🏮 Anori Bunraku

安乗文楽

Shima, Mie (Anori Shrine) · Every year on 15 September

Traditional performing arts

1 days to go
Rooms around Shima, Mie fill up while the festival is on.

At Anori Shrine in Shima, Mie Prefecture, the Anori puppet play is held every year on September 15 and 16. Known locally as "Dekoshibai," it is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. In the Edo period, when Anori Port prospered as a stopover for ships carrying rice for the shogunate, the skills and costumes of Osaka Bunraku puppeteers crossed the sea, and during the Bunka and Bunsei eras the three-person puppet technique was introduced and the art flourished. The origin is said to date to 1592, when Kuki Yoshitaka, the lord of Shima Province, visited Hachiman Shrine (now Anori Shrine) to give thanks for military success and permitted the villagers to perform puppet plays. It was suspended once in 1926 due to the recession of the late Taisho period, but was revived in 1950 when volunteers formed a troupe, and it has been passed down to the present day. Highlights include the three-person puppet plays, as well as the ceremonial Sanbaso performed on January 2 in front of Niwa Beach and the Benzaiten shrine. The three puppets, called "Sanbassan" locally, are regarded as messengers of the gods in the fishing community's faith, which prays for safe navigation and abundant catches, and have been enjoyed as entertainment and a focus of faith for the ama divers.