Yamamba (Mountain Crone) : PhotoStory

A dancer from Kyoto is traveling with her retainers on a pilgrimage to Zenkō-ji Temple. She is famous for her kusemai (storytelling with dance) performance about a mountain crone.

Deep in the mountains, the woman that the group encounters is a real mountain crone.

The mountain crone disappears. In the middle of the night, she appears in her true form.

The crone suffers on her journeys around the mountains.

The deep mountains and dark valleys are fierce. Buddha’s law is explained.

In her kusemai performance, the dancer dances again and again.

The people of the villages and the mountains are helped, but this is a delusion.

Like the journeys around the mountains, the endless cycle of rebirth cannot be escaped.

It is karma from a previous existence to meet the dancer who performs storytelling with dance about the mountain crone.

The crone shows scenes of the passing seasons from her journeys around the mountain. She disappears, her destination unknown.