temple concert

This weekend I went to a concert inside a temple. It was my first glance of what regular life is like inside a temple. In fact, it's rather like a community centre. There were kids playing, a dog and cat walking around, as well as priests praying.

The real reason I was there was to watch my friend, Miyuki's sanshin circle play.

They started by doing a 盆踊り、a dance for the dead. Kind of in honour of the ancestors. So there were two people playing shamisen and one was playing an instrument I've never seen, which played like a violin.

The shamisen with some people dancing in the background.

This is the violin like instrument. It sounded very nice, actually — and very eastern!

Nice kimonos, eh?





Here`s the dance! The Bon Odori.

Part 2!

There were also some other performances, like this jangara, a traditional folk song.

Ok ok ok! Now for my favourite part: The sanshin! This is an okinawan instrument and it definitely sounds different from the traditional Japanese ones. The sound itself was rural, pastoral...something from a peaceful, quiet life...catching fish maybe?


Sorry for the low quality, I took all of this on my mobile phone.