komori-uta 2
Wednesday, 28. October 2009, 05:19:03
"Itsuki no komoriuta"(lullaby of Itsuki village--五木の子守歌)
is one of well known lullaby. Itsuki is a remote village in Kyushu mountains. People there had sung several variations of "Itsuki no komoriuta". After WW2, a composer adapted it into musical score and arranged in modern style. It was sung by a proffesional singer and released for nation wide. So the song we listen nowadays is quite different from original. Still, its melancholy melody and lyric tells us something sorrow of lives in feudal period people.
You can listen the song below. The senery is taken by me at Morotsuka in Kyushu mountains. Morotsuka is not far from Itsuki. The singer is Koyanagi Rumiko.
Below is quotation from Sashimsen. It tells more detail about the song.
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/sashimisen/things_f.html
Komoriuta, in Japanese writing, means lullaby, and like any country, Japan has its fair share of them. Every region of Japan, perhaps every village, has its own komoriuta, and many of these have become part of the national cultural heritage. Itsuki no komoriuta, the lullaby of Itsuki, is perhaps the most famous of all, and its haunting melody has inspired even Western composers to write arrangements. But when we look at the text of this, and many other komoriuta, we don't find the soothing words we would expect in a lullaby. It is about people waiting for the festival of bon when they will, like everybody else in Japan, have a holiday to return to the villages where they were born to commemorate their dead ancestors. These are poor people working for the rich, and they are scolded when the babies they have to look after are crying. But who will cry over them when these poor people are dead? This is a text from the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), when Japan was a class society and the difference between rich and poor was very big. During this important part of Japan's history her people were divided into four classes: samurai, farmers, craftsmen and merchants. The samurai class was the highest. They enjoyed many privileges, but also had responsibilities and were supposed to set a good example for the rest of society. The next class was that of the farmers, placed so high because the livelihood, i.e. the rice, of the samurai depended on them. But farmers had to work hard, were bound by many restrictions and were generally very poor. Craftsmen came next, followed by merchants. Merchants were placed on the lowest rank of the class system because they produced nothing and acted only out of a desire to amass wealth. Outside these four strictly defined classes were on the one end courtiers and priests, doctors and some intellectuals, and on the other end the outcasts, a group of classless people who performed the most despised tasks. Working in virtual slavery for the rich and looking after their babies was a way to survive for these people.
Itsuki no Komoriuta lyric
We will work here until Bon,
So we will no longer be here from Bon.
If Bon comes early,
We will go home early.
We are poor peasants,
They are of a good family.
Wealthy people with nice sashes
And nice kimonos.
Even if I die,
Who will lament my death?
All that is heard is the chirping of the cicadas
Among the pine trees in the mountain near by.
When I die,
Please bury me beside a road.
Those who passing by
would put flowers on it.
What flower should it be?
Camellia would be nice.
For the camellia
Water would fall from the sky.
Lyrics:Japanese
おどま盆ぎり盆ぎり
盆から先ゃおらんと
盆がはよくりゃはよもどる
おどまかんじんかんじん
あん人たちゃよか衆
よか衆よか帯 よか着物
おどんがうっ死んだちゅうて
誰が泣てくりゅうか
うらの松山蝉が鳴く
おどんがうっ死んだら
道ばちゃいけろ
通る人ごち花あぎゅう
花はなんの花
つんつん椿
水は天からもらい水
Lyrics:roma-ji
Odoma bongiri bongiri
Bon kara sakya orando
Bon ga hayo kurya hayo modoru
Odoma kanjin kanjin
An hitotatya yokasyu
Yokasyu yoka obi yoka kimon
Odon ga uchindatyute
Daga naite kuryuka
Ura no matsuyama semi ga naku
Odonga uchindara
Michibata ikero
Tooru hitogochi hana aguru
Hana wa nan no hana
Tsuntsun tsubaki
Mizu wa ten kara moraimizu
This lyric is spoken in old dialect.
So even young Japanese might not understand what it says.
As I mentioned, there are some variations in words and melody.
