Shimoyado Hayashi (Hachiman Shrine)

"Shimoyado Bayashi" is a festival music tradition in the Kanda style performed annually at Shimoyado Hachiman Shrine on April 23 (Spring Festival) and September 14 and 15 (Fall Festival).It is performed as an offering to pray for a bountiful harvest and good health.”

The performance features the okan (long-bodied drum), tsuke (small drum), flute, gong, and clappers, accompanied by dances such as the Okame, Hyottoko, lion, celestial fox, and Gedo.

It is said that the festival music was learned in the early Meiji period from a candy seller known as “Ame-Kisa,” who had come from Asakusa. Ame-Kisa, whose real name was “Kisaburō,” is said to have mastered the entire repertoire of festival music and taught the flute and drum to the residents of his boarding house.