Yagibushi music and dancing originated around the year 1500 A.D.during
the
reign of Load Kenshin Uesugi in the area of Japan called "Etchigo". The music
was popularly played during the summer "Bon Odori" Festival, a Buddhist festival
celebrating the annual return of ancestral spirits to the land of the living.
Around the year 1800, in a place called "Kizaki" in Nitta
County near Kiryu, it became common practice to add wards to the music and dancing.
Around 1900, a man named Genta Horigome stood an a horse cart singing Yagibushi songs and
was pulled through the streets between Kiryu and the
neighboring town of Ashikaga. He sang of the winds which blew down from the
nearby volcano,Mt.Akagi,setting the music to the rhythm of water flowing in the Tonegawa
river which passes through the area.
Around 1930, in order to popularize the 1200 years of textile weaving
tradition in Kiryu,textile wholesalers from all over the country were invited to observe a
Yagibushi folkmusic competition during the annual festival. This event was
enthusiastically supported by all. Afterwards, Yagibushi singing and dancing became a
popular way to advertise Kiryu's textile industry all over the country.
In recent years, Kiryu Yagibushi performers participated in
the Osaka World's Fair and became nationally known as a result. In Kiryu,
Yagibushi folkmusic is annually performed before over 150,000 people from
August 5-7 during the Yagibushi Festival.
The Yagibushi musicians employ the fallowing traditional instruments:
a " taru"-a barrel drum; a "tsuzumi"- a hand drum; a "kane"
- a bell or
gong; a " yokobue" -a bamboo flute.
