Takeda Lullaby

Takeda Lullaby (Japanese: 竹田の子守唄 or Takeda no komoriuta) is a popular Japanese cradle song. It originated in Takeda, Fushimi, Kyoto.

General

This song has long been sung among the people in the burakumin areas of Kyoto and Osaka in a slightly different form for a long time. 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 victim of severe discrimination and ostracism. These communities were often made up of those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death – such as 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 with singing about her miserable situation. One day she was 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.

In 1969, the folk song singing group Akai Tori made this song popular, and their single record, recorded in 1971, became a million seller in three years. The song has also an additional history that NHK and other major Japanese broadcasting networks refrained from broadcasting it because it is related to the burakumin activities, but this ban was stopped during the 1990s.

The song was also sung by the character Titus in an episode of the original Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmit. One episode revolves around Titus' one man show. The show explores one of Titus' many (all vividly remembered) past lives, that of the geisha Murasaki. Titus performs the song in his one man show in character of Murasaki, his critics are totally won over. After Titus's performance, one of his former critics exclaims that he hadn't heard the song since he was a little boy. The lullaby itself tells the tragic story of a girl who is forced to work for a rich family far from her home, which she longs for every day. It ties into Titus' past life on Kimmy Schmidt because Murasaki ends up having to give up her dreams and return to her home, too.

Lyrics

Japanese 守も嫌がる　盆から先にゃ 雪もちらつくし　子も泣くし 盆が来たとて　何嬉しかろ 帷子は無し　帯は無し この子よう泣く　守をばいじる 守も一日　痩せるやら 早よも行きたや　この在所越えて 向こうに見えるは　親の家 向こうに見えるは　親の家

Romanized Japanese Mori mo iyagaru, Bon kara saki-nya Yuki mo chiratsuku-shi, Ko mo naku-shi Bon ga kita-tote, Nani ureshi-karo Katabira wa nashi, Obi wa nashi Kono ko you naku, Mori wo ba ijiru Mori mo ichi-nichi, Yaseru-yara Hayo-mo yuki-taya, Kono zaisho koete Mukou ni mieru wa, Oya no uchi Mukou ni mieru wa, Oya no uchi

English translation I would hate baby-sitting beyond Bon Festival, The snow begins to fall, and the baby cries. How can I be happy even when Bon Festival is here? I don't have nice clothes or a sash to wear. This child continues to cry and is mean to me. Every day I grow thinner. I would quickly quit here and go back To my parents' home over there, To my parents' home over there.

See also

• Lullaby
• Folk song
• Other Japanese lullabies: Itsuki Lullaby, Edo Lullaby, Chugoku Region Lullaby, Shimabara Lullaby, etc.

External links

• Takeda Lullaby (in Japanese)
• Takeda Lullaby (Lyrics with Japanese translation)
• Takeda Lullaby (Music score)
• Takeda Lullaby (MIDI music)
• Lullaby of Takeda (Played by the ocarina, YouTube)