【Designated by the City：Intangible Folk】Masutorya in Nobaru

It is a festival to celebrate a year of abundance, held in Nobaru, Ueno, on August 15 of the lunar calendar. In the morning, women offer prayers at a worship place in Otaki Utaki, and men conduct ceremonial feasts in the evening at four points in the directions of the Mouse, the Tiger, the Horse, and the Monkey, where taxes were collected.Young men perform Bojutsu (martial art demonstration using a staff weapon) in four groups, and women dance in a square of the community center. Women’s dance in multiple line formation consists of daki-odori (holding dance) and nagi-odori (throwing dance) with dancers in front rows holding straw fans and those in back rows holding Yotsudake (an instrument made of four bamboo pieces). All the participants join in maki-odori (rounding dance) and kuicha dance at the end.
The lyrics of the “Opening song for Masutorya” go to the effect that the dance is no ordinary one, but that it is performed with permission from the Jitonushi land steward. It obviously reflects the agony of the people at the time when a poll tax was imposed.
※It is rather different and unique folk art among performing arts of the Miyako Islands.