Mayim Mayim

About

Mayim Mayim (Hebrew : מים מים, Japanese : マイムマイム, lit. Water, water) is an Israeli folk dance. Since 2009, this song has been heavily reused as a music resource for MADs on Nico Nico Douga (NND), a video sharing service in Japan.

Origin

The song

The song was made by Emanuel Pougatchov Amiran (עמנואל עמירן) and its original title is "U’sh’avtem Mayim" (ושאבתם מים, Hebrew for "And ye shall draw water".). The dance was choreographed by Else Dublon in 1937.

The dance was held at a festival to celebrate the discovery of water in the desert after a seven-year search. Mayim Mayim became a very popular folk-song, spawning many different versions with alternate lyrics. However, the core of the song has remained.

The original (and perhaps most well-known) lyrics were derived from verse 12:3 in the Book of Isaiah, "ושאבתם מים בששון מימניי הישועה" ("And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains/wellsprings of the salvation."). The verse is part of a prophecy about the Messianic Era.^[1]

Mayim Mayim in Japanese pop culture

Since 1950s, as General Headquarters of the Allied Forces introduced folk dance to the educational program for Japanese children, almost all Japanese have danced Mayim Mayim in gym class or athletic events in their school days. Therefore, they are very familiar to this song and it is frequently cited to Japanese pop culture as all well-known music.

For example, the remix of Mayim Mayim mainly reused in this fad is "Lovely Otohime" which comes from "Sexy Parodius", a scrolling shooter game produced by KONAMI in 1996, which is based specifically on the song's version from the Family Computer and MSX versions of the arcade game "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" both produced in 1985 also by KONAMI.

Like this, Mayim Mayim is remixed, covered and arranged in many ways in Japan.

Spread

Mayim Mayim started to be reused in MADs on NND gradually around late 2008. But in early times, it hadn't gotten the attention of NND users and the amount of videos weren't increased so much. In addition, several Mayim Mayim remixes were reused in MADs and none of them was chosen as the standard yet.

The video pulling the trigger of this fad was posted to NND on September 29th, 2009, titled "Mayoi, Mayoi"^[2].

As it was soon included in the daily ranking of NND, its song also got the attention. Then, "Lovely Otohime" remix was set as the standard music of Mayim Mayim MADs because many NND users started making the huge amount of MADs following this movie's style.

Nico Nico pedia^[3] also says the reason why this song has become to one of the standard music resources among MADs is its very short-length. By using this song, editors are able to quickly make MADs with only a few movie resources. Therefore, the song is mainly used as a practice music for beginners.

As of 2011, The number of Mayim Mayim MADs on NND are over 1800^[4].

Notable Examples

For more MAD videos, check out the videos section in this entry.

MADs

マイムマイム　メドレー^[5]

おらマイムマイムで東京さ行くベサッソン^[6] (See also: IKZO)

マツオカマイム　【マイムマイム×松岡修造】^[7] (See also: Shuzo Matsuoka)

Westerners' draw

Mayim Mayim was also tried to imported to YTPMVs as well as other popular musics on MADs. However, it seems that this song hasn't gotten any popularity among westerners. The amount of "Mayim Mayim" videos in YTPMVs are quite a few.

【マイムマイム・Soldier】Maggot Mayim (See also: Team Fortress 2)

Daftim Punkim 【マイムマイム・Harder Better Faster Stronger】

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.