Song of March Sixteenth[1]
(Sangatsu Jūroku Nichi No Uta)
On the fifteenth and sixteenth of March (lunar calendar) there is an important festival in honor of Mt. Ichifusa, the sacred mountain of Kuma county. On the fifteenth people from all parts of the county, especially young married couples, make a pilgrimage to the mountain, spending the night at a shrine on the mountain and returning home the next morning. This song is frequently sung by individuals or groups of travelers at this time. The possibility of a rendezvous with one’s lover on the trip, or the night out of the young bride and groom gives point to the first stanza; and since it nearly always rains at this time of the year in Kuma the reference to an umbrella in the second stanza is in keeping with the season. Many male travelers spend an hour or an evening at a tea house, perhaps sleeping with one of the girls who beckon a welcome as in the third stanza. All in all it is a trip marked by good times and high spirits—assisted by wine—in spite of inclement weather and a more or less sleepless night on the hard wooden floor of a mountain shrine. The fourth stanza has no very definite reference to the events of March Sixteenth and may not really belong to this cycle. The order of verses is not fixed, and one or two may be sung without the others, and when Rokuchōshi verses are sung at a banquet one of these may be included. Some informants in Suye give stanza 65 as a part of the Bon song (Nos. 71–4). The song also has a special tune of its own.
Stanzas 64 and 65 are recorded as of Kuma by Kodera and in Tanabe’s Folksongs of Kuma. Bonneau has a variation of stanza 65 as of Northern Japan in his Folklore japonais, Vol. 2, No. 188—this is peculiar since both the people of Kuma and scholars like Kodera regard the song as characteristic of Kuma. Bonneau’s variant has a similar basic thought and the same opening line as the Kuma song, but the other lines are different. Parallelism is possible here since both umbrellas, visits to tea houses, and such sentiments are all common in Japan. Such a problem as this can only be settled by further collections of data in various parts of Japan.
The form of the song is regular dodoitsu 7-7-7-5, except for the last stanza which has an extra five syllable line. In this connection it is worth noting that this stanza may not be part of the March Sixteenth song.
- ↑ So called by people of Kuma.
