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The Jangara Nenbutsu Odori (じゃんがら念仏踊り, “Jangara Buddhist Prayer Dance”) is a traditional local performing art from Fukushima, Japan, centred around the southeastern city of Iwaki. Performed every year from August 13 to 15 as part of the rituals surrounding the Obon festival, it is a type of Buddhist prayer dance in which performers, using taiko drums and small handbells, visit the homes of those who have lost family members in the past year and are celebrating Niibon, the first Obon festival after the spirit of the deceased has reached the land of the dead.

Within Iwaki, it is simply called by the familiar term of jangara, a word which is believed to derive from the onomatopoeia for the sound of the bells and taiko drums used by the dancers (jaguwara-jaguwara). It is known as being a sign of summer, and has been designated as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the city of Iwaki.

Origins and history
The beginnings of jangara date back to the Edo Period (1603-1868), but there are various competing theories as to its precise origin. One contends that, at some point during the first half of the Edo Period, a high priest of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism, Yūten Shōnin (born in what is now Yotsukura, Iwaki), conceived of matching the name of Amida Buddha to the stanzas of a song intended to be chanted in tandem with a dance, in order to combine the consolation of villagers who had lost family members with the spread of Buddhist prayer. According to another theory transmitted by the elders of local religious organisations [Formerly], in various parts of the city, other theories have been also put forward such as one that, according to local elders, it was passed down from [the tsuki nenbutsukou] were also transmitted.]. There are also theories such as one that supposes that it was derived from the tsuki nenbutsukō (月念仏講, “monthly Buddhist lecture…ing people?”). Furthermore, the Akiyama Zuihitsu (晶山随筆, “Akiyama Essays”) composed by Nabeta Sanzen during the Tenpō Era include speculation about the involvement of Iwaki-born Taichū Shōnin with the origins of jangara, apart from the theory suggesting that it arose with Yūten Shōnin. By the end of the late Edo Period, the origins of jangara were already unclear.

Although formerly the theory that Yūten Shōnin was the originator of jangara was widely transmitted as the prevailing view, there have been no documents found to support this, and as such it has never left the realm of tradition. [Iwakidaira clan ****] uncovered by investigative research in recent years [According to research conducted in recent years [discovered in "writings on the ancient practices of private business??" passed down by Iwakitaira clan chief retainer agency?? Hotaka family "*** temple (said to be founded by Sawamura Kanbee) **** start of nenbutsu... striking the handbells, jaguwara jaguwara, chanting the prayers boisterously is a specialty of Iwaki, 此古実なり? [although that's a thing], in the "writings on the history of Ogawaesuji", on the one-year anniversary of due to false accusations/slander Sawamura Kanbee committed ritual suicide (1656, Meireki 2) the peasants/farmers of more than 10 villages < there is an account of the nenbutsu performances held at his memorial service that is consistent with this description, Iwakitaira clan [district magistrate, district administrator directions for irrigation channel construction [for victory of Sawamura Kanbee?] = consolation of his spirit, at the time in Edo…]

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Features
Each community and individual team (of which there are more than 100), has developed its own distinctive style of jangara. While they cannot truly be said to be uniform, all jangara dances nevertheless generally share the following characteristics.

Dancers
Jangara groups, often youth associations or societies for the preservation of traditional local culture, are generally composed of around ten to fifteen young people. In recent years, women have begun to take part as well, and at least one of Iwaki’s jangara groups consists exclusively of female members. During a performance, there is one dancer in the group who carries a paper lantern. This is the chairman of the group, also referred to as the shisha (使者, “messenger”). Accompanying the lantern bearer are three to five dancers playing taiko drums, and seven to ten others carrying handbells. In the Tōno region of Iwaki, and in the town of Ōtsu in Ibaraki Prefecture, flutes are also played.

Dancers wear yukata along with white tasuki (strips of fabric used to bind up the sleeves of a kimono or yukata), tekkō (coverings for the back of the hand), tabi socks, and hachimaki (headbands). The lantern bearer wears a black montsuki, a kimono adorned with the family crest. The drums are bound with dark navy fabric, with the words Namu Amida Butsu (南無阿弥陀仏, “I take refuge in Amida Buddha”) left in an undyed white. This dressing for the drums is referred to as taiko kimono.

Performance
While repeatedly striking their drums and bells, dancers form a line with the lantern bearer at the head and come into the gardens of homes celebrating the Niibon of deceased family members. [流し・道中囃子？？] After bowing once in front of the bondana (盆棚, a special shelf set up for Obon offerings), the drummers stand in a row and are surrounded by the lantern bearer and handbell players, who then dance around them in an oval formation.

At first, the handbell players and lantern bearer sing a nenbutsu (念仏, Buddhist prayer) and perform a dance to the beat of the drums, waving their hands in time with the rhythm. When this chant is finished, all members of the group perform a dance with their handbells and drums, accompanied by unrehearsed shouts. Jangara drummers are required to have such skills as sinking down while maintaining a steadily beating rhythm with one hand and performing gestures with the drumstick in the other, which is itself alone considered to be both impressive and worth seeing. In addition, although at present most performers dance by drawing small circles with their feet, it is said that in the past the dance called for them to "raise their knees high, and lift the handbell up to the left side of their heads" (accredited to Fumio Wada, “Thoughts on the Jangara Nenbutsu Odori”). This art of striking the handbell while leaping and hoisting it skywards is a particularly notable feature of the type of jangara dance found in the town of Ōkuma in Nagahara district.

