The dance "Aioi Jishi" was premiered in the 1st lunar month of 1734 at the Nakamuraza, starring the star Segawa Kikunojô I in the leading role of the spirit of the shishi. It was a huge hit and won immediate popularity. Its original title was "Fûryû Aioi Jishi".

The first part of this beautiful dance is set within a daimyô's mansion where two princesses, both holding a carved wooden shishi head in each hand, perform a dance expressing the sentiments of love. One of the shishi heads represents a male lion and the other a female. After a while, the princesses are possessed by the spirits of the shishi.

In the second part of the dance, the two princesses now appear in the form of the spirit of the shishi, wearing amazing wigs with long silken hair and carrying peony-decorated sticks. The dance ends in a climax in which the dancers perform the famous kamiarai, the wild tossing of the long hair of their wigs, which is wilder than the wildest Heavy-Metal headbanger.

"Aioi Jishi"