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This is a Jiuta piece in the Tegotomono style from the Ikuta Ryû school . This piece was composed for koto by Ichiura Koto . This piece was composed for shamisen by Minezaki Koto .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Echigo-jishi (‘Echigo Lion Dance’) is a jiuta piece composed by Minezaki Koto of Osaka, a prolific composer of the late eighteenth century. Yaezaki Kengyo (1766?-1848) of Kyoto later arranged it for koto and shamisen ensemble. It is considered to be one of the main sources for a popular nagauta piece of the same title.

The idea for the piece is taken from a traditional folk performing art called Echigo-jishi (also known as Kakubei-jishi since it was created by a man called Kakubei from Kanbara in the Echigo province, present Niigata Prefecture). In this dance a man wearing a carved lion-head, which is considerably stylized and gorgeously lacquered in vermilion and gold, does an acrobatic, comical, ceremonial dance as an auspicious lion. The tegoto (instrumental interlude) section in two parts depicts the lion dance itself.

One structural feature of the text is an enumeration of the noted products of the Echigo region, such as eels, hemp rope, cambric (Ehicgo-jofu), cotton crepe (Ojiya-chijimi) and herbs (toki and oren), as well as, of course, the lion dance. On the surface, this presentation does not follow a single line of logic. But on another level, the seemingly unrelated words have amorous associations which reveal a sub-stream of playful love flowing through the piece. Consequently, the text contains complicated puns and subtle allusions, which are virtually untranslatable. The present translation attempts to preserve the meaning of the text.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The seacoast
Along the Koshiji road (1)
Is noted for many things:
For example, the famous songs
Of the lion dance (2)
Filled with country dialect
And amusing jokes.
The region is also famous
For fisher boys
From Naoe Bay
Who braid seven eels (3) together
With hemp rope
To pull the hearts
Of their lovers
Living in the distant village
Of Komeyama.
Who would complain
About going so far
To pick fresh parsley (4)?
These boys, like baby eels
Sliding through water grass
In the Itoi River,
Have emotions as thick as oil,
And attachments
As sticky as lacquer.
Their vows of eternal love.
Like those at Mt. Sue no Matsu (5),
Are pure as white hempen cloth (6).
The chic taste of the region
Can be seen in
The revealing
Sheer cotton crepe ‘kimono’ (s) (7)
And is reflected as well
In the flute and drum music
Of the lion dance.

A fresh maiden of seventeen
Gathered bamboo branches
From the hill over yonder
And cut them neatly
In bundles of seventeen.
The cross-sections together
Are as pure and pretty as herself,
Napping and dreaming
Of flowers in full bloom.

The meaning of her dream is auspicious,
For though the costume of the Echigo lion
Has no fancy peony decorations (8)
When the lion dances,
There blooms an aura
Of ‘wealth and honor,’ (9)
There blooms and aura
Of ‘wealth and honor.’

(1) The old road which ran through the Hokuriku area in northwestern Japan.
(2) In the original text, the expression shiro usagi (‘white rabbit’) is given. However, this is generally believed to be a later corruption of shishi-uta (‘song of the lion dance’). The present translation has restored the alleged original.
(3) The original text refers to the yatsume-unagi (lit. ‘eight-eyed eel’ or a kind of lamprey). The number seven is introduced through word play.
(4) Toki and oren are kinds of parsley. Toki contains a pun on ‘distant’ and oren, a pun on ‘meeting.’
(5) Derived from its complementary meaning of ‘waiting forever,’ sue no matsu is conventionally used in poetry as a lover’s pledge.
(6) Echigo-jofu
(7) Ojiya-chijimi
(8) The peony (botan) is associated with the Chinese style lion (shishi, or kara jishi).
(9) ‘Wealth and honor’ is the translation of fuki, which is a pun on fuki, a kind of Japanese rhubarb.

