As a little Jewish kid In America, I thought I was going crazy when i realized the music being played on my gameboy pocket when i played one of the mini games that came with the gameboy camera. My parents thought it must have been a coincidence. I FEEL SO VINDICATED!!!
This song doesn’t sound Japanese at all. It definitely has something similar to Eastern European music, the rythme and instruments. The version that “sounds” Japanese is definitely a “Japanized” version and not the other way.
it's not only about Jewish songs but also many foreign music were translated into Japanese, since educators at that time believed that singing those foreign songs would be good for kid's education. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Auld Lang Syne, Grandfather's Clock, The Other Day, I Met a Bear, Flohwalzer, Dona Dona, Неделька, etc... Especially "Auld Lang Syne" is from before the WW2, it spread also to Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia (places where Japan once ruled and soldiers taught kids the song, then localized)
As a Japanese myself, I can confirm that I grew up with this song, and heard different versions. It was a huge part of high school cultural festival. Because my school was boy only, it became a place where you invite girls from another schools to dance together. It is basically my equivalent of ball or prom.
oh my god is that why 70's tv anime music sounds like klezmer music?? japan fell in love with this particular song and it became a massive inspiration?? (sorry if you talked about this in more detail, i am FLABBERGASTED and had to leave a comment before finishing the video lol)
I once spoke to an Armenian dancing teacher who told me he had been invited to Japan to teach. I asked him "to teach Armenian dancing to Japanese people?"...he said " no, to teach Israeli dancing".
As of now, the new Flandre character in the game "Touhou: lost word" has individual spell cards that spell out the words of the song, as an Israeli person and a Jewish one as well I recognized it immediately and was utterly confused and surprised as this is a song I danced to growing up in a kibbutz.. thank you so much for this well researched video and the well needed explanation!
My dad’s jewish and my mom’s dad worked at a Jewish center so I grew up celebrating hanukah and singing a lot of Jewish songs. I have never heard of this song before but I appreciate you talking about Jewish culture on the internet, I am very proud of this side that my dad has taught me and always feel thankful when I find content about it.
This is sooo friggin cool! I’m Russian with no Jewish heritage whatsoever, but my wife has some, so we applied for Masa program and ended up living in Israel for almost a year. I fell in love deeply with Jewish culture, and having quite a liking for everything Japanese since my teen years I was stunned to find out about Mayim Mayim in Japanese culture. Todah rabah!
do you happen to know what russian "rondo" dance is being mentioned at 9:47? i've googled around but not coming up with anything definitively related to dance, only rondo music which doesn't appear to be very danceable nor russian in origin.
Late reply but I did a Masa program 10 years ago! Although it was my second time going to Israel for a longer period of time, and I wasn't happily married, just a wide-eyed 22 year-old straight out of college with a desperate need to get out of my parents' house lol
This was a delightful video . At a 70 Year old raised in a mixed Sephardic/Ashkenazi world in Brooklyn, I am very deeply a cultural Jew. . Too Boot with my Japanese daughter in law and bilingual Brooklyn. grandchildren and our upcoming visit to Japan, and my recent Discovery of Ghilbi and Totorro and Ponyo, I hit paydirt with this video ! I was delighted . Thank you so much
This video was a lot of fun to make - really enjoyed getting to research aspects of my own culture and how a little part of it has made it so big in Japan. Mayim Mayim is still completely stuck in my head, though.
@@fabiofukuda6724 That's really interesting! I've actually written two articles about the history of the Japanese-Brazilians for Unseen Japan - I'd like to turn them into videos like this someday! Really a fascinating history.
I'm Brazilian Japanese and I remember learning マイムマイム (maim maim) and ハヴァナギラハヴァ(hava nagila hava) at a Japanese kindergarten in Brazil. I found out these songs were Jewish many years later, thought they were Japanese because there are Japanese folksongs with uncommon words like the ソーラン節 (soran bushi) song, which my grandmother used to sing to me.
I was similarly surprised to hear the American Civil War song "Marching Through Georgia" in a Japanese context. It's a hugely popular folksong there called "Pai-no-pai-no-pai" with completely different lyrics. Everyone in Japan knows the melody but is completely unaware that it originated during the American Civil War!
Interesting! Lots of popular folk songs in Japan stemming from the same era but with minimal context being taught about them. "Turkey in the Straw" is huge, although it's called "Oklahoma Mixer" in Japan.
Well i was equally surprised that the song, Glory Glory Hallelujah, they sing in churches over here in South east Asia was also an American civil war song.
@@juch3”Glory Glory Hallelujah”, or the Battle Hymn of the Republic, actually has roots further back than the civil war. The melody is derived from a black spiritual song sung by enslaved workers, which later developed into the battle Hymn’s predecessor, John Brown’s Body, in the years after John Brown’s failed attempt at starting a slave uprising.
As a Japanese, I find it very strange that the theme song of "Yodobashi Camera," the largest electronics retailer in Japan, is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from the American Civil War.
Send a comment from Japan. For a long time, it was a mystery as to which country this song was made in, but it was good to know. At the end of WW2 in 1956, the act of touching the skin between male and female students was avoided in Japan. There may have been various speculations in the nation and school, but I like this song.
FINALLY SOMEONE EXPLAINS IT!!!! I remember when I first heard Mayim Mayim in the middle of an old NicoNico video fuckin YEARS ago. Thought I was goin crazy lol
I'm Japanese and I really feel like there is some sort of cultural bond between the Jewish culture and Japanese culture. for example, although there are no proper founding proof of this but the Japanese-Jewish common ancestry theory is a good example. and lot of old to modern pop culture similarity popping up here and there makes you wonder...
When my Japanese professor randomly started singing マイムマイム in class one day, my mind was blown. Also just so you know, Hey Alma recently published an article on this topic that more or less lifts a few paragraphs from your script. It does link to your piece but it struck me as a little too direct 🤷♂️
Hey, thanks for letting me know about this! It's cool that they'd cover the same topic, but you're right - the structural similarities feel like a bit much.
