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In September 2022, the performers of the Gyozan-ryu Mitobe Deer Dance (Shishi Odori), a traditional performing art of Minamisanriku-cho in Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan, and musicians from Tohoku finally performed in person with the popular Israeli band Boom Pam in concerts held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the State of Israel.

This video, interspersed with interviews, depicts how the Japanese and Israeli performers came together on stage as “Boom Pam & The Spirit of Tohoku” by showing their first face-to-face meeting in the rehearsal studio, their exploration of each other’s work as they created the stage, and their interaction with the Israeli audience in the outdoor concert at the historic Israel Festival in Jerusalem and the performance at the Japan Festival in Tel Aviv.

The impetus for their collaboration dates back to the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami, Israel was the first country to dispatch a medical aid team to disaster-stricken Minamisanriku. In 2021, artists from Japan and Israel collaborated in an online concert organized by the Embassy of Israel in Japan to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the earthquake (http://boompamtohoku.jp/english).

Due to travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, their dream of visiting each other’s countries had remained unfulfilled. In 2022, after a year of online exchanges, the long-awaited in-person concerts finally took place, drawing a total of about 3,000 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
We invite you to enjoy the entirety of their collaboration, from rehearsal to performance on stage.

＜Performance Information＞
Presented by: The Japan Foundation (https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/)
Co-presented by : Embassy of Japan in Israel
Cooperation: Embassy of Israel in Japan (Organizer of the 311-321 Project, the “Israel-TOHOKU Music Collaboration” )
Production: Japan Folk Performing Arts Association
Production Cooperation: Association Sukiyaki Office

Performers:
Gyozan-ryu Mitobe Deer Dance (Shishi Odori) Preservation Group (Minamisanriku-cho, Motoyoshi-gun, Miyagi Prefecture. Dancer: KOIWA Shutaro, ONODERA Sho),
SHIRASAKI Emi, YOTSUKURA Yukihiko, BOOM PAM
Staff: KOIWA Shutaro (Coordinator), Nicolas RIBALET (Producer), TAKANO Yo (Stage Manager)
Illustration: KUDO Mayumi (Priestess of Kaminoyama Hachimangu Shrine in Minamisanriku-cho, on the east coast of the Tohoku region)

＜Video Information＞
Filmed at Israel Festival (Jerusalem) on September 21, 2022 and Japan Festival in Israel (Tel Aviv) on September 23, 2022
Presented by The Japan Foundation
Filmed by: Dudu BOKER
Edited by: Tomer ROTEM
Content Editor: Dana Nahum HERMAN

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