Ultimate Land: A Year of Iwasaki Onikenbai (2008)

Iwasaki Onikenbai is one of traditional Japanese performing arts, designated as the nation's significant intangible folklore cultural assets. It is practiced in a farming village called Iwasaki, in Kitakami city, Iwate prefecture. Iwasaki Onikenbai, with its 1300 year history, is what's called "Nenbutsu Kenbai", which is a sword dance (kenbai), danced as the performers chant the Buddhism prayer (nenbutsu). It is commonly known as "Onikenbai" for the performers heroically dance wearing a monstrous masks of ogre. The most of the performers are farmers, simultaneously working as carpenters or artisans. They regularly practice, teach children between works and perform almost every weekend. In Iwasaki region, Children start to learn Onikenbai at nursery school. Wives of the performers also dance Onikenbai as a team called "Onago (ladies) Kenbai". It seems as though the whole life in this region is led around Onikenbai. The director lived in this region for one year and filmed the life of the local people. How this traditional performing art is deep-rooted in their everyday life and how the community exists throw many questions to those who live in the modern society without communities.