Amid a diminishing number of performers of the Higan-jishi folk art, handed down in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, a local preservation group is seeking successors for the art by revising conventional customs.
The Saikatsu no Higan-jishi is a traditional lion dance passed down for more than 200 years within the Saikatsu district, located in the central Fukushima Prefecture town of Aizumisato.
The preservation group appealed to new members this year by revising rules that had previously allowed only eldest sons in the district to become dancers, and only men to become flutists and drummers.