I recently read a book about kagura (神楽) by Kanzaki Noritakë (神崎宣武), a scholar of Japanese, and particularly Shinto, customs who has a regular column in Jinja Shinpō. This book was reviewed in the paper, which is how I came across it. The title is simply Kagura (and that is an affiliate link, although the book is in Japanese).
The book is about what is called “Sato Kagura” (里神楽), which basically means “kagura performed everywhere except the Imperial court”. While “kagura” is normally translated as “sacred dance”, Kanzaki covers some examples that do not involve dance, and some that do not involve music, making the term untranslatable in this context. The scholarly consensus is that “kagura” is an evolution of “kamikura” (神座), which refers to the seat of a kami during a matsuri. Thus, it was a term for the things that people did in that location for the kami, and that is why it can cover activities that are neither music nor dance.
Most scholars divide Sato Kagura into four groups: Miko Kagura, Izumo-line Kagura, Isë-line Kagura, and Shishi Kagura. However, Kanzaki does not think that this division, based on things that are done in the kagura, is the most useful, and he prefers a division based on the performer.
The first is Miko Kagura, and he thinks that this is the oldest, performed by women as a shamanistic ritual before the kami. He says that very few examples of this survive, although the miko kagura performed at most jinja today was designed in the mid-twentieth century with inspiration from some that do.
The second is Kannagi Kagura, performed by male priests of the kami. Kanzaki believes that this was the result of men taking control of rituals early in Shinto’s history. He himself is the inheritor of a line of Kannagi Kagura, and so he performs one tradition of this himself as part of the matsuri at his jinja.
These two also occur together in traditions where miko and priests both have a role, and he regards those as important.
The third group is Yamabushi Kagura. Yamabushi were practitioners of Shugendō, and so this form of kagura often has strong Buddhist influences.
The final group is Tayū Kagura. “Tayū” is a term for professional but non-priestly performers of kagura. (It’s also an old term for priests, and Kanzaki thinks that this is why it was applied to these performers.) Kanzaki argues that this became common in the Meiji period, when priests were told not to perform kagura. (However, there were no penalties backing that up, which is why Kannagi Kagura still survives in remote rural areas.)
Within these groups he distinguishes types of kagura, which can be broadly split into two groups. I will call those groups “Ritual Kagura” and “Performance Kagura”. Ritual Kagura is performed for the kami, and there is no concern about whether it is interesting to watch. Performance Kagura pays attention to the human audience, and often has dramatic storylines and spectacular costumes.
The book discusses about a dozen surviving kagura traditions, chosen because they are important and Kanzaki is familiar with them — he apologises to the people who are part of traditions he doesn’t cover. There are a lot that include dozens of individual kagura, and these often mix Ritual Kagura and Performance Kagura. One thing he notes is that Ritual Kagura is mainly performed without a mask, while Performance Kagura is often danced masked.
Another recurring theme is the difficulty of finding people to carry on the traditions. However, there are several optimistic stories, including one from decades ago in which a tradition of kagura was preserved through the determination of one final performer. These traditions are not dead until all the practitioners are.
One distinctive feature of Kanzaki’s implicit theory of Shinto is that, at least in this book, he often talks about Shinto being changed to be a public tradition in the Meiji period. My knowledge of the history suggests that this is a good way to describe it, but the Shinto establishment today talks as if Shinto was always this way.
I found this book very interesting, and it gave me a lot to think about concerning Shinto practice. If you read Japanese well, I recommend it.