Hiroshima City Kagura Troupe Performances Series July-September [Yuki Lodge]

Held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays from 2026/7/12 (Sun) to 9/27 (Sun)

Ja-kiri(The Eight-Headed Demon Snake)
Cast out of heaven, Susano-o-no-Mikoto finds himself upstream on the banks of the Hīkawa River in Izumo Province. There, he meets an elderly couple named Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, who are lamenting the fact that they once had eight daughters, but one was devoured every year by the eight-headed demon snake, Yamata-no-Orochi, and tonight, the demon would come for their eighth daughter, Inada-hime. Susano-o comes up with a plan to get the demon drunk on poisoned sake and then attack with his Totsuka-no-Tsurugi sword while the demon slumbers. The plan works and Susano-o finds a sword embedded in the demon’s tail, which he names the Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds and presents it to Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. He then marries Inada-hime.

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Dance of the Two Swords
After the death of Pangu (primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology), his five sons, all princes in their own right, begin to fight over dividing their inheritance.
This play features Princes Tōhōtarō and Nanpōjirō practicing sword fighting in preparation for their battle with the youngest son, Chūōgorō. It is related to the play Shomowake, a story of inheritance which has great significance in the Twelve Plays of Aki (Jūni Jingi Kagura), a style of kagura passed down in Hiroshima.

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Momiji-gari (Maple Leaf-Viewing Party)
Originally a Noh chant, it was turned into a kagura play featuring Taira-no-Koremochi, a military commander during the Heian period, as the main character. When rumors reach the capital that demon women, who live deep in the forests of Mt. Togakushi in Shinshū, are terrorizing the people of the surrounding villages, Koremochi is ordered to destroy them and heads to Shinshū. But, the demon women, having heard that Koremochi is on his way, decide to lure him to a maple leaf-viewing party deep in the mountain forest. There, they pour him cup after cup of sake and once he’s inebriated, the demons strike. However, the god Yahata-no-Kami realizes the danger that Koremochi is in and sends his messenger, Takeuchi-no-Kami, to deliver a sacred sword to him. Regaining consciousness thanks to divine intervention, Koremochi uses the divine sword to defeat the demon women.

Chant: In a village without demons in Togakushi, the sun sets and tonight, the faces of demon women await

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Shōki
This play is a combination of the Chinese legend Shōki and Japanese folklore. The Chinese legend tells of an emperor who fell ill and dreamed that a god defeated a demon. When he awoke, he was cured. The Japanese folklore refers to the story of Somin Shōrai and the cogon grass ring, wherein Somin Shōrai is given a large hoop-shaped ring made of cogon grass which is said to ward off illness by the god Susano-o-no-Mikoto.
In this play, Shōki (an incarnation of Susano-o-no-Mikoto) fights against the God of Plague who is bent on taking the lives of the people of Japan. Shōki traps the invisible God of Plague using the cogon grass ring that he holds in his left hand and vanquishes the god using the Totsuka Sword in his right hand.

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Hi-no-Misaki
In the era of the gods long ago,
Tagori-hime was born of the sword of Amaterasu (the sun goddess) during the trial by pledge with her younger brother Susano-o. She inherits Susano-o’s violent temper and is driven out of the heavenly realm. She loses her memories and ability to speak, ending up in Izumo Province.
Years go by, but when a strange red cloud appears in the sky, all of Tagori-hime’s memories come flooding back. Protected by the Izumo Grand Shrine, she goes off to find the source of this strange occurrence.
Elsewhere, Hikohane finds herself blown ashore from a faraway land by a great and terrible windstorm. Once ashore, she decides to take over her new home and commits countless atrocities. Tagori-hime defeats Hikohane and becomes known as Jūrasetsu-nyo, protector of the people, Buddhist law, and children.

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Takiyasha-hime (Lady Takiyasha)
About 1,000 years ago, the aristocrats in Kyoto, the capital of Japan, lived in the lap of luxury while the people living outside of the capital lived in poverty. Angered at this disparity of wealth, General Taira-no-Masakado, a resident of the Kanto area, decided to overthrow the current government and create his own capital province in the east where wealth would be distributed more evenly. However, when the government received word of his plans, they ordered him and his entire family to be killed. This play centers on Takiyasha, the sole survivor of the Taira clan massacre. Seeking revenge, she is gifted dark magical powers by a god and assembles an army to destroy the government forces who murdered her family.

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Mt. Oe-yama
About 1,000 years ago, there lived a fearsome demon named Shuten-doji who lived on Mt. Oe-yama in Kyoto. Shuten-doji and his loyal henchmen terrorized the people of Kyoto with every evil deed imaginable. Seeing his people suffering, the Emperor ordered Minamoto-no-Raiko to deal with the demons of Mt. Oe-yama once and for all. Raiko and his men disguise themselves as yamabushi mountain monks and head to Mt. Oe-yama. On their travels there, they stopped at a local shrine to pray for victory over the demons and receive a very special sake from the god of the shrine. The sake, when imbibed by demons, would make them lose their power, and so, Raiko offers it to Shuten-doji to weaken him. Once weakened, Raiko and his men attack, and after an epic battle with the demons, our heroes emerge victorious.

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The Spring of Izame
Yamato Takeru-no-Mikoto is the second son of the 12th emperor, Emperor Keikō. In the immediate aftermath of defeating the Kumaso tribe of Kyushu, Izumo Takeru of Izumo Province, and the Ezo tribe of the eastern provinces, he is ordered to defeat a fierce deity that lives on Mt. Ibuki in Ōmi Province.

