Yumi Kagura

Kagura is an ancient form of Japanese Shinto sacred music and dance, which accompanies the ritual chanting of mythological tales. It's a means of entertaining the gods, praying for spiritual purification and warding off evil spirits; kagura is a particularly austere and ascetic form among the Japanese performing arts. Unadorned by beautiful costumes and unaccompanied by dance, the ritual consists of a single priest, who chants while playing the yumi, a struck bow tied across a tub, accompanied by flute and metal percussion. Having fallen into near-total obscurity, the form of kagura on this recording is passed down through a single family line in Joge-Cho, a mountain town in the Hiroshima prefecture. Partially remastered from an extremely rare recording from the early 90s, this album consists of two pieces: a performance from 1991 by the late chief priest Shigeo Tanaka, and a longer, more comprehensive 2016 recording of his daughter and successor Ritsuko. Relentlessly repetitive and hypnotic, the music itself has a far more primitive and trance-like quality than most other forms of Japanese traditional music. While perhaps initially impenetrable to the casual listener, the extensive liner notes provide excellent context to this recording, which is a highly important document of a fascinating tradition.