“Soran Bushi” is a one of the best-known Japanese folk songs and it is sung at Nishin (herring) fishing sites when moving the herring from large nets onto small boats with hand-nets. The fishing site moves from town to town and as a result, each town has developed its own dance in relation to it. There are currently about ten variations of “Soran Bushi.” Nowadays, some sites can no longer find even a single herring but despite the poor catch, this song is as popular as it
was in the early days. The name of this song/dance comes from shouting encouragement to each other as well as to express the joy of successful catches.

Presented by Iwao Tamaoki in 2012. View pdf here.