Tankō Bushi

It is a common song used in Bon dances during the Bon Festival, and the dance that accompanies it depicts actions in mines such as shoveling coal, throwing a bag of coal over the shoulders, shading the eyes from the sun, pushing a cart of coal and a ceremonial bow as captured on the notes by Folk Music International.

Modern arrangements of Tankō Bushi replace the lyric "Miike Tankō" with "uchi no oyama," which in traditional mining dialect means "our coal mine" or "our coal pit," as Miike Mine is no longer in service, and the song is played at Bon dances outside of Kyūshū.

[2] It was originally recorded on 78 RPM as Victor V-41543 featuring Suzuki Masao and Kikumaru.

The version of Tanko Bushi most commonly heard at the Bon Dances in Hawaii during the second half of the 1900's [3] is the 1963 commercial rerecording of Victor V-41543 featuring Suzuki Masao and Kikumaru with the Victor Orchestra.

[5] A very similar recording of Suzuki Masao and Kikumaru with Japanese musicians was made in 1950.