Location: Tenno, Katagami City
Site(s) of performance: Kagura Hall of Tōko-Yasaka Shrine
Date(s): July 6
Designation: State-Designated Important Intangible Folkloric Cultural Property (Tōko-Yasaka Shrine’s Tonin Festival)
Category: Shishimai and Bangaku
It is said that there were two large groups of bangaku on the Oga peninsula north and south of Mt. Kanpū. However, the practice of ascetics might have merged the two groups, and in any case most variants of Oga bangaku have died out and we have today only one kind left, which is still performed at the annual festival of the Tōko-Yasaka Shrine (in the former Tennō Town). The old Oga bangaku seems to have had some special characteristics including the practice of Yudate kagura (kagura with boiling water), but what remains of it today is only a yu-no-mai (hot water dance) that is performed by priests. However, albeit in a rather degenerated form, the wakago dance (young lady’s dance) has been passed down to date, performed by one person in a female mask. The wakago dance is characteristic with its hand gestures up and down and stomping feet on the four corners of the stage. Music is played only on drums.

About Shishimai and Bangaku