As an Israeli girl who has heard both Mayim Mayim and seen many of these memes, I'm kind of ashamed of myself for not catching on to the fact it was literally the exact same song... I *did* always think it sounded Jewish.
This video is so cool! I am jewish, and lived in israel for my whole 21 years of living. I danced horah in school, and ive heard this song so many time of course. I used to watch the anime channel and even hebrew dubbed animes ever since i was 3. I was in love with japanese culture even as an elementary school kid. Didnt sleep to watch animes in midle school... read manga during breaks... drew anime characters 24/7... listened to japanese music (especially city pop!) A complete otaku. This video had me shocked, that japanese people know such a core part of the jewish culture, and love it. And the fact that it was featured in a movie from the biggest studio in japan!! Amazing.
American Jew. Looked up Mayim Mayim for Hebrew school and I found a video of hatsune miku singing it (lmao) which led to this video. So amazing how this song traveled all the way to Japan!
Wow this song takes me back to my days in Jewish day school. I don’t remember being taught the origins of the song just that it was popular in Israel to dance to so this was great to learn. Nice to see how other cultures enjoy traditional Jewish songs. Funny enough Steve Aoki came out with a EDM version of Hava Nagila called “Hava”. Great song to work out to!
At 23:10 (approximately) I was amazed that the background music was a recording of "Mayim" by Hillel and Aviva that was popular in the 1950's. It brought back very happy memories. Excellent choice!!!
Just wonderful! Thank you so much! This short documentary on the history of "Mayim, Mayim," is rich with detail, history, and perfectly integrated video footage. You will leave with a bounce in your step and a smile on your face!
What a fascinatingly deep history this song has, absolutely astounding. I first heard this from the memes, but I was surprised to learn its Hebrew origins. Thanks for this video! Probably one of my favorite videos of this year. :D
I was the only child of Sephardi Greek Holocaust survivors from Salonika/ Thessaloniki the second main city of Greece.I now live in London England.But the best years of my life in Israel where my heart has always remained.Thankyou for this amazing video of us and ours.Obviously I am familiar with these songs from Israel and accompanying music, and Israeli history.But deepest gratitude for this great excellent video from you.
Thanks so much for making this! The band who did the version for Pakkun Tamago, Open Sesame, made an album entitled Chocolate Panic for an anime OVA of the same name in 1985, which is how I came across this. The Chocolate Panic album actually engages with a lot of genre and style coming out of parts of Africa at the time, so it's fitting that they would cover such a worldly song. I've ordered the single they released, which apparently has an English version of the song, and I'll be uploading it to my channel as soon as it arrives. Again thank you so much for enlightening me about the song's origins!
Sorry to be a bit off-topic, but there is an interesting historical incident to consider about Jewish-Japanese relations. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905), Japan was having hard time raising funds for the war effort. No one in the West wanted to take the risk. But then, it was a Jewish American financier, Jacob H. Schiff, who first bought Japanese government bonds, then this made others to follow. This turned the tide of war in Japan's favor. Without his help, Japan would have lost the war and probably made a Russian colony. We know from his memoir that Jacob Schiff decided to finance Japan because he was upset with the pogrom in Russia. Decades later, Chinue Sugihara, the vice-consul to Lithuania issued thousands of visas against orders from Tokyo, to allow safe passage of Jews fleeing the Nazis to travel across Russia through Siberia, and to Japan, then onward. Well, my theory is that one of the factors behind Sugihara's decision was that he probably knew as a diplomat, that the help from a Jewish American financier was one of the decisive factor that saved Japan. There are other interesting incidents. 20,000 Jews fleeing the Nazis where caught up in the border zone between the USSR and Manchuria. They could not cross the border, and were dying from the cold and hunger. It was the Japanese military there that rescued these Jews and gave them safe passage. The commander justified his action that one of the factors was about the Jewish help during the Russo-Japanese war. Interestingly, the person who supported this action, took final responsibility and rejected demands from Berlin was General Tojo.
And oddly enough, this is not the first case of a jewish/israeli folk song becoming a Japanese song and part of the culture. For example - hora hadera (הורה חדרה) is used for the music theme of voltes v opening song.
Pardon my English. I'm a Japanese anime fan. I just finished watching Uzaki-chan and I read a comment. It says "Ugh! I knew this anime isn't my cup of tea since I saw THAT Japanese Red Cross Society poster". It rang a bell, so I googled about it. I found your tweet and now here I am. I'm glad I did. I don't like Uzaki-chan, but I like your videos because they're interesting! Only Yesterday and Umai Donburi commercial song made me start liking Mayim Mayim when I was a child. I had no idea that it's a Jewish folk song! This video blew my mind. I also performed a folk dance to songs like "Turkey in the Straw" (American/the early 19th century), Letkajenkka (Finnish) and Korobeiniki (Russian) when I was an elementary school student. Japanese children used to dance in a circle to music. Boys and girls often held hands with each other while dancing to the music. Some boys tended to embarrassed about having to hold girls' hands haha. However, some online articles say they don't really performe a folk dance anymore these days. *sigh*
Minor corrections: The Torah isn't the Old Testament, but rather the entire Tanach, of which the Torah comprises the first of three portions. And it isn't "orientalist" to think Yemenite Jews had a closer connection to ancient Jewish life, it's an acknowledged fact due to their relative isolation and strict religious adherence over the centuries. Also, major props for a dispassionate and objective description of the history of Mandatory Palestine.
That is not correct. Depending on context, Torah can mean "Chamishei Chumshei Torah" (aka the Five Books of Moses/Pentateuch), TaNaCh, (aka the Old Testament/Torah Sh'Biksav) or everything (Torah Sh'Biksav and Torah Sh'Beal Peh).
I have danced to this song in the past. my parents too. All Japanese people know this song. I learned how to dance to this song at school and I really enjoyed it.
Excellent dance history research and visuals. I'll be using a couple of clips from this for my music appreciation class' study of how cultural materials travel from place to place.
