Hiroshima City Kagura Troupe Performances Series January - March [Yuki Lodge]

Held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays from 2026/1/11 (Sun) to 3/22 (Sun)

Yagami-hime
This is an original kagura play that was created in 1995. It is this kagura troupe’s own personal interpretation of two pre-WWII kagura plays (Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto and Yasogami) based on stories in the Kojiki, an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, and more.
The gods Takehiko and Otohiko, stepbrothers to Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto, visit Inaba Province to fight for the heart of the beautiful Yagami-hime. However, she ends up falling in love with Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto. When Yagami-hime tells the brothers, they fly into a rage and become demons. The demons make several attempts on Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto’s life, but he flees to the netherworld where he receives a sacred sword from Susano-o-no-Mikoto. With the sword, he defeats Takehiko and Otohiko and brings peace to Izumo Province.

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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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Susuhaki-no-Mai (Dance of Sweeping/Purification Ritual)
This performance purifies the stage before kagura is performed. It also drives away evil spirits as it is performed wearing a red-bearded mask with a long nose while holding an oni-bō staff and fan.

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Gotō-no-Mai (Dance of the Five Swords)
This performance features a solo dancer who performs a ceremonial dance with two swords in his left hand and two in his right. At the climax of the performance, the performer pulls out another sword and holds it in his mouth while furiously dancing around the stage with five swords. It is a highly acrobatic performance, including forward rolls by the performer while holding a small sword in his mouth. The play itself praises the might and power of the five swords of the god of war, loyal servant to the gods.

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Yatsuhana-no-mai (Eight Flower Petals)
This performance features four swordsmen training for battle. When looking at the four dancers in a circle with their swords drawn, it looks like a flower unfolding, which is where the title, Eight Flower Petals, comes from. An extremely acrobatic and dynamic performance, Eight Flower Petals requires each dancer to be in sync with one another. According to a well-known Hiroshima-based kagura researcher, it is one of the most beautiful kagura performances in Japan.
This performance is steeped in battle techniques and elements, making it a truly exciting performance.

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The Old Woman in the Woods (Yama-uba)
Minamoto-no-Raikō heads to conquer the Eastern Lands with his retainer, Watanabe-no-Tsuna. They come across Mt. Agero in Shinshū. Living on Mt. Agero is an old woman who was the wife of a warrior. However, when her husband died, she was cast out of the imperial capital. Harboring hatred for the world and its cruel people, she was reduced to becoming a mountain bandit with her only son, Kaidō-maru. The pair try to attack Raikō, but he overpowers them, and Kaidō-maru’s mother begs Raikō to spare her son’s life. Moved by the old woman’s plight to save her son, he forgives her and takes her son as his retainer, renaming him Sakata-no-Kintoki. He goes on to be one of Raikō’s four most trusted generals.

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Yamata-no-Orochi (The Eight-Headed Snake Demon)
In the land of Izumo-no-Kuni (current eastern Shimane prefecture), there lived an elderly couple with eight daughters. However, year by year and one by one, their daughters were eaten by a fearsome eight-headed snake demon called Yamata-no-Orochi. Left with only one precious daughter, the elderly couple was in despair over how to save her. It was then that the powerful god, Susano-o, happened upon the elderly couple and their daughter. When he asked why they were so sad, they told him the story, and he agreed to slay the demon in exchange for their daughter's hand in marriage. 'The elderly couple agreed, and Susano-o hatched a plan to slay the demon: he has the elderly couple make a barrel of poisoned sike, then, their daughter stands behind it, so her reflection is visible in the sake. Orochi would then consume the sake, thinking it was the daughter, and be weakened by the poison. Once weakened, Susano-o would attack and triumph over Orochi.
Susano-o’s plan works, and after slaying the demon, a sword falls from its stomach. Susano-o claims the sword as proof of his victory, and is becomes a national treasure.

