Daimokutate Performance

Essentials

location

Yahashira Shrine, Kamifukawa-cho, Nara City

period

October 12, 2026 (Mon)

Time

Evening (performed at the eve-of-festival rite)

cost

No admission fee listed (a shrine offering held in the precincts)

Links

• Official Website

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NOTE

Repertoire

• Three texts survive in Kamifukawa: Itsukushima, Daibutsu Kuyo and Ishibashiyama
• Usually either Itsukushima (8 performers) or Daibutsu Kuyo (9 performers) is staged

Highlights

• Young men in suo robes and eboshi hats recite their lines in turn while standing in fixed positions
• A coming-of-age rite handed down through the village's miyaza shrine guild

How the evening unfolds

• The performers use Genyaku-ji, next to the shrine on the west side, as their dressing room, and walk to the stage in front of the sanrōjo hall below the main sanctuary behind an elder, singing the "Michibiki"
• They wear suo robes and a tall tate-eboshi hat, with a fan tucked in at the collar and a bow in hand
• A caller announces each turn and role ("Number one, Kiyomori"), and each performer names himself with a set phrase before reciting his lines
• In "Itsukushima", Kiyomori receives a halberd from the goddess Benzaiten. Near the end comes the "Fusho-mai": one performer holds up a fan in the centre of the stage and circles it once, stamping his feet
• All recite the closing "Iriku" together and leave singing the "Michibiki" behind the elder
• For three years after the shrine buildings are rebuilt or repaired, "Itsukushima" is the piece performed

History

• Daimokutate is mentioned in the Tamon-in Diary, kept by a Kōfuku-ji monk, around 1576
• Kamifukawa keeps a 1733 copy of a libretto dated 1624

Further reading

• Nara City booklet "Daimokutate" (PDF, Japanese, with the full libretto)

*The piece performed varies by year

TAGS

History Heritage Culture Art Events Festivals

出典: 奈良市公式サイト（文化財課）「題目立」