🏮 Tsukazaki Shishimai

塚崎の獅子舞

Sakai, Ibaraki (Katori Shrine) · Every year on 15 April

Traditional performing arts

213 days to go
Rooms around Sakai, Ibaraki fill up while the festival is on.

Tsukazaki no Shishimai (Tsukazaki Lion Dance) is performed as an offering at the festival of Katori Shrine in Tsukazaki, Sakai town, Ibaraki Prefecture. It is a traditional event praying for a bountiful harvest and peace throughout the land. It has long been passed down by the people of the "shishiko" (lion dance guild), and in 1960 it became a prefecture-designated intangible folk cultural property. In 1922, it is said that the "Ojisama" (the lion head) was enshrined within the grounds of Katori Shrine, the main guardian shrine of the area. A notable event in its history is a record from the Bunka era (1804–1818), when during a drought, the lord of the Sekiyado domain, Kuze Yamato-no-kami, requested the rain-praying dance "Tensui Koboshi" (Water from Heaven). Rain fell, and as a reward, the lion's "Kazekake" was granted the privilege of using the lord's family crest, "Igeta ni Hon" (a well frame with a book). At the festivals held every year on April 15, July 15, and November 15, three lions—the male lion, the middle lion, and the female lion—perform dances such as "Sekimondori," "Uzume," "Hira," "Mesjishi Kakushi," "Bonten-gakari," and "Hashigakari" in the sacred courtyard of Katori Shrine. Among these, "Tensui Koboshi" is known as a rain-praying dance famous in the surrounding area.