『Quick Guide to Sado Okesa』👘 Full-Color Photo Commentary / Appendix: Sado Folk Arts Collection Published by: Sado Kisen & Niigata Kotsu Sado Office

【Introduction to Niigata Ephemera】🧐

『Quick Guide to Sado Okesa』👘
Full-Color Photo Commentary / Appendix: Sado Folk Arts Collection
Published by: Sado Kisen & Niigata Kotsu Sado Office

A booklet printed as a "tourist souvenir." The cover features a full-color photo of a dancer wearing a straw hat dancing at the water's edge, and when opened, it packs everything from how to dance Sado Okesa to Onidaiko, Bunya puppets, Harukoma, and the small lion dance, all in one place.📖

The term "full-color photo" on the cover was the name used at the time to refer to color photographs that reproduced actual colors as they were.
It was a term used to distinguish them from "colored photos," which were black-and-white photos that had been hand-tinted. In an era when natural-color printing technology was still rare, the fact that it was a color photo was a selling point for tourist souvenirs in itself.

【Commentary on Contents, etc.】🧐
⚫︎ The foreword captures the excitement of the time when Sado Okesa was popular nationwide and "Sado Jo-wa" (Sado Love Story) was frequently played on the radio.
It begins with the opening lyrics, "To Sado, to Sado, even the plants and trees lean," and records the background of how this book was compiled for Sado Okesa enthusiasts. This single passage conveys just how significant the Showa-era Okesa boom was.

⚫︎ The table of contents is structured as follows: "Foreword," "Commentary on Okesa Dance," "Sado Okesa Lyrics and Musical Notation," "Aikawa Ondo 'Genpei Gundan'," "Onidaiko," "Ryotsu Jinku," "Harukoma," "Bunya-bushi and Noroma Puppets," and "Small Lion Dance."
It covers everything from dance steps and songs to the origins of folk arts in a single volume, offering an exceptional density of information for a tourist souvenir.
The book's greatest appeal is that it is not merely a pamphlet, but serves as an introductory encyclopedia to Sado's performing arts.

⚫︎ On the page titled "About Okesa Dance," the movements are carefully explained with photos and text.
With instructions like "Step forward with your left foot in front of your right, raise your left hand, and clap both hands," the structure allows readers to follow the actual choreography step-by-step. The model is explicitly identified as Noriko Ota from the Niigata Kotsu Company Okesa Caravan.
It is interesting to see the format of a practical manual, created so that tourists could actually learn the dance and take it home with them.

⚫︎ The pages for "Ryotsu Jinku" and "Aikawa Ondo" are lined with lyrics, including many folk songs that sing of Sado life and romance, such as "If you go on a mountain pilgrimage, you will meet at Haguro." As a record of folk song lyrics that are now rarely read in such a consolidated form, it has high value as a reference material.

⚫︎ In the sections for "Onidaiko," "Bunya Puppets," "Harukoma," and "Small Lion Dance," the origins and current status of each folk art are introduced along with photographs.
The page on Bunya puppets notes that Sado's puppet theater dates back to the Noroma puppets of Kyoto in the Kanpo era, and records the history of its designation as a cultural asset in 1952. Despite being a simple tourist souvenir, it firmly captures the essential points of the history of local performing arts.

⚫︎ Advertisements for Sado Kisen and the Niigata Kotsu Sado Office are inserted at the beginning and end of the book, showing that tourism infrastructure and the promotion of local performing arts were integrated at the time.

📖 Paper that speaks of the "bridge between tourism and performing arts"—compiled during the height of the Sado Okesa boom so that tourists could learn the dance and take it home, this volume has an ambitious structure that serves as both a guide to local performing arts and a space for transport company advertisements.
Condensed with photos, lyrics, commentary, and advertisements, it is truly a piece of ephemera for taking the entirety of "Showa-era Sado Tourism" home with you.
Unlike individual old postcards or tickets, the ability to get a bird's-eye view of Sado's performing arts history, tourism history, and printing culture in one volume gives this book a unique collectible value.😌

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