Ichiki Tanabata Dance

A Great Costumed Procession around a Drum Dance

The Ichiki Tanabata Dance (市来の七夕踊) is a furyu dance performed on Tanabata in Osato, Ichikikushikino City, Kagoshima Prefecture, which in 1981 was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

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

Before designation, it had been selected for documentation in 1970.

How the Dance Unfolds

According to the Agency, the forward dance comes first: huge papier-mache deer, tigers, oxen and cranes, with processions of the King of Ryukyu, a daimyo and halberd dancers. The main drum dance with drums and gongs follows, and a halberd dance closes the procession.

Many people of Osato take part in some role, and at designation the procession numbered three to four hundred. The main dance, sung to old lyrics, is performed by about thirty young men and children; the young dancers, called yassa, take roles such as ichiban-don and niban-don.

What to Look For

The Agency values the costumed procession as a rare and distinctive form of staging, and notes that a drum dance accompanied by forward and closing dances is extremely unusual.

Kagoshima Prefecture relates that it is said to have begun about 400 years ago as a prayer for Shimazu Yoshihiro's success in the Korean campaigns, and to have been revived when an irrigation channel to the Osato paddies was completed in 1684.

Visiting the Ichiki Tanabata Dance

The dance is held around Tanabata in Osato. Dates and arrangements vary by year, so check with Ichikikushikino City or the preservation society.

Its earlier selection for documentation is described on a separate page.