"Takeda Lullaby" ( or Takeda no komoriuta) is a popular Japanese
cradle song. It originated in Takeda,
Fushimi, Kyoto.
Background
The song has long been sung by the people in the ''
burakumin
The are a social grouping of Japanese people descended from members of the feudal class associated with , mainly those with occupations related to death such as executioners, gravediggers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. Bura ...
'' areas of Kyoto and
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
in a slightly different form. During the 1960s, it was picked up as a theme song by the
Buraku Liberation League, particularly its branch at Takeda.
''Burakumin'' ("hamlet people") were an outcast community at the bottom of the
Japanese social order that had historically been the victims of severe discrimination and ostracism. These communities were often made up of those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death (e.g., executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers, or tanners). Professions such as these had severe social stigmas of ''kegare'', or "defilement", attached to them. A ''burakumin'' neighborhood within metropolitan Tokyo was the last to be served by streetcar and is the site of butcher and leather shops to this day.
In this lullaby, a young girl comforts herself by singing about her miserable situation. One day, she is forcibly sent away to work for a rich family at a village across the mountain. Every day as she works with a baby on her back, she is reminded of her family, looking at the silhouette of the mountains in the direction of her homeland.
Recordings
In 1969, the folk singing group () made this song popular, and their
single, recorded in 1971, became a bestseller. The song has also an additional history in that
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
and other major Japanese broadcasting networks refrained from playing it because it is related to ''burakumin'' activities, but this ban was stopped during the 1990s.
The song was popularised in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
through a 1975 adaptation sung by
Judy Ongg, with Chinese lyrics written by her father, Ongg Ping-tang (). Compared to the original, the Taiwanese version had nothing to do with discrimination but was titled "''qidao''" () and focused on hope. This version is often taught in primary schools.
In 2001, singer
Eri Sugai included a version of the song on her album ''Mai''.
In 2017, the folk supergroup
Bendith included a
Welsh-language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina).
...
version on their self-titled EP.
Lyrics
Japanese
Romanized Japanese (Romaji)
English translation
See also
* Other Japanese lullabies:
Itsuki Lullaby,
Edo Lullaby,
Chugoku Region Lullaby,
Shimabara Lullaby, etc.
References
External links
Takeda Lullaby(in Japanese)
(Lyrics with Japanese translation)
(Music score)
Takeda Lullaby(MIDI music)
Lullaby of Takeda (Played on the ocarina, YouTube)
{{Authority control
Lullabies
Japanese folk songs
Kyoto
Year of song unknown
Songs with unknown songwriters