This play, titled Shimizu, or “Pure Water,” is one of the most famous of the Kyōgen genre, short plays which often serve as intermissions to more intense dramas.

In its heyday, there were up to 1,000 practicing geisha, female entertainers, working in Dōgo Onsen. This Ozashiki Buyō, or “dining-room dance” is performed by artists who have revived the traditional geisha performing arts of Dōgo.

Enjoy a powerful wadaiko performance by a group based in Matsuyama’s Ebaramachi, an area that loves festivals and the drums, flutes, songs, and dances that go with them.

This performer has studied Japanese dance from childhood, and at eighteen years old entered the world of taishū engeki, a Japanese genre of popular theater. Their eighteen-year career as a traveling performer included six as a troop leader. Though currently based in Matsuyama, the dancer still travels all over Japan when requested to perform by other groups. This pleasant dance is done in splendid clothing, and represents an evolved style of Japanese dance which has been arranged to suit modern tastes.

Yakyū-ken or “baseball fist” is a drinking game that originated in Matsuyama. The geiko perform a dance to a simple tune while the partygoers dance along. At the end of the song, a loser is determined by a game of rock-paper-scissors. Everyone shouts “basshū!” (“Penalty booze!”) at the loser, who has to chug down their beverage. The name of the game refers to the gestures of the dance, which mimic throwing and hitting baseballs.