Kagura - BEWARE: Contains Spooky Images!!

Joel and I were psyched to be able to go on an ITT trip to a small village outside Hiroshima to observe traditional dancing called Kagura. It was a competition, so we were able to watch two separate groups, called "companies" perform. There are three main points they are judged on in the competition: the dance performance changing its speed with the turns of the story; the ancient form of music played by a main drum, sub drum, gong and bamboo flute; and the quality of the costumes, especially their embroidery.

There are some technical terms associated with the themes in Kagura (which we observed in both plays):
Tengai - strips of colored paper hung over the stage, essential in Kagura
Gohei - a wand tipped with strips of white paper used in purification; an essential item held by the god characters in Kagura
Sensu - a folding fan; a tool used for grace of the gods in Kagura
Ame - thin cut paper tapes falling down like rain between devils and gods; the devil's weapon to paralyze gods
Eboshi - brimless headgear for the god characters

There is always a devil character (or two or three) and gods, or soldiers of god, to fight off the devil(s).

This was our tour guide for the festival. He was SO awesome and SO cute! He had wonderful English but kept apologizing for not being a good translator. This culture is so humble!

My gorgeous friend Neda

Our group was given a VIP section up in the balcony where we actually had bleachers to sit on. Everyone else brought mats to lounge on to watch the shows. As you can see, it was hosted in a local gymnasium. In the upper left, you can see the judges.

This was the band for the second show we observed (none of the pictures came out very well for the first one and even these ones are spotty). Three of them were so very young! (see the Tengai above the stage?)

See what I mean? The two kids you can see were rocking it out as members of the band! So talented!

The costumes were stunning and very intricate! And part of Kagura that is judged is how well the players hold their arms up - they're not allowed to let them fall down to their waists throughout the entire performance. I guess it's part of the art of the dance to have to hold up the weight of the costume, which easily weighs at least 50 pounds!

Everything about it was very rehearsed and professional, very traditional and unique. Interesting fact: all the characters, even the female ones, are played by males. There are no females actors in Kagura.

Our translator narrated what was going on and being sung (did I mention this was a Japanese opera as well? The actors also sang!!) into headphones we were given to wear during the show, but was pretty easy to figure out the plot without understanding the lyrics to the music

The devil masks are INCREDIBLY CREEPY! Truly frightening to look at! But the dancing and the representation of the warriors battling the devil were extraordinary!

I was a tad offended that the devil was a blonde, LOL :-)

Yes, the plot included a spider theme... ick.

Notice the mask is a bit different. This is an inclusion that the more contemporary Kagura dances include: a change of costume/mask. They have designed some of the costumes to "magically" change right in front of the audiences' eyes! Amazing engineering allows the audience to see one mask or outfit one second and then with one swift movement, see an entirely new vision of the character!

This let us know that the toilets inside were normal and not the "squatting" kind , ha ha!

The boys with our amazing guide and translator - don't they look cute with their little fans? It was hot and steamy in the gym so I guess they didn't care about fashion

We were given a private tour after the performances to meet a Kagura company member and try on some of the costumes!

Our tour guide was explaining the level of detail in the costumes and how very heavy they are. He said that they each take about a year to make and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars (MILLIONS of yen!)

I mean, look at this detail!

The Japanese culture is very strongly influenced by China. This is more of a Chinese dragon face than a Japanese one.

Another blonde devil, what the heck?!

Seriously creepy

At least this one's a brunette

Posing the Japanese way - they ALWAYS give a peace sign in ALL of their pictures!

My mighty man

Nick was able to use one of the props which was tightly wound paper which you would fling at the devil, "trapping" him in its web.

Nick rocking the arms up motion

That's Joel!

I swear, these masks will give you nightmares

This pic is for you, Dad! A Va Tech colored van!! :)

Outside the gym there were food vendors, so we each got a fresh fruit smoothie

Joel decided to be brave and try one of these salted fish on a stick

I tried a bite too - REALLY fishy and you have to watch out for the bones obviously

Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a WONDERFUL time and learned a ton about Kagura! Thank you Nick and Neda for a great day!