A popular dance involving multiple costume changes and considered the supreme test of an onnagata's dancing skills.  The story, known also from a famous nō play, has been dramatized in a number of different versions, including one that transposes the action from a temple to a Catholic church.

The stage shows cherry blossoms in full bloom, with a giant bell hanging at stage left.  On  the day that a new bell is to be consecrated at Dōjōji Temple in Kishū, a female shirabyōshi dancer named Hanako arrives, hoping to worship at the event.  According to a story handed down at the temple, there had once been an acolyte named Anchin, who had fled to the temple when pursued by Princess Kiyo, a young woman who was madly in love with him.  He hid inside the temple's huge bell, but Kiyo, having transformed herself into a fiery dragon, wrapped herself around the bell and, generating fire, melted it, roasting Anchin alive.  Since then, women have been forbidden from the temple grounds, but when the young priestlings see Hanako's beauty, they allow her to enter with the provision that she dance for them.