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Having spent six months photographing Kagura, we became curious about all the place names mentioned in its lyrics. It wasn't long before we decided to go find out where these places are.

In order to reach places like Mt. Togakushi and Adachi-ga-hara, we had to travel as far north as Nagano, Tochigi, and Fukushima Prefectures. The places mentioned in Kagura were marked with stone monuments and mounds. "Here is where such-and-such took place." "This is where so-and-so fought the demon." We were moved by each and every one.

Mt. Togakushi looks just like an upturned saw edge. We found the stone cave described in "Viewing Fall Foliage" on nearby Mt. Arakura. Momiji-hime's tomb is a few kilometers away beside an old farmhouse, marked by a sign about "Lady Momiji-hime."

Lady?! Wasn't Momiji-hime a she-devil who was chased out of the capital? The sign says, "Here lies a highly educated woman, knowledgeable even about medicine, who taught what she knew to others and saved them." In Togakushi, Momiji-hime is a noble woman, not a demon.

In Iwaki there is a temple called Enichiji. It is said that Takiyasha-hime, the third daughter of Taira no Masakado, hid herself in this temple, praying to the bodhisattva Jiz^o, and holding memorial services for Masakado's clan. She passed away at the age of 82. Why have we made a devout Buddhist into a she-devil?

We spoke to Mr. Takagi, Enichiji Temple's caretaker, and showed him a video of Iwami Kagura. He said, "I'm impressed that Takiyasha-hime's name is known as far away as Hiroshima even though she went against the imperial court. I hope her story will spread even farther through Kagura. I'll have the mayor watch this video."

We also found a demon's footprint and a stone on which Raik? sat on Mt.Ôe in Tanba-no-kuni (Kyôto Prefecture). We didn't think there would be this much evidence of the legend.

At the foot of Mt.Ôe there is a demon museum. When the curator saw the video we had brought of the Iwami Kagura performance of "Mt.Ôe", he had but one thing to say: "I'm impressed." Then, "Next time I want to see a performance in which the Saké Drinking Demon drives away Raikô."

We covered over 4,000 km on our trip to find the origins of the legends told through Kagura. In a way, we felt a bit like we were making Kagura into a science. Still, to keep such legends alive over distance and time required creativity unimaginable to those of us living in the modern information age.

We laughed, we cried, and here's what we found:

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NPO Hiroshima kagura Art Laboratory

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