The Deer Dance with beating drums. The Deer Dance is an Iwate prefectural cultural asset. (Photo by Nathan Hill)
Japan Today carries a report on an interesting Deer Dance in Tohoku which took place at the weekend. I’ve never seen this myself, but it’s suggestive of the kind of deer shamanism practised in the northern hemisphere (Siberia and Finland for example). I can’t help wondering if this is a relic of the northern immigrant route from Siberia into north Japan.
Oddly the dance is known in Japanese as Shishi Odori, since Shishi dances are usually the Chinese-style lion dances, but a poster to Japan Today provides a simple explanation for the nomenclature: “historically ‘shishi’ meant any kind of animal that yielded edible meat. In Tokyo there’s a district called 鹿骨 Shishibone, with ‘shika’ (deer) pronounced ‘shishi’.” Nonetheless in this youtube video, the dancers have antlers with a lion mask and mane, as if some weird hybrid. Perhaps a member of the deer clan married with a member of the lion clan?!
According to a website on religion in Japan’s Yayoi Era (300 BC – 250 AD), people worshipped a deer deity since its antlers were shed and grew again on a yearly cycle. It thus came to represent regeneration, growth and fertility. Farmers sowed seeds in deer blood to speed up the germination process. Perhaps then these dances are a legacy from the ancient belief.
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Taken from the Hanamaki City website:
The dynamic Deer Dance is widely recognized as the representative local performing art of Iwate. Enjoy the beat of drums and the dramatic action of the white bamboo horns, sasara.
The Deer Dance, performed to pray for peace and drive away evil spirits, is registered as a prefectural cultural asset. Each performer dances while singing and beating a drum. You can see about 30 teams dance during the Hanamaki Festival.
The following is a poem by Kenji Miyazawa, entitled “Plateau”:
It could be the ocean, I thought,
but it was shining, green hills.
Ah,
My hair blowing in the wind
looks like the deer dance !
[A poster called Seiharinokaze comments: ‘Miyazawa Kenji wrote about the true spirit of Shishiodori in one of his fairy tales. It’s about an immense feeling of love which was not divided yet. Men of old forgot the distinction between themselves humans and deers and even tried to dance with them. That spirit is a legacy of Tohoku people.’]
Kasuga School
Many deer dance teams belong to the Kasuga school, which is a branch of Kasuga Ochiai Deer Dance. They have a quiet and calm dancing style.
Kanazu School
The Kanazu school, based in Oshu City (old Esashi City), has a dynamic dancing style compared to the Kasuga school. Hanamaki has its own Kanatsu team.
Where to see the Deer Dance
• Hanamaki Festival (held on the second Friday, Saturday and Sunday of September)
• Hanamaki Hot Spring (fee charged; reservation required)
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