Yagibushi

On Wednesday of next week, we will be entertained by a group of Japanese musicians and dancers from the city of Maebashi, Japan. They are here as a part of the Birmingham International Festival salute to Japan. I did not want to take anything away from our focus on the Young Author’s Day, so I will not begin talking to the students about it until Tuesday. The performance will be in Harwell Auditorium at 1:00. The Ellis student body will join us for this event.

The Yagibushi (八木節) is a popular folk song and dance. It consists of dancers with broad hats called kasa going in a counter clockwise circle around a mikoshi. The dance is very energetic and ends with everyone throwing their hats in the air.

This song has been considered to be one of the three most famous Japanese dance songs. The Yagibushi musicians employ the fallowing traditional instruments: a " taru"-a barrel drum; a "tsuzumi"- a hand drum; a "kane" - a bell orgong; a " yokobue" -a bamboo flute.