Yasugi Bushi - a traditional Japanese folk song and dance

I spent a good part of today looking thru the "Jason Archive" - the hours and hours of footage I have from my 5 years in Japan that I have yet to edit together into videos for YouTube.

I came across some really interesting and entertaining footage from a special weekend I had back in November 2008. I, along with some other JETs and some local elementary school students, traveled out to Yasugi in Shimane ken to learn about the local culture, which includes a song and dance known as Yasugi Bushi.

Here is an online explanation:
This is a folk song from the town of Yasugi in Shimane Prefecture. It originated in Sanko Bushi, a kind of long ballad sung all around Shimane Prefecture which in turn, comes from Izumo Bushi, a kind of song sung all along the Japan Sea coast. When Yasugi Bushi came out on records early in the twentieth century, it became familiar throughout Japan as the music of "Dojo Sukui," a humorous parlor dance where the dancer imitates a man scooping up dojo or loaches, which are small eel-like fish.

I plan to edit this footage together in the coming weeks as part of RJL vlogs (Rural Japan Life).
But my next edited vlog will most likely be footage I shot recently in America.
So I hope you stay tuned for more videos from my time in Japan, mixed in with vids from my current experiences in America.

Thanks for watching!
-Jason

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Jason
• Rural
• Japan
• Shimane
• Yasugi
• Bushi
• song
• dance
• Japanese
• culture
• 島根
• 安来節

[albertohp]

aww! i love it! hahaha! but, whats he exactly doing? fishing?

[myargonauts]

@albertohp yep - catching some fish by hand

[SJamesGray]

Bushi songs are awesome. That guy is a great actor too!

[myargonauts]

yeah - he was a cool teacher - really nice. You'll see my failed attempts in the longer vlog to be posted soon.  :)

[cutehippy16]

nice acting & what a man, i won't be caught dead doing that lol :)

[saskexsakura1]

most people would laugh, i would clap and say wonderful, bravo, amazing

some people just cant understand what this can mean. dumbs up is u agree

[deux17]

Es interesante... : D

[afronathan]

That was so cool :)

The music was great and the dancing was better because it was unintentionally a bit camp XD

[Ido013]

That was amazing, I loved the song, though the dance was pretty much just funny.

[nokomarie1963]

The Loach Dance?! Snorffle. This guy makes a better presentation out of it than most of the losers of bets and drawers of short straws who get stuck with this.

[drhikarisan]

you know, i thought at first, that's kinda weird, then kept watching it and its really cool actually.

the dancer must have some pretty good leg strength to hold himself and move so fluidly though.

[DarkNekoStudio]

nice dance!Quebec's folklore dance and song areawesome too.you should check it out!

I like Folklore a lot!