The Country Headman—I
Kuma Rokuchōshi hayashi
This song is the hayashi of the regular Kuma Rokuchōshi. There are numerous minor variations the most commonly heard of which are given here as Songs 4a and 4b. The hayashi is a free form unlike the regular 7-7-7-5 syllable series of dodoitsu. There are however certain rhythms of sound and length (e.g. inawasete, karuwasete) and five syllable lines to end sections (e.g., Ushiro mae … Hoe-mawaru). Like most hayashi this one has a humorous content.
Hitoyoshi is the capital of Kuma, a commercial center of countless one- and two-storey shops, a few geisha houses, a third rate hot springs and the ruins of the castle of Sagara, the feudal lord or daimyō of Kuma. Today with a population of around 20,000 it is by far the largest and most impressive town in the region. A village headman is usually of some old land-owning family of high prestige within his own small community, but in visiting a big town and putting on airs, yet withal impressed, he cuts a figure open to the ridicule heaped upon him in this song.
| 4a | Inaka shōya don no |
A country headman |
