II. Form
The chief formal characteristic of Japanese folksong, as also of the literary poem, is an emphasis on syllables rather than meter. Practically all Japanese poetry, including folksong, is arranged in a series of lines of five and seven syllables. Another important trait, brevity, is also characteristic of both the literary and the folk poetry.
The standard literary forms of Japanese poetry are the tanka dating from the seventh century at the latest as evidenced by the poems in the Manyōshū (Japan’s oldest anthology, early ninth century), and the haiku, a later development from the tanka. A third type is the naga-uta. The tanka is a poem of thirty-one syllables arranged in a series of lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. The haiku or hokku is a poem of seventeen syllables, 5-7-5. Practically all standard Japanese literary poetry is composed in these two forms. The third form, less common, is the naga-uta or “long” poem, consisting of an indefinite number of lines up to one hundred or so in a series alternating between five and seven syllables with an extra seven-syllable line at the end. A tanka by way of envoi may be added at the end of a naga-uta.
The folksong is a quite distinct form from the much studied literary tanka and haiku. Instead of thirty-one syllables the regular folksong or dodoitsu is composed of twenty-six syllables arranged in a series of 7-7-7-5. At the end of the dodoitsu there is usually a refrain of nonsense syllables serving as a chorus, e.g., the ‘Yoiya sa’ of rokuchōshi or ‘Dokkoise no se’ of dokkoise folksongs. The dodoitsu form is the predominating type of song in this collection.
There is also a long form of folksong or ballad to accompany the work of foundation pounding which may be in the alternating five- and seven-syllable line form, but lacking the final extra seven-syllable line of the literary naga-uta, and without benefit of a tanka envoi, or it may be one long series of seven-syllable lines (e.g., Nos. 61, 79, 90).
In addition to the predominating dodoitsu or twenty-six-syllable songs and the longer ballads there are a number of other special forms. One of these is a form of 5-7-7-5 or twenty-five syllables (as in No. 54), another is 5-7-7-7-5 (Nos. 36, 48). There are also occasional six-line, thirty-eight-syllable songs (7-7-7-5-7-5) as for instance, Song 75; this is simply the dodoitsu form with an extra couplet added. The Penis Song (No. 59) has a special (5-7-7-7) pattern.
A free irregular form of varying length, often more or less improvised and of humorous content, is the hayashi, which may follow after one or more dodoitsu in singing. Song 4 is a good example of the hayashi.
Children’s game songs exhibit a number of special patterns unlike the dodoitsu
