Sakai Ishinage Odori

This recording, or rather pair of recordings (one from 1982 and one from 2017), is the second release in an album series that aims to preserve the regional folkloric music of Japan. The focus of this edition is the music of the Bon Odori – annual pre-harvest summer dance festivals, performed by amateur musicians and dancers, which are a long running local tradition. Specifically, this album documents the Sakai Ishinage Odori festival, found in the town of Sakai, in the Saitama region north of Tokyo.

The centrepiece of each recording is ‘Ishinage Odori’. It references both Sakai's role as a silkworm producing area and the legend of the Kamakura-era military commander Shigetada Hatakeyama, whose troops proceeded to throw rocks at the enemy upon running out of arrows. Based around a hypnotic taiko beat, accompanied by kane (hand cymbals) and flutes, a lone voice sings out, punctuated by shouts from the crowd: “When you sing, I dance. The sound of the flutes and taiko rings out. This is what I want to show you in Sakai: cocoons, rice, and Ishinage Odori.” This song is bookended by two short instrumental taiko pieces, ‘Yose Daiko’ and ‘Bukkiri Daiko’. All three pieces are presented in the form of the original 1982 recording, as well as new recordings from 2017, engineered and mixed by Sugai Ken.