matsuri
Japanese festivals, or , are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan. The origin of the word ''matsuri'' is related to the ; there are theories that the word ''matsuri'' is derived from meaning "to wait (for ...
(and occasionally Undokai
sports day
Sports Day (British English & Canadian English), field days (American English), or play days (Canadian English) are events staged by many schools and offices in which people participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of w ...
s) in
Gunma
is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of . Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture to t ...
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. It consists of dancers with broad hats called ''kasa'' going in a counter clockwise circle around a
mikoshi
A is a sacred religious palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when ...
. The dance is very energetic and ends with everyone throwing their hats in the air. The "Yagi" (八木, literally "eight trees") came from , one of the
post stations
Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chicago. ...
on the
Nikkō Reiheishi Kaidō The was established during the Edo period as a subroute to Nikkō Kaidō. It connected the Nakasendō with the Nikkō Kaidō.
History
The song was first sung by Seizaburo Maruyama, who was from the town of Asakura (currently Ashikaga, Tochigi) and known as "Seizo Asakura", and popularized by Gentaro Watanabe "Genta Horigome".
The original form of the song is said to be , which originated in Niigata. It was later arranged and spread along the
Nikkō Reiheishi Kaidō The was established during the Edo period as a subroute to Nikkō Kaidō. It connected the Nakasendō with the Nikkō Kaidō.Goze
is a Japanese historic term referring to visually-impaired Japanese women, most of whom worked as musicians.
Etymology
The kanji for mean "blind" and "woman." is most likely derived from , which also means "blind person" ( is a formal s ...
. Eventually one around Yagi-shuku became the most popular, where Watanabe and others developed today's form.
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
Sōke
, pronounced , is a Japanese term that means "the head family ouse" In the realm of Japanese traditional arts, it is used synonymously with the term '' iemoto''. Thus, it is often used to indicate "headmaster" (or sometimes translated as "head o ...