🏮 Shigatsu Jugonichi Iko Daidai Kagura

太々神楽

Shinagawa, Tokyo (Shinagawa Shrine) · Every year in early April

Traditional performing arts

206 days to go
Rooms around Shinagawa, Tokyo fill up while the festival is on.

The Shinagawa Shrine Daidai Kagura is a festival held at Shinagawa Shrine in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, dedicated on Sundays on or after April 15 each year. It is designated an intangible folk cultural property of Tokyo and continues to pass the kagura tradition down to the present in the local community. This kagura is said to have been dedicated by Tokugawa Ieyasu as a prayer for victory when he set out for the Battle of Sekigahara. Dancers wearing old masks handed down since the Edo period perform dances to a distinctive tune called the Shinagawa rhythm. At the spring grand festival, six pieces are dedicated: the Dance of the Four Directions, the Dance of Inari, the Dance of the Arrow-Heaven Fox, the Dance of Flower Quelling, the Dance of the Old Man, and the Dance of Fortune Changing. It is characterized by a distinctive movement in which the dancer kicks the heels far back before stepping forward, and it is performed over about two hours together with the music played by the musicians.