Kuromori Kagura

Kuromori Kagura: A Sacred Dance That Walks the Coast

Every January 3, a small group of performers leaves a shrine on a wooded mountain above the city of Miyako and does not come home for a month. They carry two carved lion heads called gongen-sama, into which the deity of Kuromori Shrine has been ritually transferred. For the next thirty to forty days the troupe moves down the Pacific coast of Iwate, stopping in fishing harbors and farming hamlets to dance in doorways, beside family graves, and inside lamp-lit tatami rooms.

This is Kuromori Kagura. Kagura is ritual dance offered to the gods, and it survives across Japan in many local forms. What sets the Kuromori tradition apart is that it does not wait for an audience to gather at a stage. It comes to people's homes, and it keeps moving.

In March 2006 the practice was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the national government. The dancers belong to the Kuromori Kagura Preservation Society, a group of roughly fifteen members who carry the repertoire, the music, and the ritual knowledge between them.

From Mountain Ascetics to a Touring Troupe

Kuromori Shrine sits partway up Mt. Kuromori, a densely forested peak of about 330 meters that rises close behind the coastline north of central Miyako. Because it stands so near the sea, the mountain once served sailors as a navigational landmark. Esoteric Buddhist ritual implements thought to date from the Nara period have been unearthed at its foot, evidence that the site drew worship long before written records begin.

Ridge plaques kept at the shrine confirm its history back into the 14th century. In earlier eras it was known by other names, among them Kuromori Kannon and Kuromori Daigongen, and it stood within the world of shugendo, the mountain asceticism that blended Buddhism, Shinto, and folk belief. The men who trained on Mt. Kuromori as yamabushi, or mountain ascetics, were the people who first carried the kagura into the surrounding villages.

More than twenty lion heads are kept at the shrine. The oldest carries an inscription dated 1485, which tells us that carved lion heads were already part of the shrine's ritual life in the Muromachi period. Records of the gongen procession itself survive from the late 17th century, and a document compiled in 1758 shows that the troupe was already touring coastal villages before the 1670s. The dance, in other words, has been on the road for well over three centuries.

Why the Government Designated It

Japan recognizes intangible folk cultural properties not for a building or an object but for a living practice. Three qualities of Kuromori Kagura drew the attention of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

The first is the scale of the journey. The troupe alternates each year between a northern circuit, reaching the towns of Iwaizumi, Tanohata, Fudai and Noda and the city of Kuji, and a southern circuit through Yamada, Otsuchi and the Kamaishi area. Few kagura groups anywhere in Japan still travel so far for so long, and the geographic range has barely changed since the early Edo period.

The second is the depth of ritual. Kuromori Kagura is not only entertainment. Its dancers perform purifications, memorial rites, fire-prevention prayers, and blessings for new houses and new boats. These ceremonies preserve the working tradition of the shugendo ascetics who once walked the same routes, calling on the households that supported them.

The third is the repertoire. The night programs alone include thirty-nine pieces, drawing on Japanese mythology, on Noh theater, and on the dialogue-driven comedy of kyogen. That range lets scholars trace how Japanese performing arts changed and spread. In the assessment of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, these qualities make the tradition a rare folk art that reveals the process by which the performing arts developed.

What to Watch For

A day with Kuromori Kagura has two halves. By daylight the troupe moves from house to house; after dark it settles into a single home or hall and performs at length.

The daytime visits are short and purposeful. At a doorway the dancers perform kado-mai for household safety. Beside a grave they dance haka-jishi to comfort the dead. A newly built house receives hashira-gatame, in which the lion head mimes biting the central pillar to make it strong, and a new fishing boat is given a blessing of its own. Watch the gongen-sama's jaw as it dances: the loud clack of its wooden teeth is itself an act of purification, sweeping misfortune away.

One daytime rite is easy to remember. In shittogi-jishi, the performers set a mortar at the entrance and pound rice flour into a soft paste. Dancers carrying swords, pestles and rice paddles circle the mortar, joined by comic figures in the grinning masks of Okame and Hyottoko. When the dance ends, the performers dab the paste onto the foreheads and cheeks of everyone watching. People welcome the smear gladly, because it is treated as a protective charm.

The night program, sometimes called yo-kagura, is where the troupe shows its full range. Around twelve pieces are chosen from the thirty-nine in the repertoire. The evening opens with songs and music that summon the gods, played on a drum, flutes, and the small hand gong called tebiragane. Solemn ritual dances come first. The mood lightens as the night goes on, with pieces built around women, warriors, and broad comedy. The dancing is quick and athletic, and the performers leap high off the floor.

If you stay to the end, expect the gongen-sama to come for you. In the closing rite the lion head moves through the room and gently bites the head of each person present, a blessing for health through the coming year.

Seeing the Kagura, and Planning a Visit

Because the troupe travels, no single address will place you in front of a performance. The route shifts each year between the northern and southern circuits, so the practical first step is to ask the Miyako tourism office or the city's cultural affairs section for the current season's dates and lodging venues.

Two settings make viewing easier. In autumn the Preservation Society holds a Kagura Festival as part of its transmission work, performed near Kuromori Shrine itself. In the New Year season, viewing events are arranged at venues such as the Kyukamura Rikuchu-Miyako resort, where day and overnight plans let visitors watch the music and the dancing at close range.

For background at any time of year, the Kuromori Kagura Exhibition Room inside the Yamaguchi Community Center displays lion heads, costumes and audiovisual material, and admission is free. Kuromori Shrine holds its own annual festival in July.

Miyako rewards a longer stay. The city's best-known sight is Jodogahama, a shoreline of white volcanic rock and clear water counted among the scenic highlights of the Sanriku coast. The Sanriku Railway runs along this shore, and a ride between fishing towns gives a sense of the same coastline the kagura troupe has walked for generations.