About the Okochi's Usu Drum dance
This is a rare millstone drum dance in Shiiba, known as the Jugoya Odori (Fifteen Night Dance). It is now dedicated at Okochi Hachiman Shrine, but until around the pre-war period it was held in the garden of the former headman's house. The festival used to be held on 16 August of the old calendar. This is because the villagers gather at the shrine in the early morning of the 16th day of the lunar calendar, the festival day, when the moon of Jugoya is about to set at the edge of the mountains to pray for a good harvest. Rain-making. It is said that the performance of Buddhist prayers to ward off insects under the patronage of the local lord was an effective means of controlling the peasantry, and the same can be said of mountain villages such as Shiiba here. There is a memorial tower in this village headman's house, which is said to be the tomb of Hachiman-sama or Nasu Hyobetayu. This is believed to be the ancestral grave of the entire Okochi Hongo area. The purpose of the Usu-Daiko dance is therefore to make offerings to these ancestral graves.
Date of the festival 15 August of the lunar calendar
Place Okochi Hachiman Shrine
◎Performances
Kami no Odori, Sumiyoshi, Taishogun, Aso-dono, Yazaki no Shiro, Rashomon, Fuji no Makigari, Origin of the dance, Ichino-tani, Tomoe, Juji, Funan, Torawaka, Komusume, Wanji no Kei, Mujo-nenbutsu, Hiki-uta