How studying obscure Japanese arts can help you build a life in Japan

Meet Justin, a singer who has been studying the ancient art of shigin for more than 10 years, after accidentally discovering it one day while living in the Japanese countryside. He sits down with us to share his story of moving from Tennessee to Japan and falling in love with this beautiful, yet incredibly difficult, traditional art form.

00:00 Intro 01:38 The Story of Coming to Japan 02:29 Why Japan? 03:50 Volunteering in Fukushima 09:09 Getting into Shigin 13:00 Singing Shigin 15:24 Improving Language Abilities Through Shigin 17:10 Modern Shigin 20:38 Different Schools of Shigin 22:35 The Modern Poems for Shigin 23:27 The Poems to Start Learning Shigin 25:23 Learning the Tones of Shigin 32:24 The Shigin Poem Stories 37:40 How Shigin Changes Lives 40:01 ShiGin Events 44:54 Choosing a Shigin Poem for a Performance 46:31 The Underlying Theme of Shigin Poetry 50:02 How to Preserve Shigin 53:03 Shigin Manga 55:57 The Future of Shigin 1:02:27 How to Start Learning Shigin? 1:02:26 Singing His Favorite Poem 1:05:14 Outro

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