Damine Dengaku

"Dengaku" is ritual folk entertainment: the songs and dances from rice planting time which subsequently became the pattern for shinto music and dance along with noh. Even now, here in Damine, it is held on February 11 every year. The performance is composed of three parts: daytime Dengaku (8:00–10:00), nighttime Dengaku (16:00–20:00), and morning Dengaku (20:00–22:00). The nighttime Dengaku, in particular, reenacts the farm work of a whole year, and is an especially rare program. In a present where ancient folk rituals and performing arts are being lost, it's said that the value of Dengaku is particularly high. The unique movements of rice planting are exciting, even if you don't understand the words! It looks just as though there's a rice field right there.