This is insanely interesting! It reminds me a bit of how my junior high school in the US had us do tinikling (Philippine folk dance with bamboo poles) with pvc pipes, but didn't explain where the heck it came from. Although that case is definitely more of a case of cultural appropriation.
Really appreciate your comment! That's crazy they had you doing tinikling without any contextual explanations - it's such a unique and culturally grounded thing. I'm not sure what the point of teaching a dance like it is without including a lesson on where it comes from and who has traditionally danced it. I actually had never encountered tinikling up until my most recent time visiting the Philippines - I can't imagine it devoid of the Filippino context.
Thanks. I know, it is absolutely mind-boggling that we would be taught the dance (using non-Filipino music, mind you) without any sort of cultural context. But that's suburban Ohio for you. -_-
@@fullmetal_flamingo hi there! Greets from the Philippines! In my hometown in the northern Philippines, the cross cultural effect had stayed with my town after the Americans were able to establish a town there more than a hundred years ago. The feel of my town is Little different from an American southern town feel. People wear cowboy hats, country songs blare out loudspeakers, American country inspired bars, house designs(and even our town hospital, Good News Hospital, looks just like it came straight from Little House on the Prairie) Sadly I am stuck in the capital city due to the worsening CORONAVIRUS spread in the Philippines as our Government bungled their management of it. As for Tinikling dance, i fondly remember being rejected as i was never a good dancer and winced home with a purple toe...
I’m a Mizrachi Jew of middle eastern parents living in America. I’m grateful to have grown up in a city with a fairly large Jewish population (not NY lol) and I’ve always heard this song growing up. Over the past few years I’ve started becoming more interested in and consuming more Japanese media. I never knew that one of our people’s most beloved songs is so popular there. Thank you for informing me with this video. Happy Jewish heritage month as well!
Hello Unseen Japan. Loved the video, great research, exept one major miss. You didn't mention the Composer of Maim Maim - Emmanuel Amiran (Pugachov). He is the one who made the music. In 4:52 it's written: "לחן: עמנואל עמירן (פוגצ'וב)", but you didn't give him credit at all.
The video discusses the arranger, but not the original composer. If I understood other sources correctly, Emanuel Amiran-Pougatchov is credited with the original composition and lyrics. Yehuda Sharett worked on the arrangement that was used with Else Dublon's choreography at the 1937 festival to celebrate discovering water. The misunderstanding may have come from a reading of a translation of Else Dublon's comments on the event, which read "Yehuda gave me his song 'Usha’avtem,' which he had orchestrated, ..." without mention of the original composer Amiran. However, I don't know German to determine if the nuance of the original text ("Yehuda gab mir sein Lied Ushavtem, das er orchestriert hatte, ...") conveys that it was Sharett's orechestration, or if Dublon was simply unaware of the previous composition by Amiran.
I love this! I’ve known about this bizarre connection for years now and it has been my go to “WTF” general knowledge fact about japan when talking to other Israelis but now I actually have a video to send them afterwards 😉
Wonderful video - very well curated ! My only grumble is that the print of the subtitles overlay some of the descriptions on the photos. But fortunately there is rewind. Signed... an old Israeli Folk dancer from Texas.
Conversion student, and student of Japanese wanting to be a J > E translator. I hadn't come across this song at Shul yet, maybe because of the pandemic and being an an adult. But now it's lived in my head for the past two days and I have to show all the Jewish anime fans I know clips of it before following up with your video. This is so cool.
Great video, very interesting. I Love the song and the dance. Incredible research and editing to the video making it flow, smoothly and easy to follow. Well Done.
There are traces of many Jews who came to Japan, and it is said that there are some customs that only Jews and Japanese do and some Hebrew-like words or not. Recent geological research has revealed that there was a major volcanic eruption in southern Kyushu during the Jomon Period, about 7,300 years ago, before the Yayoi Period. The volcanic ash made western Japan uninhabitable, and people who evacuated to the Korean Peninsula returned to Japan during the Yayoi Period. It is also said that there may have been groups of people who went to China, India, and the Arab world, and returned to Japan after many generations of mixed blood. It has recently been said that the returned groups may have left behind Jewish customs, language and traces in Japan.
What a great video.I learned so much, other than that the flow, the editing and storytelling of the video is tremendous. I hope I can one day invite this tradition in my country, the way it unites people makes me smile.
This taught me many new insights into the historical and cross cultural connections of Japanese, Israeli, Jewish American folk dance, music and animation! I loved all the fun video research woven together! What a great documentary! Nice narration!
This is awesome! As a Jew raised as a Frum Litvak, this was both a childhood throwback and an informative look at a sharing of our culture that was previously unknown to me. Thank you for putting this together! P.S. Don't pay attention to those criticizing your voice. You are you, you did what came naturally, and I appreciate you.
As someone who went to 13 years of Zionist orthodox yeshiva, none of these tunes were ever played at siyums or yom yerushalaim celebrations. Hava nagila is never played at orthodox weddings. Mayim mayim was never played ever bc it’s a secular song. I only know about it from stereotypes of jews from the media.
When I was linked to this video, I thought "hmm, quite interesting", but was thinking of just watching a couple of minutes of it. 25 minutes later, still watching.
Love this video too!! One thing I would be super interested in, thinking of that bit about organic farming, would be the Yamagishi Association, something I have been trying to learn more about
We'll definitely be sending them the video! Noah's actually written some previous articles on Jewish-Japanese themes that have been featured on their page before.
I grew up dancing to this song, and I saw the meme versions and heard it in anime, but somehow I never made the connection that it was the same song! The world is an amazing place.
What a musical trip you provided, Noah! Thanks so much. I know the song since I was a small boy and I would have never imagined the connections you reveal. This video uncovers so many interesting facts about folk music and its dissemination around the world.
Love this video! As someone who only recently found out that I am half Jewish by birth and have been trying to learn as much as possible about Jewish history and where my father's family comes from this video brought a tear to my eye. Thank you!
