Japanese Peasant Songs/Appendix 1

by by John F. Embree with Ella Embree and Yukuo Uyehara

Appendix I

Four Supplementary Stanzas of Kuma Rokuchōshi

These songs were not recorded in Suye but are to be found in Tanabe’s Folksongs of Kuma. They are of the same form as Songs 1–3 and presumably are sung in the same way in those parts of Kuma where they are current.

117	Aoi baba kara Satsumejo wo mireba Tono no goen ni Tsuru ga mau Yoiya sa	From Aoi[1] riding ground Looking to Satsuma rapids, From the master’s veranda The crane flies.
118	Kuma wa yoi toko Yama aoao to Doko mo sumiyoshi Hito mo yoshi	Kuma is a nice place: The mountains green, Everywhere good to live, The people fine.
119	Natsu no Kuma gawa Kajika nakeba Tsuki ga kudakete Kōgyo to naru	Kuma river in summer: We hear the kajika,[2] Moonbeams shimmer, And become kōgyo.[3]
120	Iwa ni kudakare Arase ni momare Shinku tsukushite Noboru ayu	Beaten to the rocks, Struggling in the rapids, With endless labor Ayu[3] go up.

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1. Shrine in Hitoyoshi; see Song 1, note 5.
2. A kind of frog. There is a popular geisha house in Hitoyoshi of this name.
3. Kōgyo-ayu, a kind of fish.