Ryozen Ranjo-no-mai

Ryozen Town, a small, peaceful place, was once a proud castle town with a long military tradition. During the Nanpoku-cho Era, a sword dance was performed to honour the shogun Kitabatake Akiie, who was visiting the strategically significant stronghold at that time. This event took place almost 700 years previously, but the traditionof the sword-dance is continued to this day.

The setting for this event is Ryozen-jinja, a picturesque shrine located atop a hill on the outskirts of the town. The shrine in its present incarnation dates back to 1931. Whoever was responsible for construction showed rare aptitude at balancing colour, as the shrine’s red roofing contrasts well with the surrounding greenery.

The Ranjo-no-mai, as the sword-dance is known, is performed by local elementary and junior-high school students. Ranjo is an archaic reading of ransho, which means an origin, or a beginning. The performance provides the centrepiece for the Ryozen jinja reitaisal, a festival held every year on the 22nd of April. Several young lads, the Ranjo-burakutai, perform a ritualistic dance to enter the shrine, to the accompaniment of Japanese flutes and taiko.
The swordsmen are followed in quick succession by four young girls with lion masks on their heads. The Shishi-no-mai (surprisingly enough, shishi means lion), a two-hundred year old dance, provides a quirky, light-hearted juxtaposition to the sword play.

The festivities were rounded off by a demonstration of aikido and bojutsu (stick-fighting). The latter form is said to have originated in Ryozen Town.