I think I was watching... To-Love Ru? and they had this weird episode which was an episode of a tv series within the show, and the bad guy with an afrojew haircut started going "mayim mayim mayim myaim, mayim ve sheshe" and I was like HOLD THE FUCK UP
as a japanese guy who grew up in the us, i knew about mayim mayim from the konami version and the memes (i actually made one once too, years and years ago lmao). i had no idea it was a real folk dance, or even had jewish origins!! the vibes and instruments of the konami version had me convinced that it was of chinese origin for some reason lol. awesome video!!
Honestly absolutely blew my mind! Of all the songs I was expecting, it wasn't that one, so imagine the surprise on my face when Mayim Mayim started playing. An incredibly fascinating video!
@@UnseenJapan Hai! As an Israeli-American Jew, I'm very interested in Japanese-Israeli cultural interchange. I found fellow Israelis in every nook and cranny in Japan when I toured there almost twenty years ago. I understand that one of the Japanese counting systems comes from a Hebrew phrase? In any case, I'd love to learn more about how the Japanese and Israeli cultures positively affect one another :) Thanks again for a great video!
That was amazing to watch, thank you! Any chance that those pictures of Jerusalem are located somewhere on the web? It is incredible to see such beautifully preserved footages.
The Super Scope 6, "Blastris A" stage remixes this song, and, though I like both the "Blastris A" theme and "Mayim Mayim", I never realized they were the same song until my mother pointed it out 30-some years later!
Everyday I walk to my mailbox and back home. About 15 minutes. Mayim Mayim is my new folk song to hum as I walk. Thank You enjoying your video. In 1987 My family hosted a Japanese Exchange Student in Stockton CA. Her name was Miuki Takanaka…spelling might be a little misinterpreted. She later married and her last name was Sazuki on Valentines Day In Japan.
Hey, Noah ! I'm a Jewish guy living in Israel, Jerusalem. First let me say I LOVE the respect and reverence with which you speak of not only Judaism but also Japanese culture. Second, there are quite a lot of mysteries involved in these two cultures. Linguistically, ritually and more. Maybe there is a deeper fundamental connection indeed, as some have claimed.
Thanks for your comment! The Jewish and Japanese are really the two great pulls of my life - Jewish culture being my own culture, and one I feel immensely proud of and at home it, and Japan being my long-time adopted home. It's pretty great when I can find these places where the two meet. There are indeed times when the connection seems quite special.
@@noahoskow4551 I've been dreaming of living in Japan for a few years. Hopefully when my entrepreneurial attempts will bear fruit in the coming years I will make that dream a reality. You're very lucky ! How did you end up living like that ? Any tips ?
As a little Jewish kid In America, I thought I was going crazy when i realized the music being played on my gameboy pocket when i played one of the mini games that came with the gameboy camera. My parents thought it must have been a coincidence. I FEEL SO VINDICATED!!!
The juggling one right?
Look at the UA-cam comment section on that one Kirby song…it’s literally a giant pit of anti-semitism
The fact that this song instantly sounds japanese to me shows how much of an influence its had on actual japanese music!
This song doesn’t sound Japanese at all. It definitely has something similar to Eastern European music, the rythme and instruments. The version that “sounds” Japanese is definitely a “Japanized” version and not the other way.
When you have time Google Japanese Shinto's strange similarity to Israelite stories and jewish traditions.
It's a trip!
it's not only about Jewish songs but also many foreign music were translated into Japanese,
since educators at that time believed that singing those foreign songs would be good for
kid's education.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Auld Lang Syne, Grandfather's Clock, The Other Day, I Met a Bear, Flohwalzer, Dona Dona, Неделька, etc...
Especially "Auld Lang Syne" is from before the WW2, it spread also to Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia (places where Japan once ruled and soldiers taught kids the song, then localized)
As a Japanese myself, I can confirm that I grew up with this song, and heard different versions.
It was a huge part of high school cultural festival. Because my school was boy only, it became a place where you invite girls from another schools to dance together. It is basically my equivalent of ball or prom.
oh my god is that why 70's tv anime music sounds like klezmer music?? japan fell in love with this particular song and it became a massive inspiration?? (sorry if you talked about this in more detail, i am FLABBERGASTED and had to leave a comment before finishing the video lol)
I once spoke to an Armenian dancing teacher who told me he had been invited to Japan to teach. I asked him "to teach Armenian dancing to Japanese people?"...he said " no, to teach Israeli dancing".
As of now, the new Flandre character in the game "Touhou: lost word" has individual spell cards that spell out the words of the song, as an Israeli person and a Jewish one as well I recognized it immediately and was utterly confused and surprised as this is a song I danced to growing up in a kibbutz.. thank you so much for this well researched video and the well needed explanation!
My dad’s jewish and my mom’s dad worked at a Jewish center so I grew up celebrating hanukah and singing a lot of Jewish songs. I have never heard of this song before but I appreciate you talking about Jewish culture on the internet, I am very proud of this side that my dad has taught me and always feel thankful when I find content about it.
Omg same story for me .
This is sooo friggin cool! I’m Russian with no Jewish heritage whatsoever, but my wife has some, so we applied for Masa program and ended up living in Israel for almost a year. I fell in love deeply with Jewish culture, and having quite a liking for everything Japanese since my teen years I was stunned to find out about Mayim Mayim in Japanese culture. Todah rabah!
do you happen to know what russian "rondo" dance is being mentioned at 9:47? i've googled around but not coming up with anything definitively related to dance, only rondo music which doesn't appear to be very danceable nor russian in origin.
@@ruxtehdy check out "kalinka" and russian folk dances
@@veniveniveni549 I am aware..also to continue the list try katyusha
Late reply but I did a Masa program 10 years ago! Although it was my second time going to Israel for a longer period of time, and I wasn't happily married, just a wide-eyed 22 year-old straight out of college with a desperate need to get out of my parents' house lol
Omg this is amazing!! So fun to learn/see a Jewish folk song spin off into another life in Japan! Very well done video! Loved it!
