This report deals with my research into the folk music of Hiroshima prefecture. There are many kinds of folk music in this prefecture, most of which are valuable in historic terms. Accordingly, deciding that I would take up research dealing with this region as my second field of study, I undertook various types of field work on a number of occasions. This led me to the personal discovery of a type of drum dance of interesting historical origin, which I have since been investigating.
The dance apparently originated in the following way: when Kikkawa Motohara (the lord of Hinoyama castle in Shinjo) attacked Nanjo Mototsugu (the lord of Ueishi castle in Hoki province) towards the end of the Sengoku era, he had a number of his warriors disguise themselves as dancers, who then entered the castle to entertain the dance-loving Mototsugu. The warriors, seizing their chance, drew the swords that they had concealed upon them, with the result that the enemy was defeated and the castle captured. As a commemoration of his victory Kikkawa Motoharu spread this dance throughout his domains.
Today drum dances associated with this story or dances of very similar nature can be found throughout the Chugoku district of Japan. The dances have two lineages: one is danced by dancers in female attire wearing a flower hat and is called the hanagasa dance; and the other is danced by dancers dressed as warriors and is called the bukotsu dance.
During the initial stages of my research I have to date concentrated on the lineage of the hanagasa dance, dealing over the period of the last few years with the drum dances of Ikeda (Midori-cho, Takata-gun, Hiroshima prefecture), Honji (Chiyoda-cho, Yamagata-gun) and Yahatabara (Geihoku-cho, Yamagata-gun). This year I am planning to shift my attention to the lineage of the bukotsu dance, and investigate the nanjo dance of Iwakuni (Yamaguchi prefecture).

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