Hiroshima KAGURA in omotenashi hostel miyajima

FREE!

You can watch a kagura in our hostel.
2018.08.11( SAT )18:00 – in Omotenashi hostel miyajima.

Kagura depicts tales of morality.
Heroic battles between deities and demons embody Japanese mythology!

What is the origin of Kagura?
Kagura can be traced back to a time when performances of dancing and music were dedicated to the deities of Japanese myth.
According to myth,when the Sun Goddess Amaterasu hid inside a cave, the world became pitch dark. To lure the goddess out, other deities danced in front of the cave.
This dancing by deities is believed to have inspired Kagura.
In early days, only a select number of people were permitted to perform the secred dance, as it was a form of ritual to pray for a good harvest or ward off illness. But as time went by, Kagura became broadly popular, and, in some areas, evolved into new forms featuring highly entertaining elements.
Today, Kagura is perfoemed at special events and permanent stages, as well as at shrines where the performances are still dedicated to the deities.

Yamata-no-orochi(The giant, Eight-headed Serpent)
IN Izumo, a deity called Susanoo-no-mikoto comes upon an elderly couple who are weeping. They explain that seven of their eight daughters have been snatched by a giant serpent and they now fear that the eighth, Kushinada-hime, teill perish next.
The deity, pledging to vanquish the serpent in return for their daughter’s hand in marriage, tells the couple to fetch some strong sake, or rice wine. The deity is able to defeat the serpent when it become drunk frome the sake.
In the end, the deity and daughter are happily wed.