Other songs that [節を付け崩したとされる唄に続き] Buddhist prayer "Naa haa haa, mo(o) ho ho hooi..." **** such as "bon de ba bei no meshi," "Otsuke de ba nasubijiru," "juuroku sasage no yogoshi wa dou da," and so on. [and other] "What I/we want to show in Iwaki Taira is jangara dance among the cherry blossoms and the azaleas..." "If you look at Nanahama from Akaidake, [you can see] outgoing ships, incoming ships, and large fishing boats", etc. are also sung. It has also been said that improvised or vulgar lyrics have sometimes been created to provoke laughter from onlookers.

The Jangara Nenbutsu Odori as seen in Account of Iwaki Folk Customs? / Bibliometrics...?
In Ōsuga Inken's 1892 Iwaki Shiryō Saiji Minzoku Ki (磐城誌料歳時民俗記, ?“Account of Iwaki Folk Customs”), he writes that "Where the Jangara Nenbutsu is concerned, that is to say, the nenbutsu dance, men and women form a ring, striking bells and beating drums..." "...calling the name of the Buddha, striking drums, [男女打群れ swarms of men and women beating drums?], [invading/trespassing/intruding on the night, walking aimlessly, wandering around], alas! What on earth could be the cause for this absurd and disgraceful behaviour?” Before the Meiji Period, women also participated in jangara. From this, it can be discerned that not only was jangara intended to be a Buddhist memorial service for Niibon, but it also seems that there was an aspect of pleasure-seeking to the event. In addition to this: "There were women who made themselves up in the likeness of men. There were men who made themselves up in the likeness of women. Furthermore, [nakedにして褌犢鼻褌を尾垂し, tying the tails of the loincloth to the person behind, the person behind also again [hanging end?]. Some wear masks and dress themselves as warriors, donning straw mats in place of armor, wearing lotus leaves in place of helmets, and replacing swords long and short with brooms or sticks of bamboo. Competing with each other [their dutiesでnewをcompete], they fish for laughs.” Moreover, it was written that it was “a show of disgraceful behaviour, the sight of which cannot be endured." From this, it seems that the jangara of the time was more unexpectedly hedonistic than might be imagined from the dance of the present day.

That pleasure-seeking aspect turned out to be its downfall, however, since a prohibition order is said to have been issued in 1873 proclaiming that "the prefectural government will pass judgment on whether there are harmful effects,” purportedly with the elevation of public morals given as the reason. According to the lord of the Iwaki Taira clan, Naitō Yoshimune, an additional edict was also issued in 1671 prohibiting "a nenbutsu odori put on for the masses and given over entirely to beauty." This is regarded as one of the bases on which the Jangara Nenbutsu Odori was established in the 17th century.

On December 14, 2008, at Fukushima Prefectural Iwaki High School, the Taira Suginami Youth Association, along with volunteers from the Taira Suginami Uzugata Jangara Association, made an attempt to reconstruct this old style of nenbutsu odori from the Edo Period through the performance of uzugata jangara (渦型じゃんがら, ”Whirlpool Jangara”).

Tsuki Nenbutsukō
In Iwaki City there was at one time an association of local senior citizens [elderly men] [by village/hamlet?] who were called nenbutsukō (念仏講, a term for a layperson who recites Buddhist scripture). [*** tsuki nenbutsukō ***] every month, in buddhist temple chant while striking handbells and drums, or nenbutsu for Buddhist memorial services at funerals and the like, nenbutsu praying for rain, etc. Every month, the nenbutsukō would, while striking [playing] bells and drums, recite Buddhist chants in the temples. Performing

Besides the suwari nenbutsu (座り念仏, “sitting prayer”) done in the tatami rooms of Buddhist temples and the like, a nenbutsu dance called the ritsu nenbutsu (立念仏, “standing prayer”) was also conducted. This "standing prayer" is said to have been similar to the nenbutsu (hand dancing in accordance with the beat of a drum) aspect of present-day jangara, and is regarded as the basis for the legend that jangara was derived from these nenbutsukō.

In relation to this point, an inscription on an old handbell handed down in the Narusawa district of the town of Yoshima in Iwaki City reads hiru wa nenbutsusha ji, yoru wa wakamono ji (昼ハ念仏者持　夜ハ若者持, “held by nenbutsu performers at noon, and held by young people at night”). Also, according to the Ogawaesuji Yuishogaki (小川江筋由緒書き, "Writings on the History of Ogawaesuji"), young and old, men and women assembled for the first anniversary of death of [Sawamura Kanbee] out of gratitude and for his enlightenment?, promised to perform nenbutsu every month, there is a description that this is the rise of this [this province's? 当国] nenbutsukō, one can reflect on the possibility that the tsuki nenbutsukō of the elderly and the jangara of the young have been held concurrently for a long time.

Regional distribution
Although there are many places within Iwaki City where jangara is transmitted and performed, there are also a number of cities, towns, and villages outside of Iwaki where the tradition continues to be handed down.

At its northernmost limit: while the jangara at Sai Shrine in the Chojohara district of Ōkuma is better known, the Niibon Mawari Jangara is performed every year on August 14 in the Yamada and Ishikuma districts of more northerly Futaba. Elsewhere, in Fukushima's northeastern Sōsō region, the neighbourhood of Ōtani in Naraha also hands down a form of jangara.

At its southernmost limit: there are approximately seven groups who practice jangara in the town of Ōtsu in Kitaibaraki. Other than Niibon Mawari, At Ōtsu Harbour, on August 16th, the Ōtsu Bonbune Nagashi (Ōtsu Bon Boat Cruise? Flow?) is performed. This tradition has been designated as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the prefecture of Ibaraki.

In the nearby Sankan region of the Abukuma highlands to the west, jangara also continues to be transmitted in Komagata in Hirata Village, Babataira in Furudono Town, and Kamihadeniwa in Ono Town.