Roving Ronin Report Presents Japanese Biwa Player

Japanese Biwa Player playing "Dan-no-ura" a song about the last battle between the Heike and Genji clans.

It's up for votes on Current TV:
http://www.current.tv/watch/70143572
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Dan-no-ura was the site of the last battle of the Gempei War in which the Heike clan was finally destroyed by the Genji clan.

Centuries later, legends say a blind biwa player was tricked into playing for the restless spirits of the Heike. He barely escaped with his life paying the price of his ears being ripped off. This story is known as Hoichi the Earless and appears in the Kwaiden.

Around the 4 minute mark, she starts shredding some wicked licks like a geisha Jimi Hendricks! I half-expected her to set her biwa on fire at the end. The accompanying thunderclaps were more than appropiate.

Towards the end a thunderstorm struck suddenly and ominously. She was playing the song in Yunishigawa in Tochigi where Heike refugees fled to in hiding. The thunderstorm gave the performance an eery supernatural feeling. It stopped not long after she finished.

The title music is by the exotic ones:
http://www.myspace.com/exoticones

The band cameo is a Japanese-based group - the Sushi Cabaret Club:
http://www.myspace.com/thesushicabaretclub