This is one of the example well known.
pictures right: Itsuki village nowadays
is one of well known lullaby. Itsuki is a remote village in Kyushu mountains. People there had sung several variations of "Itsuki no komoriuta". After WW2, a composer adapted it into musical score and arranged in modern style. It was sung by a proffesional singer and released for nation wide. So the song we listen nowadays is quite different from original. Still, its melancholy melody and lyric tells us something sorrow of lives in feudal period people.
You can listen the song below. The senery is taken by me at Morotsuka in Kyushu mountains. Morotsuka is not far from Itsuki. The singer is Koyanagi Rumiko.
Below is quotation from Sashimsen. It tells more detail about the song.
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/sashimisen/things_f.html
Komoriuta, in Japanese writing, means lullaby, and like any country, Japan has its fair share of them. Every region of Japan, perhaps every village, has its own komoriuta, and many of these have become part of the national cultural heritage. Itsuki no komoriuta, the lullaby of Itsuki, is perhaps the most famous of all, and its haunting melody has inspired even Western composers to write arrangements. But when we look at the text of this, and many other komoriuta, we don't find the soothing words we would expect in a lullaby. It is about people waiting for the festival of bon when they will, like everybody else in Japan, have a holiday to return to the villages where they were born to commemorate their dead ancestors. These are poor people working for the rich, and they are scolded when the babies they have to look after are crying. But who will cry over them when these poor people are dead? This is a text from the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), when Japan was a class society and the difference between rich and poor was very big. During this important part of Japan's history her people were divided into four classes: samurai, farmers, craftsmen and merchants. The samurai class was the highest. They enjoyed many privileges, but also had responsibilities and were supposed to set a good example for the rest of society. The next class was that of the farmers, placed so high because the livelihood, i.e. the rice, of the samurai depended on them. But farmers had to work hard, were bound by many restrictions and were generally very poor. Craftsmen came next, followed by merchants. Merchants were placed on the lowest rank of the class system because they produced nothing and acted only out of a desire to amass wealth. Outside these four strictly defined classes were on the one end courtiers and priests, doctors and some intellectuals, and on the other end the outcasts, a group of classless people who performed the most despised tasks. Working in virtual slavery for the rich and looking after their babies was a way to survive for these people.
Itsuki no Komoriuta lyric
We will work here until Bon,
So we will no longer be here from Bon.
If Bon comes early,
We will go home early.
We are poor peasants,
They are of a good family.
Wealthy people with nice sashes
And nice kimonos.
Even if I die,
Who will lament my death?
All that is heard is the chirping of the cicadas
Among the pine trees in the mountain near by.
When I die,
Please bury me beside a road.
Those who passing by
would put flowers on it.
What flower should it be?
Camellia would be nice.
For the camellia
Water would fall from the sky.
Lyrics:Japanese
おどま盆ぎり盆ぎり
盆から先ゃおらんと
盆がはよくりゃはよもどる
おどまかんじんかんじん
あん人たちゃよか衆
よか衆よか帯 よか着物
おどんがうっ死んだちゅうて
誰が泣てくりゅうか
うらの松山蝉が鳴く
おどんがうっ死んだら
道ばちゃいけろ
通る人ごち花あぎゅう
花はなんの花
つんつん椿
水は天からもらい水
Lyrics:roma-ji
Odoma bongiri bongiri
Bon kara sakya orando
Bon ga hayo kurya hayo modoru
Odoma kanjin kanjin
An hitotatya yokasyu
Yokasyu yoka obi yoka kimon
Odon ga uchindatyute
Daga naite kuryuka
Ura no matsuyama semi ga naku
Odonga uchindara
Michibata ikero
Tooru hitogochi hana aguru
Hana wa nan no hana
Tsuntsun tsubaki
Mizu wa ten kara moraimizu
This lyric is spoken in old dialect.
So even young Japanese might not understand what it says.
As I mentioned, there are some variations in words and melody.
This is one of the example well known.
pictures right: Itsuki village nowadays
WIDGETIZE