The Association for the protection of the Shishi dance from Hosogoe, Tôno-go, is at Japan Expo Sud to show you a stunning traditional show!

Discover Shishi-odori on stage on Sunday

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The Shishi dance from Tôno

Shishi-odori can be written in two different ways in Japanese, with the deer or lion Chinese characters. We cannot know which of those animals Shishi-odori from Tôno is about as it is written in phonetical Hiragana. Shishi-odori has existed for 400 years in Tôno, a city from Iwate, in the North of Japan.

Shishi-odori is a folk dance created from the belief in the three sacred mountains of Tôno. It goes along with Shinto music and peasants made it evolve with time.

Traditionally, the dance is offered by peasants to gods, divinities and spirits of the ancestors to thank for prosperous crops and for life.

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History

Shishi go down the mountain to the village for food. Peasants try to chase them away but the animals manage to beat them. They are happy and proud of their victory. The old animals sharpen their horns against straw columns to get younger.

In the meantime peasants try to chase away the Shishi by imitating scarecrows because the animals can’t recognize them this way. At the end of the fight, the animals win again.

The men are weakened but never killed because the animals know they need the peasants, the only ones who can make the straw columns which keep them young. Peasants and Shishi end up making up around the straw column.

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