Riyo Sanmyaku × EM Records is back in action! And this time it's Tohoku!! The fifth volume in the folk-song excavation series supervised by Riyo Sanmyaku drops a carpet-bombing Bon dance tune built for the floor: "Nanyatoyara" from Ninohe City in northern Iwate Prefecture!! Who knew the "present progressive form" of Tohoku's oldest Bon dance song could be this insane!!!!

-info-
From 2019 on, as COVID-19 raged, folk song preservation societies across the country suspended their activities, and Bon dances, recitals, and even practice sessions were called off. As a result, the Riyo × EM folk song excavation releases were forced to pause as well. Precisely because the series is committed to folk music in the here and now, the releases had to stop while the singing stopped during the pandemic. In 2024 the situation gradually improved, and the release plans we'd been nurturing since before COVID have finally come to fruition after all this time.

"Nanyatoyara," released here, is said to be the oldest Bon dance in Tohoku, handed down widely across the region spanning northern Iwate and the former Nanbu domain lands of Aomori. This trance-inducing Bon dance, which relentlessly repeats the single phrase "Nanyatoyara," is known as a "song of mystery," and there are numerous theories about its origins. The famous one is the "Hebrew theory" told alongside the legend of Christ's tomb, but its true source remains unknown. Many Bon dance songs and work songs—"Tanabu Oshimako," "Torajo-sama," "Tenma no Miyoko," and even "Dounan Bon Uta," a signature folk song of Hokkaido—trace their lineage back to this song, making it one of the foundations of Tohoku folk music.

This release collects three versions of "Nanyatoyara" by the Ninohe City Nanyatoyara Preservation Society, active in Ninohe City in northern Iwate: recordings from 2002, 2015, and 2023. The overwhelming, on-the-ground intensity knocks out in one punch the exoticizing lens of the "song of mystery" that has been draped over this music. Carpet-bombing taiko and improvised lyrics that keep on coming make for utterly wild listening. Though they call themselves a "preservation society," the Ninohe City Nanyatoyara Preservation Society powerfully pattanas (improves and develops) Nanyatoyara into a contemporary form, smashing the fixed notion that "folk song = old story"—a fitting first release for the revival of the Riyo × EM folk song excavation series after the pandemic. This is the sound of the real thing!

Note: This release uses the spelling "Nanyatoyara," though it is sometimes written "Nanyadoyara."

= Product specs =
+ Standard jewel case
+ Includes 24-page booklet, with obi
+ Liner notes: Riyo Sanmyaku (English translation included)
+ Package design: Shinsuke Takagi (Soi48)

Mastering: Takuto Kuratani

Recording and mixing of the 2023 version: SUGAI KEN