which records were to be created and preserved. The 2021 designation cited several distinct values.

First, the dance preserves with remarkable clarity the characteristic features of the furyu drum-dance tradition that once spread widely through Mino and the Kansai region: the formation of dancers (rhythm beaters in the center, a great circle of dancers around them), the three-part musical structure of "kato" (introductory drumming), the song section, and "uchiage" (the closing percussion), and the distinctive call-and-response style of singing in which two groups of singers alternate the same lyrics. Second, the performance carries pronounced regional and local character — the inventive costumes, the unusually large number of roles, and the fact that it is performed reliably year after year set Kanomizu apart from most other surviving kake-odori traditions in Gujo. The combination of fidelity to a wider folk tradition and richly developed local distinctiveness is exactly what intangible heritage protection seeks to safeguard.

The recognition reached a wider audience in November 2022, when "Furyu-odori" — a collective UNESCO listing of 41 traditional Japanese ritual dances — was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Kanomizu no Kake Odori is one of those 41 traditions.

Highlights to Watch For

For a first-time visitor, the dance can feel overwhelming in its detail. A few things to focus on will reward your attention.

The Soaring Shinai

The 3.6-meter shinai are visible from a great distance and serve as the visual heartbeat of the entire festival. They are built fresh each year from split bamboo, paper, and handmade flowers. Watch the way the beaters control these towering ornaments while still keeping precise rhythm on their drums — it is a feat of stamina and balance.

The Procession Along the Path of the Gods

Between the opening dance and the shrine performance, the entire cast forms a procession of around 100 people and walks through the village along a route that has been used for generations. Seven traditional procession tunes — "Shageri," "Myoken-byoshi," "Okazaki," "Koshizume," "Jurokubyoshi," "Nanatsu-byoshi," and "Mitsu-byoshi" — are played in sequence on flutes as the line winds past rice fields and old farmhouses. It is one of the most photogenic moments of the whole day.

The Niwahaki Finale

Late in the second day's "Haiden-mae no odori," the rhythm shifts to the "shizume-uta" lullaby. The shinai are unstrapped, and the beaters drag them across the dance ground, scattering the paper flowers in a slow shower. The daikoku-mai and demon performers scramble to gather the fallen petals — an act once believed to bring good fortune to those who collect them. Soon after, performers and spectators alike join hands in a final round of folk songs including "Kanomizu Wajima," "Yoi-yoi," and "Dojo" — a moment when the audience becomes part of the dance itself.

Planning Your Visit

The festival is held every year on the second Sunday of September and the Saturday before it. Both days follow the same program and either offers a complete experience. Performances begin around noon at the Kanomizu Kake Odori Denshokan, after which the procession sets off for Kanomizu Hakusan Shrine, arriving at the shrine grounds in the early afternoon.

Free shuttle buses run between the Meiho Town Office (Meiho Government Branch) and Kanomizu Hakusan Shrine, departing approximately twice an hour between 10:00 and 17:30 on festival days. The ride takes about 10 minutes. Driving directly to the shrine on festival days is not recommended — the village lanes are narrow and parking is extremely limited.

Getting to Kanomizu

Kanomizu sits in the mountains of northern Gifu Prefecture. From the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway, Gujo Hachiman IC is the standard exit, from which it is roughly a 30-minute drive into the Meiho district along the celebrated "Seseragi Kaido" scenic road. Visitors using public transport can take the Nagaragawa Railway to Gujo-Hachiman Station, then transfer to a Gifu Bus bound for Meiho. Meiho is rural and bus frequencies are limited, so checking timetables in advance is essential.

Around Kanomizu

The Meiho district is one of the loveliest corners of Gujo and rewards a longer stay.

Meiho Onsen Yuseikan

A short drive from Kanomizu, this hot-spring facility offers a rare alkaline simple weak radioactive spring known for skin-softening properties. The open-air bath looks out over the surrounding mountains, and the on-site restaurant serves "keichan," the local chicken-and-cabbage griddle dish that is a Gujo specialty.

The Seseragi Kaido

This roughly 70-kilometer scenic road connects the famous water-and-dance town of Gujo-Hachiman with Hida-Takayama. In September the leaves have not yet turned, but the deep green of late summer along the river valleys is breathtaking, and the route passes the Michi-no-Eki Meiho roadside station, where you can pick up locally famous Meiho Ham and Meiho Tomato Ketchup.

Gujo-Hachiman Castle Town

About 30 minutes' drive south, Gujo-Hachiman is the historic heart of the region: a small castle town threaded with clear streams and known for the Gujo Odori, another of Japan's three great Bon dances and also a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Pairing a visit to the Kake Odori with a stroll through Gujo-Hachiman gives you a remarkable double exposure to Gujo's dance traditions.