Sakuragawa Dairyu (桜川大龍)
Dairyu SAKURAGAWA (his real name: Torakichi NISHIZAWA, 1809 - March 29, 1890) was Soke (the owner of the highest-graded patches of land under the stratified land ruling structure of Shoen, the same as Honke in this manner) of Koshu ondo (the folk dance around Shiga prefecture). His family name is written as 櫻川 in the orthographic style.
Biography
In 1809, he was born in Kawase Village, Omi province (current Minami-Kawase town, Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture). He worked as a chef in Yokkaichi (current Higashiomi City). He was so interested in singing by nature that he studied it under Hinazan SAKURAGAWA, an expert of saimon (address to the gods) narration. He called himself Utatora SAKURAGAWA, and he created ondo (fork tunes) with his distinctive style by employing some melodies, such as Utanenbutsu (Buddhist prayer's songs), "Kai saimon" (Shinto prayers in the shell festival) and Nenbutsu odori (Buddhist prayer's dancing) into Saimon narration (Shinto prayer's narrations in the festival); the ondo that he created was called "Saimon ondo." It is said that this was the original style of Goshu ondo.
Development of Koshu ondo
Later, Utatora called himself Dairyu SAKURAGAWA as his master Hinazan allowed him to take the new name. The dance was known as Saimon Ondo in Yokkaichi at the beginning. Later, he created a lot of melodies and numbers in cooperation with Kuzaemon OKUMURA (the first Kobun SHINCHUYA) who was one of his friends; In 1867, he showed his dance performance at Senjyu-ji temple in Toyosato Town, Inugami County, Shiga Prefecture. It was gradually spread throughout Shiga Prefecture. Today, Goshu ondo is danced not only within Shiga Prefecture but also in many other prefectures around Kinki region.
Successors of the school name as Dairyu
The first generation was Dairyu SAKURAGAWA
The second generation was Gokaso Dairyu SAKURAGAWA
The third generation was Kawase Dairyu SAKURAGAWA (Tatsumaru SAKURAGAWA)
The forth generation was Dairyu SAKURAGAWA (the third generation 桜川寿賀元)
The fifth generation was Maibara Dairyu SAKURAGAWA
Today, there is no successor of the school name.