“Sansan Shigure” [“passing fine rain”] Dancers, Kyoto, c. 1930-40.

“Sansa Shigure [passing fine rain] is an elegant love song originally from Miyagi prefecture in Kyushu. A love affair is compared to a soft rain falling on a straw roof:

Is it the fog / Or rain on the grass?
So quietly / It comes and wets.
Wave your long sleeves, (young girls)
If not tonight / Your chances are lost.
Blessed is the family / Where the crane and tortoise
Dance gaily here and there.

– Sansa Shigure, composed by Shogetsu Watanabe, Japanese Folk Music, Society for the Preservation of Japanese Folk Music