Sada Shin Noh Sacred Dance – 佐陀神能

A unique blend of ceremony and theatre transmitted from generation to generation by Sada Shrine’s local community, Sada Shin Noh was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011. Literally meaning “Sada Divine Noh,” it was created in the 1608 when Sada’s priests pioneered a shift away from ritual songs toward a theatrical style borrowing from Noh, which they studied in Kyoto. Sada Shin Noh is thought to have given its contemporary structure and content to Izumo Kagura, which even today thrives in Shimane culture.

Sada Shin Noh comprises a series of ritual dances performed annually on the 24th and 25th of September as part of the Gozakae Ritual, literally, “the changing of the rush mats”. The first day are seven dances undertaken to purify the new rush mats upon which the tutelary deities of the shrine sit (Shichiza Ritual). The second day – where the more theatrical pieces are featured – starts with three inaugural dances borrowed directly from Noh theatre (Shiki Sanban) and ends with additional dances from a repertoire of seventeen Shinto-mythology-based dances (Shin Noh).

URL	More information about Sada Shin Noh on http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/sada-shin-noh-sacred-dancing-at-sada-shrine-shimane-00412