Hiroshima City Kagura Troupe Performances Series April - June [Yuki Lodge]

Held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays from 2026/4/12 (Sun) to 6/28 (Sun)

The Dance of White Cotton
This dance portrays Gorō, a young man who is training to fight against his four brothers. Villagers gather to present him with a white cloth and cheer him on in his training.

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Seki-no-mai (Dance of the God Arahira)
Taifu sets out to defeat Arahira, a fearsome god. Instead of battling, Taifu asks Arahira a set of questions and defeats him in a battle of wits. The god then decides to become a force for good and performs a ceremonial dance praying for world peace, peace in Japan, safety from disasters, and a bountiful harvest.

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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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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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Mt. Katsuragi

Since days of yore, the spirit of the Demon Spider has lived on Mt. Katsuragi in Yamato Province, seeking to cause chaos in the land. When the Demon Spider’s mortal enemy Minamoto-no-Raikō falls ill, the demon seizes its chance and possesses the body of Raikō’s maid, Kochō, as she returns from the apothecary with medicine for her master. The demon switches Raikō’s medicine for poison and attacks him when he’s weak, but Raikō uses an heirloom sword called Hizamaru to slash the demon. With the demon’s true identity exposed, it flees back to its home on Mt. Katsuragi.

In honor of how the sword saved his life, Raikō renames it the Spider Slaying Sword and gives it to his Four Heavenly Generals to use in their battle to defeat the Demon Spider. The generals head to Mt. Katsuragi where they face the demon in a fierce battle. Using the Spider Slaying Sword, they are able to dispel the demon’s evil magic and defeat it once and for all.

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First Performance: 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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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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Rashōmon
At Rashōmon, Watanabe-no-Tsuna cuts off the left arm of the demon Ibaraki-dōji and brings it back home with him. When Shuten-dōji learns that his underling’s arm has been severed, he hatches a plan to get it back by transforming into Tsuna’s old nurse, Shirotae. The demon’s plan works and Shuten-dōji attacks Tsuna with magic before reattaching Ibaraki-dōji’s arm. The demons then use their power to fly back to their home on Mt. Ōeyama. (This is the second play in the Mt. Ōeyama trilogy.)

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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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Modori-bashi Bridge
Evil creatures lurk within the nighttime shadows of the Imperial capital of Kyoto, causing the residents to fear the night. Under a mantle of darkness, strange creatures appear at Modori-bashi Bridge. Guardian of the capital and protector of Settsu-no-Kuni, Minamoto-no-Raikō, is ordered to destroy the creatures and sends Watanabe-no-Gengo Tsuna, one of the most famed warriors of his retainers and a part of the Four Heavenly Generals, to Modori-bashi Bridge in Ichijō.

Sensing something evil, Tsuna rushes to confront it, but is met with a trembling old woman. She explains that she is on a pilgrimage, but had fallen ill, and so decided to rest for a moment. Feeling sorry for the woman, Tsuna shows her to his home so that she may recover there. The pair make conversation on the way there, but there is something amiss in the sly smirk that spreads across the old woman’s face as she learns more about Tsuna.

It turns out that she is actually Ibaraki-dōji, one of the demons of Mt. Ōeyama in Tanba-no-Kuni. The demon attacks Tsuna, ready to turn him into an appetizer for their master, the Great Demon Shuten-dōji, but just then, Sakata-no-Kintoki, another member of the Four Heavenly Generals, 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 and the demon swears revenge before flying back to his home on Mt. Ōeyama.

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Modori-bashi Bridge
Each night at Modori-bashi Bridge, a strange creature appears, terrorizing the people. Minamoto-no-Raikō, in charge of protecting the capital, orders his finest fighter and one of his Four Heavenly Generals, Watanabe-no-Tsuna, to defeat the creature. Tsuna heads to the bridge to stand guard when Ibaragi-dōji, a demon who lives on Mt. Ōeyama in Tamba Province, appears. A battle ensues and Tsuna succeeds in cutting off the demon’s left arm; however, the demon manages to escape and flees to Mt. Ōeyama.
When Tsuna tells Raikō what happened, he warns him that the demon’s left arm has the potential to bring great misfortune and orders him to undergo a seven-day purification ritual. Back on Mt. Ōeyama, the demon Shuten-dōji laments the loss of his underling’s left arm and vows to get it back. He transforms himself into Tsuna’s old nanny, Shiratae, and head for Tsuna’s manor.
As Shiratae, Shuten-dōji pleads with Tsuna to show her the demon’s left arm. He turns her down at first, but eventually, gives into her emotional appeals and shows her the arm. Shiratae steals back the arm and then returns to her true form as Shuten-dōji and attacks Tsuna with his evil magic, incapacitating him.
Shuten-dōji then reattaches the arm to Ibaragi-dōji and the demons try to take Tsuna away with them to Mt. Ōeyama when Raikō and Urabe Rokurō Suetake burst onto the scene, having been warned about Tsuna in a vision from the god Iwashimizu Hachiman. As the demons and warriors battle it out, the demons use their magic to fly back to Mt. Ōeyama, escaping once again.

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The Heavenly Rock Cave
Saddened and dismayed at infighting between her children, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami shuts herself away in the Heavenly Rock Cave, plunging the world into darkness. To lure her out of the cave, all of the gods and goddesses gather in Heavenly Realm at the Heavenly Cave and perform 120 kagura ritual dances. Amaterasu hears the music being played outside of her cave and, curious about the commotion, peeks out from the boulder that blocks the cave entrance by pushing it slightly ajar. Seizing the moment, one of the gods called Fushi-no-Daijin wrenches the boulder away from the entrance and brings Amaterasu outside, bringing light back to the world.

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