In Gonshoji Temple (3 Chome Omori-Higashi), a lion dance is performed on July 14 every year, praying for the end of a long spell of rainy weather.
The performance has continued for about 700 years. A festival praying for rain remains nationwide, but that for the opposite purpose is very rare, except Gonshoji’s rain-stopping dance.
At the festival, two dragon gods lead the journey to the temple while young people inside the straw rope (as a dragon) blow a trumpet shell, creating a sound like a dragon’s roaring.
After a lively party of festival flute players, dancers wearing flowered hats and making a sound using sasara (bamboo whisk) and “guarding” boys banging bamboo tubes against the ground arrive at the temple; they put the dragons up on the stage signifying that they are letting them go back to heaven. Then the rain stops, so the people believed.
Three lions, male, female, and a mid-size one, dance to six songs for the god to show appreciation of the end of the rain.
The festival is a Tokyo-designated intangible folk cultural property.
