Roving Ronin Report Presents Japanese Biwa Player

Japanese Biwa Player playing "Dan-no-ura" a song about the last battle between the Heike and Genji clans.

It's up for votes on Current TV:
http://www.current.tv/watch/70143572
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Dan-no-ura was the site of the last battle of the Gempei War in which the Heike clan was finally destroyed by the Genji clan.

Centuries later, legends say a blind biwa player was tricked into playing for the restless spirits of the Heike. He barely escaped with his life paying the price of his ears being ripped off. This story is known as Hoichi the Earless and appears in the Kwaiden.

Around the 4 minute mark, she starts shredding some wicked licks like a geisha Jimi Hendricks! I half-expected her to set her biwa on fire at the end. The accompanying thunderclaps were more than appropiate.

Towards the end a thunderstorm struck suddenly and ominously. She was playing the song in Yunishigawa in Tochigi where Heike refugees fled to in hiding. The thunderstorm gave the performance an eery supernatural feeling. It stopped not long after she finished.

The title music is by the exotic ones:
http://www.myspace.com/exoticones

The band cameo is a Japanese-based group - the Sushi Cabaret Club:
http://www.myspace.com/thesushicabaretclub

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• japan
• biwa
• music
• dan-no-ura
• kwaidan
• history
• gempei
• samurai
• ghosts
• SAMURAI-DAVE
• ROVING-RONIN
• Dan-no-ura-BIWA
• heike-monogatari
• japanese-music
• roving-ronin-report
• yunishikawa
• japanese-history
• 日本
• 琵琶
• 音楽
• 侍
• 平家物語
• 歴史

[GirlInRedShoes]

Good video, but the description is a bit biased....

Heike clan is the first samurai family who took over nobles' dominance, because their political skill was better than Genji, and was able to get along with nobles. But ironically, as the samurai gaining their power all over in Japan, they started thinking Heike was too close to nobles and disliked them.

That's why Heike was hated by other samurai clans and defeated by Genji. They were a kind of steppingstones in the early samurai history.

[RoninDave]

@GirlInRedShoes one of the Heike remarked that not to be a Heike was not to be a man. It was that arrogance & Kiyomori appointing family members to key positions that led to a growing resentment of the Heike. Their aristocratic trappings was less of an issue. One of their allies a Genji grew to dislike them because a Heike stole his son's horse, named it after the son then beat it to death. The way the Heike behaved was the problem. The more power they got the more despotic they became.

[GirlInRedShoes]

@RoninDave Dave, have you read all of the Tale of Heike? If you had read just a few chapters in the beginning, you couldn't say so....　I know same descriptions as yours can be found easily in kids' story books and pop cultures. But don't mix them with real histories.

The same can be said for "Mimi nashi Hoichi."　He is not a real person.

I am a Japanese and learned the Tale of Heike and the history of samurai in the school. What I wrote is just a common knowledge.

[RoninDave]

@GirlInRedShoes you didn't rebut anything I said and yes I have read the Heike Monogatari - note the incident i mentioned about the horse which belonged to the son of Minamoto no Yorimasa who rose up against the Heike in 1180. The Heike became despotic in their power and even had a secret police - a small army of pages who scoured the capital looking for any signs of dissent. They had almost absolute power to bring charges real or not against people and sieze their property.

[DarkValkyrie0512]

Isn't there a lake in Japan called Biwa?

[RoninDave]

@DarkValkyrie0512 yes there is! It's north of Kyoto. One of my favorite castles hikone is there

[SickTwistedQueen]

This instrument is so beautiful!

I'm OBSESSED with the Japanese culture, so this was my little bit of entertainment for the day. :)

[AmericanKosuPureSama]

INTERESTING. This is TRULY HISTORY PRESERVED FOR THE FUTURE GENERATIONS. BEAUTIFUL

[conncork]

5 star

[KernsTheAntiGoth]

I get chills whenever I listen to this. It's hauntingly beautiful.

[in7erpol]

I've just read the story MIMI-NASHI-HÕÏCHI By Lafcadio Hear It's about that biwa player who lost his ears... i put "biwa" on youtube and this is the first result.... Nice :)

[almishti]

Man, you did a really good job putting this video together, and your timing in filming her while a thunder storm broke out was clearly divinely inspired! Haha. Her performance is excellent. When the thunder starts up her singing and playing are so one with it my eyes start tearing up and a chill goes up my spine! My only criticism: what is her name???

[GsxRaider]

LOL Masamuna Date!

[BWEEBLAST]

the sky turned gray as i watched this video...