Glad you appreciated it! Always interesting to see where Jewish and Japanese culture intersect.
This was a delightful video . At a 70 Year old raised in a mixed Sephardic/Ashkenazi world in Brooklyn, I am very deeply a cultural Jew. . Too Boot with my Japanese daughter in law and bilingual Brooklyn. grandchildren and our upcoming visit to Japan, and my recent Discovery of Ghilbi and Totorro and Ponyo, I hit paydirt with this video ! I was delighted . Thank you so much
This video was a lot of fun to make - really enjoyed getting to research aspects of my own culture and how a little part of it has made it so big in Japan. Mayim Mayim is still completely stuck in my head, though.
I've only known this song as the Donburi CM song (sang that a lot as a kid). Loved this video, Noah. Thanks for the deep dive.
@@DetectiveGesicht Ha, that's pretty funny! Really glad you enjoyed it.
I'm Japanese-Brazilian, and I also grew up dancing Mayim Mayim here in every school undokai here in Brazil!
@@fabiofukuda6724 That's really interesting! I've actually written two articles about the history of the Japanese-Brazilians for Unseen Japan - I'd like to turn them into videos like this someday! Really a fascinating history.
@@noahoskow4551 I would love to read them! not that many people know Brazil has the largest Japanese community outside Japan.
Japanese here. I danced this when I joined school trip. Everybody knows this but most people do not know this is from Israel.
Im israeli and its hilarious to me how strongly japan adopted this otherwise lame old boomer folk song. First ive ever heard of it.
This video is so cool
We love Japan 🇯🇵 🇮🇱
You mean… “weebo here.”
I'm Brazilian Japanese and I remember learning マイムマイム (maim maim) and ハヴァナギラハヴァ(hava nagila hava) at a Japanese kindergarten in Brazil. I found out these songs were Jewish many years later, thought they were Japanese because there are Japanese folksongs with uncommon words like the ソーラン節 (soran bushi) song, which my grandmother used to sing to me.
I was similarly surprised to hear the American Civil War song "Marching Through Georgia" in a Japanese context. It's a hugely popular folksong there called "Pai-no-pai-no-pai" with completely different lyrics. Everyone in Japan knows the melody but is completely unaware that it originated during the American Civil War!
Interesting! Lots of popular folk songs in Japan stemming from the same era but with minimal context being taught about them. "Turkey in the Straw" is huge, although it's called "Oklahoma Mixer" in Japan.
Well i was equally surprised that the song, Glory Glory Hallelujah, they sing in churches over here in South east Asia was also an American civil war song.
@@juch3”Glory Glory Hallelujah”, or the Battle Hymn of the Republic, actually has roots further back than the civil war. The melody is derived from a black spiritual song sung by enslaved workers, which later developed into the battle Hymn’s predecessor, John Brown’s Body, in the years after John Brown’s failed attempt at starting a slave uprising.
@@Pantsinabucket There's also another step in between. "Hey Brother Will You Meet Us" a song from the second great awakening.
As a Japanese, I find it very strange that the theme song of "Yodobashi Camera," the largest electronics retailer in Japan, is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from the American Civil War.
Send a comment from Japan.
For a long time, it was a mystery as to which country this song was made in, but it was good to know.
At the end of WW2 in 1956, the act of touching the skin between male and female students was avoided in Japan.
There may have been various speculations in the nation and school, but I like this song.
FINALLY SOMEONE EXPLAINS IT!!!! I remember when I first heard Mayim Mayim in the middle of an old NicoNico video fuckin YEARS ago. Thought I was goin crazy lol
I'm Japanese and I really feel like there is some sort of cultural bond between the Jewish culture and Japanese culture.
for example, although there are no proper founding proof of this but the Japanese-Jewish common ancestry theory is a good example. and lot of old to modern pop culture similarity popping up here and there makes you wonder...
When my Japanese professor randomly started singing マイムマイム in class one day, my mind was blown. Also just so you know, Hey Alma recently published an article on this topic that more or less lifts a few paragraphs from your script. It does link to your piece but it struck me as a little too direct 🤷♂️
Hey, thanks for letting me know about this! It's cool that they'd cover the same topic, but you're right - the structural similarities feel like a bit much.
As an Israeli girl who has heard both Mayim Mayim and seen many of these memes, I'm kind of ashamed of myself for not catching on to the fact it was literally the exact same song... I *did* always think it sounded Jewish.
Mamash aval.😅
This video is so cool!
I am jewish, and lived in israel for my whole 21 years of living. I danced horah in school, and ive heard this song so many time of course.
I used to watch the anime channel and even hebrew dubbed animes ever since i was 3. I was in love with japanese culture even as an elementary school kid. Didnt sleep to watch animes in midle school... read manga during breaks... drew anime characters 24/7... listened to japanese music (especially city pop!)
A complete otaku.
This video had me shocked, that japanese people know such a core part of the jewish culture, and love it. And the fact that it was featured in a movie from the biggest studio in japan!!
Amazing.
How does this guy not have more subscribers his quality is insanely good!
Appreciate you saying so! We're steadily gaining new followers - hope to keep on making content that people seem to enjoy!
American Jew. Looked up Mayim Mayim for Hebrew school and I found a video of hatsune miku singing it (lmao) which led to this video. So amazing how this song traveled all the way to Japan!
Wow this song takes me back to my days in Jewish day school. I don’t remember being taught the origins of the song just that it was popular in Israel to dance to so this was great to learn. Nice to see how other cultures enjoy traditional Jewish songs. Funny enough Steve Aoki came out with a EDM version of Hava Nagila called “Hava”. Great song to work out to!
Had no idea about the Steve Aoki song - that's hilarious. Will definitely have to check it out, thanks!
Unseen Japan of course! It starts out like most EDM songs but just wait for the trumpet part haha
@@JB-wc9hn Thanks for the rec, but it kinda sucks
At 23:10 (approximately) I was amazed that the background music was a recording of "Mayim" by Hillel and Aviva that was popular in the 1950's. It brought back very happy memories. Excellent choice!!!
