Kushimoto Bushi

This is a folk song from Kushimoto, a port town at the southernmost tip of Wakayama Prefecture. Kushimoto was bustling as a place to wait out the wind or take refuge from typhoons, and it has been sung as a lively song at drinking parties in port towns. The origin of this song is a song called "Shiramusu Kouya" about the daughter of a miller in Chiba Prefecture, which gave birth to the song "Oitoko Soudayo" at the end of the Edo period, and it is said that it was passed down to the Kushimoto region by traveling entertainers or lion dancers. The accompaniment words were added to the line "Ejanaika Ejanaika, Ochayare" from the Ise Shrine pilgrimage, becoming "Ejanaika Bushi" or "Ochayare Bushi," and it was sung as a mikoshi (portable shrine) procession song at shrine festivals and at drinking parties. When an amphibious plane arrived in Kushimoto from America in 1924 (Taisho 13), the story was introduced by newspaper reporters from the Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe areas who had gathered to cover the story. After the Kamigata manzai comedian Sunagawa Sutemaru recorded it on record, the story spread nationwide as "Kushimoto Bushi."

[Akira Saito]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

和歌山県最南端の港町、串本地方の民謡。串本は風待ちや台風の避難港としてにぎわい、港町の酒席の騒(さわ)ぎ唄(うた)として歌われてきた。この唄の源流は、千葉県の粉屋の娘を歌った『白桝(しらます)粉屋』という唄で、これが江戸時代末期に「おいとこそうだよ」という唄を生み、旅芸人か獅子舞(ししまい)かの口から串本地方にも伝えられたものであるという。囃子詞(はやしことば)に伊勢(いせ)お陰参りの「エジャナイカエジャナイカ、オチャヤレ」がつき、「エジャナイカ節」あるいは「オチャヤレ節」になり、神社祭礼の神輿(みこし)行列唄や酒宴の唄として歌われていた。1924年（大正13）アメリカから水陸両用機が串本にきた際、取材で集まった京阪神の新聞記者たちにより紹介され、当時の上方(かみがた)漫才師砂川捨丸(すてまる)がレコードに吹き込んでから、『串本節』として全国的に広まった。

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