Lady Shizuka was a famous dancer in 12th century Japan. She was also romantically involved with Minamoto no Yoshitsune. If you know your Kamakura period history, you will probably recognise this name – he was the younger brother of Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japan’s first shogun.

Yoritomo and Yoshitsune had something of a falling out and Shizuka ended up in the hands of the enemy while pregnant with Yoshitsune’s child.

She was still expected to perform her dances but she did so in a form of elegant protest: she sang songs about how she missed Yoshitsune and longed to be with him again. Politically probably not the smartest move. Luckily for her, there were no brutal consequences although she would never see Yoshitsune again.

Nowadays, a reenactment of her dance takes place annually at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura and this year I remembered to actually go.

A pretty big crowd, despite the rain – unfortunately, the umbrellas everywhere made it hard to get a proper look at the performance a lot of the time.