Nice catch! I really love that version - so beautiful.
super video. i've been dancing mayim mayim since 1959 and didn't know half of this. thanks.
This is a fascinating video!! I learned so much about Israeli and Japanese history and culture. Very impressive job researching and editing
Really glad you enjoyed it!
Also. In the anime Gintama they use Adon Olam all the time for sad moment. I was so shocked when I heard it lol.
For real? That's wild. Need to find a clip of that.
Just wonderful! Thank you so much! This short documentary on the history of "Mayim, Mayim," is rich with detail, history, and perfectly integrated video footage. You will leave with a bounce in your step and a smile on your face!
Maybe that's why the soundtracks of 70's to early 80's anime sound vaguely Jewish to me
What a fascinatingly deep history this song has, absolutely astounding. I first heard this from the memes, but I was surprised to learn its Hebrew origins. Thanks for this video! Probably one of my favorite videos of this year. :D
Wow, high praise! Thank you.
I was the only child of Sephardi Greek Holocaust survivors from Salonika/ Thessaloniki the second main city of Greece.I now live in London England.But the best years of my life in Israel where my heart has always remained.Thankyou for this amazing video of us and ours.Obviously I am familiar with these songs from Israel and accompanying music, and Israeli history.But deepest gratitude for this great excellent video from you.
That sounds beautiful Baruch, i hope you one day will come back to Israel to get settled in there until your twilight years
Thank you very much for this:) This explains my family's experience with "Mayim Mayim" when we lived in Japan:) LOL
Our pleasure! It's definitely a song you'd eventually notice while living in Japan - glad to help solve its mystery!
Thanks so much for making this! The band who did the version for Pakkun Tamago, Open Sesame, made an album entitled Chocolate Panic for an anime OVA of the same name in 1985, which is how I came across this. The Chocolate Panic album actually engages with a lot of genre and style coming out of parts of Africa at the time, so it's fitting that they would cover such a worldly song. I've ordered the single they released, which apparently has an English version of the song, and I'll be uploading it to my channel as soon as it arrives. Again thank you so much for enlightening me about the song's origins!
Sorry to be a bit off-topic, but there is an interesting historical incident to consider about Jewish-Japanese relations. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905), Japan was having hard time raising funds for the war effort. No one in the West wanted to take the risk. But then, it was a Jewish American financier, Jacob H. Schiff, who first bought Japanese government bonds, then this made others to follow. This turned the tide of war in Japan's favor. Without his help, Japan would have lost the war and probably made a Russian colony. We know from his memoir that Jacob Schiff decided to finance Japan because he was upset with the pogrom in Russia.
Decades later, Chinue Sugihara, the vice-consul to Lithuania issued thousands of visas against orders from Tokyo, to allow safe passage of Jews fleeing the Nazis to travel across Russia through Siberia, and to Japan, then onward.
Well, my theory is that one of the factors behind Sugihara's decision was that he probably knew as a diplomat, that the help from a Jewish American financier was one of the decisive factor that saved Japan.
There are other interesting incidents. 20,000 Jews fleeing the Nazis where caught up in the border zone between the USSR and Manchuria. They could not cross the border, and were dying from the cold and hunger. It was the Japanese military there that rescued these Jews and gave them safe passage. The commander justified his action that one of the factors was about the Jewish help during the Russo-Japanese war. Interestingly, the person who supported this action, took final responsibility and rejected demands from Berlin was General Tojo.
That was so dang fun and nice to watch, smiled the whole time... Thanks brother for making this!
And oddly enough, this is not the first case of a jewish/israeli folk song becoming a Japanese song and part of the culture.
For example - hora hadera (הורה חדרה) is used for the music theme of voltes v opening song.
Pardon my English. I'm a Japanese anime fan. I just finished watching Uzaki-chan and I read a comment. It says "Ugh! I knew this anime isn't my cup of tea since I saw THAT Japanese Red Cross Society poster". It rang a bell, so I googled about it. I found your tweet and now here I am. I'm glad I did. I don't like Uzaki-chan, but I like your videos because they're interesting!
Only Yesterday and Umai Donburi commercial song made me start liking Mayim Mayim when I was a child. I had no idea that it's a Jewish folk song! This video blew my mind.
I also performed a folk dance to songs like "Turkey in the Straw" (American/the early 19th century), Letkajenkka (Finnish) and Korobeiniki (Russian) when I was an elementary school student.
Japanese children used to dance in a circle to music. Boys and girls often held hands with each other while dancing to the music. Some boys tended to embarrassed about having to hold girls' hands haha. However, some online articles say they don't really performe a folk dance anymore these days. *sigh*
Minor corrections: The Torah isn't the Old Testament, but rather the entire Tanach, of which the Torah comprises the first of three portions. And it isn't "orientalist" to think Yemenite Jews had a closer connection to ancient Jewish life, it's an acknowledged fact due to their relative isolation and strict religious adherence over the centuries.
Also, major props for a dispassionate and objective description of the history of Mandatory Palestine.
That is not correct. Depending on context, Torah can mean "Chamishei Chumshei Torah" (aka the Five Books of Moses/Pentateuch), TaNaCh, (aka the Old Testament/Torah Sh'Biksav) or everything (Torah Sh'Biksav and Torah Sh'Beal Peh).
I have danced to this song in the past. my parents too.
All Japanese people know this song.
I learned how to dance to this song at school and I really enjoyed it.
Excellent dance history research and visuals. I'll be using a couple of clips from this for my music appreciation class' study of how cultural materials travel from place to place.
That's really cool to hear! Hope the class goes well, and thanks for watching.
This is insanely interesting! It reminds me a bit of how my junior high school in the US had us do tinikling (Philippine folk dance with bamboo poles) with pvc pipes, but didn't explain where the heck it came from. Although that case is definitely more of a case of cultural appropriation.
