Takeda Lullaby is a popular Japanese cradle song. It originated in Takeda, Fushimi

Fushimi-ku, Kyoto

is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Famous places in Fushimi include the Fushimi Inari Shrine, with thousands of torii lining the paths up and down a mountain; Fushimi Castle, originally built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with its rebuilt towers and gold-lined...

, Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

.

General

This song has long been sung among the people in the burakumin

Burakumin

are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent....

areas of Kyoto and Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 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

Buraku Liberation League

is one of the burakumin's rights groups in Japan.-Pre-WW2 period:The origin of the Buraku Liberation League is the , founded in 1922. However, in 1942, some of the leading activists, including Asada Zennosuke , were recruited into the military...

, particularly its branch at Takeda.

In 1969, the folk song singing group Akai Tori made this song popular, and their single record

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, recorded in 1971, became a million seller in three years. The song has also an additional history that NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 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.

Japanese

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.
I get thinner because the baby cries all day.

I would quickly quit here and go back
To my parents' home over there,
To my parents' home over there.

See also

• Lullaby
  Lullaby
  A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
  
  
• Folk song
• Other Japanese lullabies: Itsuki Lullaby
  Itsuki Lullaby
  Itsuki Lullaby is a lullaby known widely in Japan, and is a folk song representative of Kyūshū, Japan.- General :The Itsuki Lullaby is a lullaby known to many people in Japan...
  
  , Edo Lullaby
  Edo Lullaby
  Edo Lullaby is a traditional Japanese cradle song. It originated in Edo, was propagated to other areas, and is said to be the roots of the Japanese lullabies.-General:The Edo Lullaby is a traditional Japanese cradle song...
  
  , Chugoku Region Lullaby
  Chugoku Region Lullaby
  Chugoku Region Lullaby is a traditional folk song in Okayama Prefecture, Chugoku region, Japan, and is a well known Japanese cradle song.-General:...
  
  , Shimabara Lullaby
  Shimabara Lullaby
  Shimabara Lullaby is a folk song-like lullaby by Kohei Miyazaki of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.-General:Shimabara Lullaby was written in the early 1950s by Kohei Miyazaki . It is related to the Karayuki-san, the poor Japanese girls sold to work overseas as prostitutes, in Southern China,...
  
  , 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)