Tokyo Shishimai Collection 2020Event Held
The “Tokyo Shishimai Collection 2020” event was held on May 11th and 12th (Saturday and Sunday), 2019, in the Front Garden of the Tokyo National Museum. This event was planned by the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage and was held as part of Japan Cultural Expo, an arts and culture festival that will coincide with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. It was co-sponsored by Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, the Tokyo National Museum, and the Japan Arts Council, in cooperation with tateito-yokoito llc., Culture Vision Japan Foundation Inc., and DO CREATION CO., LTD. The purpose of this event was to showcase lion dances from all over Japan as folk art which prominently expresses Japan Cultural Expo’s theme of “the Japanese and Nature”, and to transmit this to the world by performing the lion dances in Tokyo.
Lion dance performances, particularly from the three prefectures stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake, were involved in this 2020 pre-event. During the two days, three lion dances were performed by three prefectures: Iwate Prefecture performed Rikuzentakata City’s “Tsukizawa Toramai (Tiger Dance)” (Tsukizawa Arts Preservation Society); Miyagi Prefecture performed Onagawa Town’s “Shishifuri (Lion Dance)” (Takenoura Lion Dance Preservation Society/Washinokami Kumano Shrine Lion Dance General Meeting), and Fukushima Prefecture performed Shinchi Town’s “Fukuda Juuni Kagura (Twelve Kinds of Sacred Music and Dancing Performed at Shrines)” (Fukuda Twelve Kinds of Sacred Music and Dancing Preservation Society). According to a count by the Tokyo National Museum, 2215 people attended the six shows during the two-day event.
In addition to watching the performances, many spectators participated in a hands-on learning experience by having the opportunity to actually touch the lion masks and musical instruments that ordinarily cannot be seen up close, and hearing explanations about the lion dances. Foreign language pamphlets were provided and bilingual staff was prepared so that visitors from various countries could enjoy the shows.
On a similar note, a Lion Dance Forum is planned for September of this year. In addition to holding lion dance performances in Tokyo, information about lion dance festivals and events held in various regions of Japan will be released to give many more people the opportunity to visit the regions where lion dance festivals are performed. In order to preserve intangible cultural heritage, this kind of information transmission and networking is crucial.