Western Honshū · Shimane · Tsuwano
Tsuwano Heron Dance (Yasaka Shrine Gion Festival)
津和野の鷺舞(弥栄神社祇園祭)
The Gion Festival of Yasaka Shrine in Tsuwano, Shimane, at which a male and a female heron, white wings on their backs, dance to drums, flutes and song at fixed spots around the old castle town. Handed down from Kyoto’s Gion festival, it is said to preserve the dance’s old form better than anywhere else. The herons dance on two days each year: 20 July, when the shrine’s portable shrine goes out to its resting place in town, and 27 July, when it returns.
Next
20 and 27 July 2027
261 days away
Every year, 20 and 27 July
Future dates: 20 July 2027 · 20 July 2028 · 20 July 2029
Origin
The heron dance was first performed at the Gion festival in Kyoto. In the Muromachi period the Ōuchi clan brought it to the Gion festival in Yamaguchi, and in 1542 Yoshimi Masayori, lord of Tsuwano Castle, took it from Yamaguchi to Tsuwano. It later lapsed for a time, but in 1643 Kamei Koremasa, lord of the Tsuwano domain, sent two men to Kyoto to learn the Gion festival’s heron dance at first hand, and it has been handed down ever since. The dance afterwards died out in Kyoto, and when Yasaka Shrine revived it around 1955 it was modelled on the dance of Tsuwano. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1994, and in 2022 it was inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list as one of the furyū-odori dances.
What to look for
Wearing heron heads about a metre tall and white wings of cypress board on their backs, a male and a female heron slowly spread their wings and dance. Guarded by attendants in formal Edo-period dress, the troupe walks in pairs: stick-twirlers, the female heron, the male heron, kakko drummers, then flute, shoulder drum, stick drum and gong. To the ring of the gongs and a song that begins “What bird is it that has come down on the bridge?”, the herons stop to dance at each of the spots fixed long ago. On the 20th they dance at eleven places on the way from the shrine to the resting place in town, on the 27th at nine on the way back, and at the end of the 27th the duty of hosting the dance is handed to the next year’s household at the shrine.
How to watch
The heron dance is a rite of Yasaka Shrine’s festival, performed as an escort to the procession of the portable shrine. The places where the herons dance are fixed by custom and they dance nowhere else, so either wait at a spot you want or walk along with the procession. From the 21st to the 26th the portable shrine stays at its resting place in town and there is no dancing. If it rains, the dance is held in the gymnasium of the town community centre, opposite the town hall.
If you go
If you go, go in the late afternoon of 20 or 27 July. On both days the troupe sets off in the late afternoon from in front of the town community centre on Tonomachi-dōri and takes about two hours to make its round. The route and times are published on the Tsuwano Tourism Association’s site and can change from year to year, so check before you go. The dance takes place in the old castle town, about ten minutes’ walk from Tsuwano Station on the JR Yamaguchi Line.
Where
Yasaka Shrine and the Tsuwano castle town
Tsuwano, Shimane
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