Ichiki Tanabata Dance (Selected for Documentation)

Selected for Documentation in 1970

The Ichiki Tanabata Dance (Selected for Documentation) (市来の七夕踊) is a furyu dance performed on Tanabata in Osato, Ichikikushikino City, Kagoshima Prefecture, which in 1970 was selected as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property Requiring Documentation.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs classifies it as folk performing art of the furyu type, with the Tanabata Niwarishu as preservation body.

Selection for documentation is a separate system from designation. The same dance was later separately designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

How the Dance Unfolds

According to the Agency's description at selection, the dance is held in Osato on Tanabata. A forward procession of giant papier-mache deer, tigers, oxen and cranes, with retinues of the King of Ryukyu, a daimyo and halberd dancers, is followed by the main drum dance with drums and gongs and a closing halberd dance.

Many people of Osato join the procession, which numbered three to four hundred at the time. The main dance is performed by about thirty young men and children to old lyrics; the young dancers, called yassa, take roles such as ichiban-don and niban-don, and the children roles such as kaneuchi and ideko.

What to Look For

The Agency records one account that the dance began as a celebration of Shimazu Yoshihiro's return from the Korean campaigns, and notes that the costumes bear the Shimazu cross-in-circle crest. Another tradition holds that it consoles the spirit of Tokonami Tojuu, who opened the Osato paddies.

Because the figures are thought to represent animal spirits, the Agency sees in this Tanabata dance something of a prelude to the Bon rites for the dead.

Visiting the Ichiki Tanabata Dance (Selected for Documentation)

The dance as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property is described on a separate page. Check dates and arrangements with Ichikikushikino City or the preservation society.