Hochoshiki, the beautiful demonstration of the traditional kitchen knife style

Hocho, the Japanese kitchen knife has a long history.
Hocho was introduced from China first, and it had developed in its own way in Japan.
With the history, also some traditional styles to treat these knives have founded.

At the Heian period, a kugyou (court noble), Fujiwara Yamakage (824-888) founded the Sijo-ryu　kitchen knife style.
The style is the original of the all traditional knife styles in Japan.
Later, Ikama-ryu style, Yamakage-ryu style and other following styles appeared.
They have know-how to cut seafood and flesh of birds properly.

Sometimes hochonin (master of the hocho styles) have a demonstration of their knife skill for Shinto rituals or other events.
It is called Hochoshiki or Shikibocho.
For the hochoshiki, hochonin wear a traditional Eboshi hat and dress and sit down before a chopping board on floor.
Then they start cutting particular fish (mostly a carp or sea bream) on the chopping board with using a knife and special long chopsticks.
They don't touch the fish with their hands.
They use the chopsticks to move or fix the fish on the board.
Hochonin don't only cut the fish but also show audiences beautiful movement of the knife and chopsticks.
The demonstration also meaning a ritual for Shintoism, so their each movements has meaning.

Even today, we can see the hochoshiki on special occasions.
Once I have been to Souji-ji temple in Ibaraki, Osaka, to see a ritual of hochoshiki.
Souji-ji temple is famous for its hochoshiki ceremony in April, so it was crowded when I went to there.
As a result, I couldn't see any movement by hochonin because of crowds.

We can see the demonstration on YouTube, too.
However if you want to see real ones, visit particular temples or shrines on the early time of the day the ritual held, before there will be crowded.