Page:Japanese Peasant Songs.djvu/36

Other Rokuchōshi

The verses of this group are local songs of Kuma county of the same forms and sung to the same tune as stanzas 1 to 7. Due to the predominance of Rokuchōshi as the local song, many independent verses are molded to this dominant song pattern of Kuma.

Hayashi Sung to the Tune of Rokuchōshi

The hayashi in this group are for the most part highly obscene, if not on the surface, then in double entendre. The more women at a banquet the more likely these verses are to be sung, to the accompaniment of equally obscene dances. The place of a banquet is no hindrance, some of the freest having been sung at a meeting of a Woman’s Kwannon Society at the little Zen temple of Suye (e.g., Nos. 15 and 20).

I Beg your Pardon, But—

A ditty such as this is much enjoyed when the drinking is well under way. The rather broad outspoken humor of this song is characteristic of many songs and jokes at drinking parties in rural Japan. Note the alternating assonance of a and o. ‘Batten’ is a characteristic of Kyūshū speech; ‘bobo’ is also a localism. The form of the song is regular 7-7-7-5 dodoitsu.

8

Yuchya s’man batten Uchi no kaka unago Kesa mo hagama de Bobo[1] aruta

I beg your pardon, but— My old lady is a woman. This morning in a basin She washed her c—t.

Rain Had Not Been Falling

This stanza is simply a jocular, not very coherent, reason for the muddiness of the Yamada river. This river, so far as I know, is not in Kuma.

9

Ame wa furanedo ya Yamada go ga niguru Yamada onnago no Heko no shuru Yoiya sa

Rain has not been falling But Yamada river is dirty. Yamada women’s Skirts’ juice.[2]

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1. A vulgar folk term. Cf. use of ‘bobo’ as a verb in Song 78.
2. The meaning here is that because the women have been washing their clothes in the river it is muddy. See however Song 131. Like Song 131 the first lines have eight instead of the regular seven syllables of dodoitsu.