Page:Japanese Peasant Songs.djvu/75

On the Eve of the Fifteenth

On the eve of the fifteenth of the eighth month there is held a celebration in honor of the moon, marked by offerings to the full moon. Young people of the village make a rope of rice straw and have a tug of war. This game has a slight ritual value since the winning group is said to have a good harvest. (In Suye this has little significance since the tugging goes on endlessly and if one side is losing some people from the winning end run over to help the other group to pull.) A giant straw sandal is also made and placed by some sacred wayside stone.

The first two stanzas appear in Kodera’s collection as a Kuma song and they also appear in Tanabe’s Folksongs of Kuma. The third stanza (78) is a characteristic modification of the second (77) along phallic lines—the suggestion of the pestle was too good to miss.

Like the Bon song (70–73) the regular Eve of the Fifteenth song is known to only a few old people; it is also, like the Bon song, sung very slowly.

The form is somewhat irregular, the arrangement of syllables for the three stanzas in order being 7-5-5-7-5-7, 7-5-5-5-7-7 and 7-7-5-7-7.

76	Jūgoya ban ni Tsunahiki ga Gozaru choi Eiya to ieba Ne ga kireru Ne ga kireru Iyo ne ga kireru	On Fifteenth Night Comes tug-of-war. ‘Choi!’ We shout ‘eiya!’ The rope will cut, Rope will cut, The rope will cut.
77	Jūgoya ban ni Tsuna hikanu Mono wa choi Saki no yo ja Oni ga kine de tsuku Kine de tsuku Iyo kine de tsuku	On fifteenth night Those who don’t pull, ‘Choi!’ In the next world The devils will pound with a pestle, Pound with a pestle, Pound with a pestle.
78	Jūgoya ban ni Bobo sen[1] mono wa Yoi yoi Saki no yo de Oni ga kine de tsuku Are kine de tsuku Yoi yoi	On fifteenth night Those who do not f—k In the next world The devils will pound with a pestle, Will pound him with a pestle.

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1. A vulgar folk term; cf. use of ‘bobo’ in Song 8.