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The Tale of the Mountain Bandits
Ordered to subjugate the bandits of the Eastern province, Minamoto-no-Raikō and his retainer make their way east until they reach the Ashigara mountain pass on the border between Suruga Province and Sagami Province. The people fear Mt. Ashigara as mountain bandits often frequented its paths. But as the sun begins to set and rain begins to fall, our heroes find a cottage on the mountain and ask the owner if they can spend the night.
The owner of the cottage is Yaegiri, wife of warrior Sakata Kuraudo Tokiyuki, who guarded the north side of the Imperial Palace. When her husband fell sick and passed away, she was driven from the capital with her only son Kaidō-maru, who is the last remaining connection she has to her husband. Yaegiri became a demon, and together with her son, they became the feared bandits of Ashigara mountain pass.
Raikō and his retainer slowly realize Yaegiri is actually a demon, and a great battle ensues, but when Yaegiri realizes that her opponent is the famed Raikō, she begs him to spare her and her son’s life and to make Kaidō-maru one of his retainers.
Yaegiri then leaves Mt. Ashigara to search for somewhere to live out her days in peace. Kaidō-maru changes his name to Sakata-no-Kintoki and joins Raikō and his retainer on their journey east.

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Minamoto-no-Yorimasa
At the end of the Heian period (1068-1185), Emperor Konoe took the throne when he was still young. Every night from 1-3 am, he would quake with fear. When the palace figured out that the fear was caused by an evil demon, they summoned their best archer, Minamoto-no-Yorimasa.
Joined by Ino Hayata, Yorimasa set out to defeat the demon. When the clock struck 1 am, a dark cloud appeared. Once the cloud covered Seiryōden (the Emperor’s Habitual Residence), the emperor writhed in agony. The dark cloud’s true nature was a demon called nue with the head of a monkey, body of a tanuki racoon dog, limbs of a tiger, and tail of a snake. After a great battle, Yorimasa successfully shot down and defeated the nue.
For his success, the emperor bestowed upon Yorimasa a sword called Shishiō, and the Minister of the Left, Fujiwara-no-Yorinaga, composed a poem likening his rise to fame in the palace to the rising chirp of a lesser cuckoo in the middle of the night.
Ever humble, Yorimasa composed a response to Yorinaga’s poem, saying he merely shot an arrow that happened to hit its target.

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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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Lady Takiyasha（Shōmon-ki）
This story is the last of the Record of Shōmon trilogy that chronicles the life of Taira-no-Masakado (“Masakado” can also be read as “Shōmon”), a historic figure who led an uprising from Shimousa Province in the Kantō region during the time of the Jōhei-Tengyō Rebellion in the Heian period.

During the rebellion, Masakado is killed by Taira-no-Sadamori, a member of his own family, and Fujiwara-no-Hidesato. Years later, Masakado’s daughter, Satsuki-hime, prays to receive dark magic from the Kifune Shrine so she can avenge the deaths of her father and her brother, Yoshikado. In order to fulfil her father’s will, she changes her name to Takiyasha and returns to Sōma in Shimousa Province to gather her henchmen and overturn the imperial government. The government, not liking her plan, orders Ōya-no-tarō Mitsukuni to kill the remaining members of Masakado’s clan.

Mitsukuni heads to Sōma where he meets Takiyasha disguised as a lowly peasant girl. At first, he is deceived by her ruse, but thanks to help from his traveling companion Sadamori, Takiyasha’s true identity is revealed and Mitsukuni uses the full force of his onmyōjutsu elemental magic to defeat Takiyasha and her powerful dark magic.

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The Tale of the Nine-Tailed Fox
After wreaking havoc on innocent people in India and China, the nine-tailed fox demon arrived in Japan during the reign of Emperor Toba (1103-1156). The demon turned itself into a beautiful maiden named Tamamo-no-Mae and was highly favored by the emperor. However, when her true form was discovered by the imperial diviner, the fox demon escaped, fleeing all the way to Nasuno-ga-hara in Shimotsuke Province.
Transforming once more into Tamamo-no-Mae, the demon visits a temple and asks for lodging for the night. The monk at the temple welcomes her and begins to grind miso into a paste for her to eat, only to be devoured himself by the demon fox. However, the unparalleled demon fox is shot and defeated by two famed archers, Miura-no-suke and Kazusa-no-suke, who were ordered to destroy the demon.

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