Echigojishi appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Ensemble Nipponia - Kabuki and other Traditional Music  (Listen)
Echigojishi is a lyrical piece about a provincial entertainer who makes his living in the city streets performing a folk-style lion dance. A flute-and-drum ensemble sets the festive atmosphere and then provides a back-drop against which two shamisen play the prelude and then the famous sarashi duet which, when danced, features two long white streamers whirled about by the dancer in a spectacular display that rivals the virtuosity of the musicians.
Fujii Kunie Sokyoku Jiuta No Sekai 1  (Listen)
Japan Revisited  (Listen)
Koto Music of Japan, The  (Listen)
Echigojishi is a folk song based on an ancient Lion Dance performed in the festivals of Echigo in the Eastern part of Japan. Echigojishi was written by Kinto Minezaki in the eighteenth century and has been passed on by generations of talented koto artists.
Koto and Shamisen Gendai Meikyoku Shu 05  (Listen)
Koto no Miryoku - Disk 2  (Listen)
Musical Anthology of the Orient, Unesco Collection Vol 3  (Listen)
Naga-uta (literally "long song") is a form used principally to accompany Kabuki dances; such songs are however also frequently performed as concert pieces. The instruments used for Naga-uta are usually shamisen, flute, ko-tsuzumi, o-tsuzumi and taiko. The title "Echigojishi" refers to a lion-dance from the Echigo province in north-western Japan which at the beginning of the 19th century was known throughout the land. The piece is not held together by a single plot, but consists of a number of short texts in each of which either a reference is made to a particular folk-art of Echigo province, or else folk-songs are quoted. The formal structure of the music corresponds to that of the Kabuki dance. The individual sections differ in their scoring, tempi and character, as well as in their dramaturgical function. "Echigojishi" contains many instrumental interludes which are sometimes played on a solo shamisen, sometimes by a group of instruments. The sham is en is tuned to Sansagari. "Echigojishi" was performed in Edo for the first time in 1811. Originally created for the Kabuki stage, it is now usually performed as a concert piece.
Sasa no Tsuyu - Ikuta Ryu Sokyoku Tokusen - Vol 4  (Listen)
Selections from Koto, Shamisen and Shakuhachi  (Listen)
In Japan, Shishi is a symbolic animal often used for driving out evil spirits. On new year days, it is an old tradition that boys of the Echigo District, accompanied by their protector, dress up as a Shishi to perform dances for driving evil spirit out of private homes for a reward. This is called Echigo Jishi in their native place. This music was composed in 1811 for a Kabuki dance with the theme of Echigo Jishi. The original music is classified into Naga-Uta with Shamisen accompaniment. It was further followed by a composition for Fue, Tsuzumi, Taiko, etc. This record contains only a portion of the most famous melody performed by Shamisen. The latter paragraphs are arranged rumba rhythm.
Shamisen Genroku Hanami-Odori  (Listen)
Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 22  (Listen)	Shimabara Hanzan	Yonekawa Fumiko	Yonekawa Fumiko II
Venerated Patterns  (Listen)
Among the snatches of Japanese melodies (e.g., the folksong Oedo Nihombashi, the national anthem Kimi Ga Yo) incorporated into the score of Puccini's Madame Butterfly (1904) is this Shamisen accompaniment for voice from a middle section of the Nagauta piece Echigo Jishi (1811). It Is played In a Shamisen tuning called san sagari (lowered third string) and the piece depicts seasonal street entertainers at work in the urban centers of the time. The lion refers to the headgear In the design of a lion's face worn by these migrants who travelled each winter from Echigo (former name of northeastern Japan) when the short growing season there ended. This section of Echigo Jishi is used by Puccini more than once in his opera-in Act I when Goro sings of the approaching crowd of girls from which Butterfly makes her initial onstage entrance, In the same act when she sings of the circumstances which led her to the life of a geisha (professional entertainer), in the ensuring dialogue after Yamadori's entrance in Act II, as well as the opening notes of the Intermezzo between Acts II and III.