The Noh stage on the grounds of Daizen Shrine is said to be the oldest one still in existence in Sado. It is one of the four Noh stages in the Kuninaka area where Noh performances have been regularly held. The Noh stage features kagami-ita (a back wall) with a painting of a pine tree and the sun. Noh is performed every year, dedicated to the gods, along with Sagiryu Kyogen.
Kyogen is usually performed as a comic interlude between Noh acts, and there are three schools: Okuraryu, Izumiryu and Sagiryu. Sagiryu has been passed down in only three places in Japan: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Kanzaki City (Chiyoda-cho), Saga Prefecture, and Sado. Kyogen steadily declined in popularity during the Meiji Period (1868-1912), and Sagiryu Kyogen in Sado once ceased all together in the middle of the 20th century. In the 1970s and 1980s, a successor of Sagiryu Kyogen was discovered in the Mano area, and it was reinvigorated thereafter. Today, the Sado Sagiryu Kyogen Study Group has been striving to pass down and spread the art form.
