Inokuchi's tiger dance is said to have been stolen from Kyoto and handed down from generation to generation. In the songs, the names of places in and around Kyoto such as "Yamashina," "Hirosawa-ike" and "Sarusawa-ike" appear. It seems that the dance was already performed in 1812 (Bunka 9), in the latter half of the Edo period, since the currently preserved tiger mask (head) bears the inscription "September, Bunka 9 (1812), by Keiun of Inokuchi-dera Temple. This Inokuchi-dera Temple was closed and no longer exists, but the wooden seated statue of Yakushi Nyorai (designated as an important cultural property by Kumamoto Prefecture), which was the principal object of worship at Inokuchi-dera, is enshrined in the Yakushi-dou on the west side of Inokuchi Hachiman-gu Shrine. Although the inscription simply states that it was made in Bunka 9 by "Keiun," a monk associated with Inokuchi-dera Temple, it is believed that there was a deep connection between this tiger dance and the temple.