Rental｜3 dyas｜USD 4.5

Japanese Folk Dance
Akita Prefecture’s intangible folklore cultural asset
Yashiki Bangaku

There is a little known farming village tucked away in northern Japan called Yashiki. The lack of public transportation -- as much as the heavy, silent snow during the winter -- isolates and confines the small village within the overbearing beauty of the mountains and rice paddies.

Yashiki Bangaku is a one of Japanese Kagura（Shinto music and dance ）that has been in the Yashiki village for more than 200 years.
The origin of Yashiki Bangaku goes back to the Tenmei Famine of the 1780’s. During the famine, in which hundreds of thousands people died from starvation, Yashiki villagers visited the neighbouring village to learn the “lion dance” to chase away evil spirits and to ensure a good harvest.
As time went by, people added entertaining acts to the “lion dance”, incorporated other functions such as initiation and education, and then began to call it Bangaku, which, like rice farming, gradually became an important part of village life.

Now, villagers need to protect Yashiki Bangaku from oblivion, not only because it is one of the very few Bangaku’s to have survived the torments of time, but because it may be the only way to save their village.
The film “Yashiki Bangaku” is a valuable video record that contains all of the performances.

Stage Performance / Color / Mono / 225min / 2009 / Japan

For more information:
https://www.landscapefilm.jp/yashikie.html