Really appreciate your comment! That's crazy they had you doing tinikling without any contextual explanations - it's such a unique and culturally grounded thing. I'm not sure what the point of teaching a dance like it is without including a lesson on where it comes from and who has traditionally danced it. I actually had never encountered tinikling up until my most recent time visiting the Philippines - I can't imagine it devoid of the Filippino context.
Thanks. I know, it is absolutely mind-boggling that we would be taught the dance (using non-Filipino music, mind you) without any sort of cultural context. But that's suburban Ohio for you. -_-
@@fullmetal_flamingo hi there! Greets from the Philippines! In my hometown in the northern Philippines, the cross cultural effect had stayed with my town after the Americans were able to establish a town there more than a hundred years ago.
The feel of my town is Little different from an American southern town feel. People wear cowboy hats, country songs blare out loudspeakers, American country inspired bars, house designs(and even our town hospital, Good News Hospital, looks just like it came straight from Little House on the Prairie)
Sadly I am stuck in the capital city due to the worsening CORONAVIRUS spread in the Philippines as our Government bungled their management of it.
As for Tinikling dance, i fondly remember being rejected as i was never a good dancer and winced home with a purple toe...
I’m a Mizrachi Jew of middle eastern parents living in America. I’m grateful to have grown up in a city with a fairly large Jewish population (not NY lol) and I’ve always heard this song growing up. Over the past few years I’ve started becoming more interested in and consuming more Japanese media. I never knew that one of our people’s most beloved songs is so popular there. Thank you for informing me with this video. Happy Jewish heritage month as well!
Lemme guess, LA or Savannah, GA?
Great video! Loved the in depth research and engaging presentation!
Hello Unseen Japan. Loved the video, great research, exept one major miss.
You didn't mention the Composer of Maim Maim - Emmanuel Amiran (Pugachov). He is the one who made the music. In 4:52 it's written: "לחן: עמנואל עמירן (פוגצ'וב)", but you didn't give him credit at all.
12:15 talks about the composer
The video discusses the arranger, but not the original composer. If I understood other sources correctly, Emanuel Amiran-Pougatchov is credited with the original composition and lyrics. Yehuda Sharett worked on the arrangement that was used with Else Dublon's choreography at the 1937 festival to celebrate discovering water.
The misunderstanding may have come from a reading of a translation of Else Dublon's comments on the event, which read "Yehuda gave me his song 'Usha’avtem,' which he had orchestrated, ..." without mention of the original composer Amiran. However, I don't know German to determine if the nuance of the original text ("Yehuda gab mir sein Lied Ushavtem, das er orchestriert hatte, ...") conveys that it was Sharett's orechestration, or if Dublon was simply unaware of the previous composition by Amiran.
I love this!
I’ve known about this bizarre connection for years now and it has been my go to “WTF” general knowledge fact about japan when talking to other Israelis but now I actually have a video to send them afterwards 😉
Ha, that's pretty much why I made the video! The connection is just too weird and fun not to share.
Wonderful video - very well curated ! My only grumble is that the print of the subtitles overlay some of the descriptions on the
photos. But fortunately there is rewind. Signed... an old Israeli Folk dancer from Texas.
Conversion student, and student of Japanese wanting to be a J > E translator.
I hadn't come across this song at Shul yet, maybe because of the pandemic and being an an adult. But now it's lived in my head for the past two days and I have to show all the Jewish anime fans I know clips of it before following up with your video. This is so cool.
This was such a beautiful story, thank you for telling it!
Thanks for watching, and really glad you enjoyed it!
You have no idea how overjoyed I am to hear about this
Great video, very interesting.
I Love the song and the dance. Incredible research and editing to the video making it flow, smoothly and easy to follow. Well Done.
There are traces of many Jews who came to Japan, and it is said that there are some customs that only Jews and Japanese do and some Hebrew-like words or not.
Recent geological research has revealed that there was a major volcanic eruption in southern Kyushu during the Jomon Period, about 7,300 years ago, before the Yayoi Period. The volcanic ash made western Japan uninhabitable, and people who evacuated to the Korean Peninsula returned to Japan during the Yayoi Period. It is also said that there may have been groups of people who went to China, India, and the Arab world, and returned to Japan after many generations of mixed blood. It has recently been said that the returned groups may have left behind Jewish customs, language and traces in Japan.
What a great video.I learned so much, other than that the flow, the editing and storytelling of the video is tremendous. I hope I can one day invite this tradition in my country, the way it unites people makes me smile.
This taught me many new insights into the historical and cross cultural connections of Japanese, Israeli, Jewish American folk dance, music and animation! I loved all the fun video research woven together! What a great documentary! Nice narration!
A very well researched and overall fun video with entertaining edits, subbed
Noah--that was one of the most fascinating stories I've ever heard!!! Thank you so much!!!
This is awesome! As a Jew raised as a Frum Litvak, this was both a childhood throwback and an informative look at a sharing of our culture that was previously unknown to me. Thank you for putting this together!
P.S. Don't pay attention to those criticizing your voice. You are you, you did what came naturally, and I appreciate you.
As someone who went to 13 years of Zionist orthodox yeshiva, none of these tunes were ever played at siyums or yom yerushalaim celebrations. Hava nagila is never played at orthodox weddings. Mayim mayim was never played ever bc it’s a secular song. I only know about it from stereotypes of jews from the media.
Such an amazing video! Thank you for sharing these great cultural and historical details ❤️🦋
Such an interesting cross-cultural connection!
It really is, isn't it?
Found this on reddit, very happy i did
Amazing video
Subbdd!
When I was linked to this video, I thought "hmm, quite interesting", but was thinking of just watching a couple of minutes of it.
25 minutes later, still watching.
I had to practice and dance to this song at my elementary school I went in Japan on a field day every single year. I didn’t know it was a Jewish song.
Love this video too!! One thing I would be super interested in, thinking of that bit about organic farming, would be the Yamagishi Association, something I have been trying to learn more about
Thank you for sharing. This was incredibly well written and informative video essay.
