JAPANESE LULLABIES

“Itsuki no komoriuta”, “Lullaby from Itsuki”  (Itsuki is a small village in Kumamoto province, Kyûshû) is one of the most beautiful of Japanese minyõ. The melody is quietly soothing with not just a touch of yearning and melancholy.

As an aside, did you know that Itsuki no komoriuta is also closely related to the honkyoku piece “Tamuké”, “Offering” or “Prayer for Safe Passage”, having the same basic melody.

I often wondered at the lyrics to Itsuki no komoriuta, which are literally:
I am employed up to the Bon period and I will not be there after that.
If only the Bon time would come a little earlier this year then I would be able to go home earlier.

I am from a humble class. They are from the upper class.
Good people, good sashes for the kimono and good kimono.

When I die who will cry for me?
Only the cicada in the pine mountain behind us will cry.

If I die bury me beside the roadside.
Then every passer-by will offer flowers at my grave.

What flower will it be?
It will be the camellia.
The sky will offer me water.

(from Folk Songs of Japan by Donald Paul Berger, Oak Publications, New York 1972)

My initial reaction was to check again if I was reading the lyrics to the correct song. Is this a lullaby? Are these the soothing words you would sing to an infant?

The answer was found only recently where in the book Ongaku kara mita Nihonjin (Japanese People viewed from Music) by Tomiko KOJIMA, NHK Library 1997, there was a picture of very young girls, 10 - 12 years old, carrying babies on their backs. It was a custom for young country girls to be sent to the homes of wealthy families as nannies. According to Kojima, the sight of young girls carrying babies was a common sight up to the early 1950’s Their loneliness and even suffering at the hands of sometimes severe household mistresses led to songs of such sadness. Some of the lullabies threatened dire consequences to the babies, even dismembering. As they were not able to express their feelings directly, they did so in songs. Furthermore, the songs were not necessarily an expression of hopelessness and despair, but rather as an acceptable way of making a stand against authority and for releasing the inner stresses caused by their situation.

Here is another example from “Hakata komoriuta”:
Our mistress is as sour as a persimmon.
She looks nice enough, but she is really sour.

Mistress, listen carefully and master, you listen too.
If you are unkind to a nursemaid she will take out her frustration on the baby.

(from Folk Songs of Japan by Donald Paul Berger, Oak Publications, New York 1972)

ANDREW MACGREGOR
Jan 1999