F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-260

Nishi-Iya no Jindai Odori (Jindai Dance of Nishi-Iya)

西祖谷の神代踊にしいやのじんだいおどり

One of the furyu folk dances of the Nishi-Iya-yama village in Miyoshi City, Tokushima — a steep mountain area that preserves legends of fleeing Heike clan survivors. It is dedicated in prayer for a good harvest and freedom from illness at the Tenman Shrine (Zentoku Tenmangu) in the Zentoku district on the 25th day of the 6th lunar month, and at Arimiya Shrine in the Tokuzen district around the 11th day of the 9th lunar month. It opens at the signal of a conch trumpet: men in woven sedge hats beat drums and sing short songs while dancers in flower hats (hanagasa) trimmed with paper ornaments said to represent falling rain form circles, waving fans bearing the plum-blossom crest. With lions, tengu, and flower-hat costumes, it is a colorful group dance whose origin is traced to a rain-praying dance performed when Sugawara no Michizane governed Sanuki. It is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property and a component of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage 'Furyu-odori.'