今の小学校はわからんが、昔の小学校の音楽の時間では、いろんな国の民謡が歌われた。音楽の教科書に載っているからね。蛍の光は、アイルランド民謡だし、黒い瞳は、ロシア民謡。明治期の日本の音楽家たちは、欧米諸国の民謡＝フォークソングをもとに日本人用の学校でみんなで歌う歌を作って行ったのだ。現代日本語自体、欧米諸語を翻訳する作業から生まれてきたと言える。
Well, being Japanese and Jewish, I never knew why this song was always staple in undou kai
That was informative, touching, and downright amazing (and I'm a pretty jaded old [1952] American)
This was an awesome video!
Well done!
I always wondered about this!!!! I've heard the tune in countless animes, and always laughed it off as a "similar sound", but this is so cool!!!!
Cool, you guys should connect with the Jewpanese Facebook page. They look at fusions and cultural connections between Ashkenazi and Japanese overtime.
We'll definitely be sending them the video! Noah's actually written some previous articles on Jewish-Japanese themes that have been featured on their page before.
I grew up dancing to this song, and I saw the meme versions and heard it in anime, but somehow I never made the connection that it was the same song! The world is an amazing place.
What a musical trip you provided, Noah! Thanks so much. I know the song since I was a small boy and I would have never imagined the connections you reveal. This video uncovers so many interesting facts about folk music and its dissemination around the world.
I love how you avoided getting this video flagged, very clever.
Love this video! As someone who only recently found out that I am half Jewish by birth and have been trying to learn as much as possible about Jewish history and where my father's family comes from this video brought a tear to my eye. Thank you!
I think I was watching... To-Love Ru? and they had this weird episode which was an episode of a tv series within the show, and the bad guy with an afrojew haircut started going "mayim mayim mayim myaim, mayim ve sheshe" and I was like HOLD THE FUCK UP
I'm so in love with you lol I'm a Jewish woman that LOVES anime! I never knew this! Very cool!
19:56 is literally what every jewish wedding/ bar & bat mitzvah looks like tho omfg i love this.
LMAO TRUE
YES
Amazing content and great historical content! And yes, Mayim Mayim has stucked in my head!
not only is the musical fiddler on the roof extremely popular in japan, but so is israeli and international folk dance.
Thank you very much!
It was so informative!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm a Jew from Israel. What a great video to watch!
theres a hebrew word that sounds exactly like samurai that means protector of the island...blew my mind..that one really convinced me.
That’s probably two words: Shomer, meaning protector/guard and ai, meaning island
@@fuzzytheduck Wow, I never realized it, and I speak Hebrew myself, lol. Cool!
Moroccan Jew, right here, much family came to Israel in '48. The rest went to the US, but we all know the song regardless of where we are.
as a japanese guy who grew up in the us, i knew about mayim mayim from the konami version and the memes (i actually made one once too, years and years ago lmao). i had no idea it was a real folk dance, or even had jewish origins!! the vibes and instruments of the konami version had me convinced that it was of chinese origin for some reason lol.
awesome video!!
Honestly absolutely blew my mind! Of all the songs I was expecting, it wasn't that one, so imagine the surprise on my face when Mayim Mayim started playing. An incredibly fascinating video!
*Fantastic*!! Wow, you put so much work into that. I liked the great source material you drew from!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@UnseenJapan Hai! As an Israeli-American Jew, I'm very interested in Japanese-Israeli cultural interchange. I found fellow Israelis in every nook and cranny in Japan when I toured there almost twenty years ago. I understand that one of the Japanese counting systems comes from a Hebrew phrase? In any case, I'd love to learn more about how the Japanese and Israeli cultures positively affect one another :) Thanks again for a great video!
omg this is perfect! never in a million years did i expect to hear mayim mayim in a japanese fllm:) the Jewish gal in me is so happy
How did I live in Japan for four years and never notice this? My Jewish summer camp counselors are ashamed of me
That was amazing to watch, thank you!
Any chance that those pictures of Jerusalem are located somewhere on the web? It is incredible to see such beautifully preserved footages.
Wow, this was so interesting. Thank you for sharing!♥
Omg I learned *so much*. This is such a well done video. Thanks so much!
Well... that song we sing only on Sukot.
The Super Scope 6, "Blastris A" stage remixes this song, and, though I like both the "Blastris A" theme and "Mayim Mayim", I never realized they were the same song until my mother pointed it out 30-some years later!
That was extremely interesting! And now I have to take this song outta my head.
Everyday I walk to my mailbox and back home. About 15 minutes.
Mayim Mayim is my new folk song to hum as I walk. Thank You enjoying your video. In 1987 My family hosted a Japanese Exchange Student in Stockton CA. Her name was Miuki Takanaka…spelling might be a little misinterpreted. She later married and her last name was Sazuki on Valentines Day In Japan.
23:28 This has such an "At least you tried" vibe to it, and I can already imagine Bart Simpson holding it up to them.😂
Bless your Japan Mother the Jewish faith is very interesting from outsiders as the Japan culture is to us
I remember hearing this folk song in a Gameboy Camera minigame based on the Game and Watch game, Ball. Never knew what it was until recently.
Hey, Noah ! I'm a Jewish guy living in Israel, Jerusalem. First let me say I LOVE the respect and reverence with which you speak of not only Judaism but also Japanese culture. Second, there are quite a lot of mysteries involved in these two cultures. Linguistically, ritually and more. Maybe there is a deeper fundamental connection indeed, as some have claimed.
Thanks for your comment! The Jewish and Japanese are really the two great pulls of my life - Jewish culture being my own culture, and one I feel immensely proud of and at home it, and Japan being my long-time adopted home. It's pretty great when I can find these places where the two meet. There are indeed times when the connection seems quite special.
@@noahoskow4551 I've been dreaming of living in Japan for a few years. Hopefully when my entrepreneurial attempts will bear fruit in the coming years I will make that dream a reality. You're very lucky ! How did you end up living like that ? Any tips ?