Donpan-bushi: An Akita folk song passed down and sung by various artists

Donpan-bushiXposé Guitar Ensemble

Donpan Bushi / Yudai Hatanaka I Xposé Guitar Ensemble

This is a performance of folk songs traditionally sung and danced at festivals in Akita Prefecture, rendered in a refined arrangement by a Singaporean guitar ensemble.

Arranged by Yudai Hatanaka, it recreates the energy of taiko rhythms and festival calls through guitar body percussion and syncopation, channeling the vibrancy of the festivities directly into the ensemble.

It was showcased at a concert held at the Esplanade Recital Studio in November 2023 and has been released on the ensemble’s official channel.

If you’re familiar with hearing these tunes at local Bon dances and summer festivals, you’ll be surprised by the fresh sonority of a guitar ensemble.

It’s a rare performance that lets you rediscover the charm of Japanese folk music—nurtured by the country’s natural and cultural landscape—through an international instrumentation.

Shonen Donpan-bushi

Shonen Donpan-bushi

The rhythm of Bon Odori is revived by the boys’ clear, pure singing! The call-and-response that imitates the drum beats—“don-don, pan-pan”—is striking, and you can picture the festival scene of dancers moving in a circle.

Brimming with a lively energy that makes your body start to move, it’s as if you’re drawn in by the sounds of handclaps, shamisen, and flutes.

Recorded by the Victor Boys’ Folk Song Society in 1960, this piece was included on the album Victor Boys’ Folk Song Society, Vol.

3.

It’s a perfect track for when you want to spend a bustling time at local festivals or Bon Odori, or when you want to rediscover the appeal of regional performing arts.

Donpan-bushikoderan ni~

[Akita Prefecture Folk Song] Donpan-bushi / Koderan-ni~ Donpan-bushi / Minyo Coderanny Vocals: Freddy Tsukamoto (Minyo Crusaders) Vocals: Chanyuka / Shamisen: Kazuhisa Akiyama / Flute: Kanako Mikado

This piece revives a folk song born in Daisen City, Akita Prefecture, performed entirely acoustically with vocals, Tsugaru shamisen, shinobue flute, and drums.

The shamisen’s percussive strikes respond to the powerful singing, while the drums and flute create a vibrant sense of motion.

Released in August 2021, this performance features the “dondom panpan” rhythm and calls that naturally draw the audience into a circular dance.

After repeated live renditions at the Hibiya Music Festival and other urban events, it has functioned not just as music to watch but as folk music to join in.

It’s perfect for festivals, night markets, and art programs—any dance-friendly setting where nostalgia meets the new.

Donpan-bushiKingu Rekōdo min’yō kashu 16-nin

Sixteen of us cheerfully and brightly perform the Akita folk song “Donpan-bushi” — Don-don pan-pan, Donpan paaan♪ — with Akita natives Retsuko Takehana and Hanako Ono also joining in!

Brimming with the bustle of festivals and the joy of dancing in a circle, this classic folk song has the power to make listeners smile.

Singers from King Records deliver a passionate performance! In the remote choral version released in September 2020 on King Records’ official folk music channel, 16 performers—anchored by seasoned Akita-associated veterans like Retsuko Takehana and Hanako Ono, and joined by younger talents such as Akiyo Yajima and Kaori Yoshida—blend their separately recorded vocals into one.

As an effort to preserve culture during the COVID-19 pandemic, the video is a breathtaking display of folk music’s circle extending across generations through the screen.

It’s the perfect song for when you long for Obon dance season or local festivals, or when you want to evoke memories of your hometown.

Donpan-bushiKato Erina × Inoue Tsuyoshi

[Erina Kato × Tsuyoshi Inoue × Donpan-bushi] We present to you “Donpan-bushi,” a folk song known to those in the know! :)

In June 2020, Erina Kato and Tsuyoshi Inoue, artists based in Hokkaido, released a video work capturing the rhythm of a labor song that has long been danced to at a summer festival in Akita.

Devoted lovers of folk music, the duo’s performance interweaves a soaring vocal line with the powerful, deft attack of Tsugaru shamisen, producing a crisp groove that evokes the circle of Bon Odori.

This is a performance we highly recommend to anyone who wants to feel the heat of a festival, explore folk songs from across Japan, or immerse themselves in top-tier minyo singing.

Donpan-bushiEri Chiemi

Chiemi’s Donpan Bushi

This is a big band cover, released in April 1965, that gives an urban reinterpretation to a folk song handed down in the Nakasen area of Daisen City, Akita Prefecture.

Arranger Yasushi Miyagawa sets lively brass riffs and call-and-response sax passages, while the rich performance by Toshiyuki Miyama and The New Herd further enhances the onomatopoeic feel of the original’s “don-don pan-pan.” Chiemi Eri’s robust, clear vocal delivery incorporates the distinct melismatic inflections of min’yō while retaining a refined pop sensibility, resulting in an urbane lightness that avoids excessive rusticity.

By reconstructing a tune beloved at local festivals through the idiom of jazz, this work stands as a emblematic record of the modernization of Japanese folk music.

Donpan-bushiAsano Sho × Sato Koki

“Donpan Bushi” Sho Asano × Koki Sato [Livestream]

A folk song, nurtured by the land of Akita with its powerful rhythms and beloved for its approachable, danceable charm, is vividly brought back to life by Sho Asano and Koki Sato.

The driving beat carved by the Tsugaru shamisen is layered with a shakuhachi melody brimming with lyricism, while the base pulse of the taiko and the dance merge into one, delivering an immediacy that feels as if you’re at the center of a circle dance.

Released as a streamed performance in April 2021, this piece can be seen as a visual work that translates a classic—also used as the theme song for the Akita National Sports Festival—into a contemporary form through the agile attacks of traditional Japanese instruments and the inflections of folk song.