The great deity of Mt. Ibuki is extremely powerful: it takes advantage of the foolishness and transience of the human heart and uses its power of transformation to transform into a beautiful woman to decieve Takeru. The deity then summons a freezing poisonous rain that pours down upon him. Having left for the battle without the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi sword, a mystical sword with divine power, Takeru is poisoned by the freezing rain and begins to climb down the mountain. He reaches the Spring of Izame, which brings him somewhat back to his senses, and resolves to face the demon once more. Our hero struggles to prevail in the fight, but after a fierce battle, he is victorious and the great deity is vanquished.

However, the poison has weakened Takeru considerably, and though he tries to return home to Yamato Province, he dies on Mt. Ibuki. With his dying breath, he recites a poem expressing his love for his home: Yamato, most exalted land in the country! Within the verdant hedges of nestled mountains, how beautiful and praiseworthy is Yamato!

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Ichijō Modori-bashi Bridge
This is the first of a trilogy of plays featuring the battle between Watanabe-no-Tsuna and his men against the great and powerful demon Shuten-dōji of the Ōeyama mountain range and his henchmen.

Every night at Modori-bashi Bridge in Rashōmon, Ibaragi-dōji—one of Shuten-dōji’s demon henchmen—appears disguised as an elderly woman. He uses this disguise to lure unsuspecting victims to their death. One rainy night, Ibaragi-dōji comes across Zenbē, an umbrella salesman, and asks if he can spare an umbrella. Once the salesman is close enough, Ibaragi-dōji reveals his true nature as a demon and attacks.

Watanabe-no-Tsuna is ordered by Lord Minamoto-no-Raikō to kill Ibaragi-dōji. He goes to Modori-bashi Bridge, but after the demon doesn’t show, he begins to head home. Then, he is approached by a young woman who asks him to accompany her to Gojō. The young woman is actually Ibaragi-dōji in disguise. The two walk along the road until they reach a river. There, reflected on the surface of the river, isn’t a beautiful young maiden, but a terrifying demon.

Tsuna realizes the young woman’s true identity and the battle between Ibaragi-dōji and our young hero begins, but he is overpowered by the demon’s dark magic. But then, Sakata-no-Kintoki—another of Lord Minamoto-no-Raikō’s retainers—joins the fight holding a gohei paper wand, a symbol of divine power, from the god enshrined at Iwashimizu. Kintoki succeeds in cutting off Ibaragi-dōji’s left arm, but the demon uses its powers of flight to escape back to the Ōeyama mountain range.

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The Genpei War (Juei Distrubance)
The Genpei War was a largescale civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans that began in 1180 and lasted six years. At the time, Emperor Go-Toba was preparing to accede to the throne, but the absence of the Imperial Regalia (the sword, the mirror, and the jewel, also known as the Three Sacred Treasures), which are part of the accession ritual, was becoming a cause for concern. The Imperial Regalia were still with Emperor Antoku (who fled the capital with the Taira clan rather than give in to pressure to abdicate), and the imperial court’s opinion was split over how to get the regalia back: make peace with the Taira clan or take the regalia back by force in battle.
The court came to the decision to take the regalia by force and the Minamoto army, led by Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune and stationed in Kyoto, headed to Ichi-no-Tani in Settsu Province to attack the Taira forces encamped there. Protected by a narrow entrance and backed by a chain of steep mountains, Ichi-no-Tani was naturally a well-fortified field of battle, but an ambush by Yoshitsune’s forces from Hiyodorigoe caused the Taira forces to flee to Yashima in Shikoku.
Having lost the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani, the Taira forces set up camp in Yashima, but another ambush by Yoshitsune’s forces caused them to flee yet again, this time to the sea. It was then that Taira-no-Kiyomori’s wife, Tokiko (also known as Nun of the Second Rank), proposed using a fan bestowed upon her by a Shinto priest at the Itsukushima Shrine to determine the fate of the battle. From a single small boat, she challenges the Minamoto forces to shoot through the fan with an arrow. Nasu-no-Yoichi, a skilled archer from Nasu in Shimotsuke Province, is ordered to hit the target and does so perfectly.
The Taira forces are driven back and, after the Battle of Yashima, retreat to Nagato. The final battle of the war is fought at Dan-no-Ura in the Kanmon Strait. Skilled in naval warfare and upon a following tide, the Taira let loose their arrows and have the advantage at first, but after a while, the tidal current reverses, and the Minamoto have the advantage of the following tide, literally reversing the tide of the battle.
Taira-no-Tomomori attempts to kill Yoshitsune, but he escapes by leaping across eight consecutive boats. Knowing that they will lose the fight, the Taira warriors throw themselves into the sea to die. Tokiko, holding the young Emperor Antoku in her arms, follows suit, committing suicide by drowning, and the three Imperial Regalia are also tossed into the sea. With this battle, the Taira clan comes to end.

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Modori-bashi Bridge (Part One of the Ōeyama Trilogy)
In the mid-Heian period, there was a demon named Shuten-dōji who lived on Mt. Ōeyama in the Tamba Province. He had many demon henchmen who worked for him, and they would appear in the capital, Kyoto, and villages near the capital, causing all manner of havoc and chaos. One of his henchmen, Ibaraki-dōji, would transform into an old woman and each night, the demon would appear at Modori-bashi Bridge in Kyoto and terrorize the people. Watanabe-no-Tsuna, one of Minamoto-no-Raikō’s Four Heavenly generals, is ordered to destroy Ibaraki-dōji, but is nearly killed himself when faced with the demon’s dark powers. However, he is saved by Sakata-no-Kintoki, who arrives to join the fray, having been told about Tsuna’s fate in a prophecy by the god of Iwashimizu. Kintoki and Tsuna succeed in cutting off Ibaraki-dōji’s left arm. The demon then flees back to his home on Mt. Ōeyama.

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