The Japanese performance art known as Daimokutate2 articulates one of Japan's most important historical narratives. A coming-of-age ritual once practiced in numerous rural villages in central Japan, Daimokutate involves a group of young men taking the roles of characters from the Heike monogatari (Tale of the Heike), Japan's epic war tale chronicling the Genpei War (1180-85), a conflict that brought the warrior class to power both politically and socially. In Daimokutate, the participants take turns recounting one of several felicitous narratives derived from the Heike as a dedicatory ritual before the god of their local shrine. Performances occur annually at the end of the harvest season.