The Haiya dance originated among the fishermen of Ushibuka, at the southern tip of the Amakusa islands. The boats that fished these waters traveled widely along Japan's coasts, and the sailors carried the Haiya-bushi song with them. It arrived in Niigata and became the Sado Okesa; it arrived in Hokkaido and contributed to the Soran Bushi. The origin of multiple regional folk songs may trace back to this small fishing port. The April festival is the annual occasion for performing the dance at its source: energetic, rhythmically complex, reflecting the particular character of a fishing community that has always lived between the sea and movement. The crowds are local. The atmosphere is a fishing town celebrating what it knows about itself. Ushibuka is not among the Amakusa sites that most visitors prioritize. The island chain's Christian heritage and coastal scenery draw more attention. But the Haiya festival offers something those attractions cannot: the experience of a cultural source point, the place where something that is now diffuse and widely distributed was once concentrated and specific.