Page:Japanese Peasant Songs.djvu/79

A Good Day Is Here

This short song (over twice the length of its text when the refrain is included) is something of a spell to insure good fortune to the building to be built and to those who use it. This is characteristic of rural Japan where a ritual of some kind is always performed at the commencement of a new building, bridge, or road to insure good fortune to the people who will use it when completed.

79

Kyō wa hi mo yoshi[1] Yoi yoi[2] Kichijitsu gozaru Yoi, yoi, yōiya nya Ara nya, kora nya tose[2] Kichijitsu yoi hi ni Dotsuki nasaru Kin no dotsuki Kogane no yagura Kore o hiku no ga Daikoku Ebisu Irete tsukaruru Ōban koban

Today is a good day, A good day is here. A good day, on a good day Pound the earth— A golden pounder, A golden frame— They who pull this are Daikoku, Ebisu.[3] Placed and pounded Big coin, small coin.

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1. Cf. the opening line of Song 67—cf. also this text of Bonneau, given in Folklore japonais, Vol. 3, No. 43:

   Kyō wa hi mo yoshi Ishi-zuki nasare Gin no ishi-bō ni Nishiki no te-nawa Te-nawa toru no ga Shichi-Fukujin

   Today is a good day. Pound the stone A silver powder. Ropes of brocade— And those who pull Are the seven gods of Good Fortune

2. The refrains are sung by the pullers as choruses, that after the first line alternating with that after the second line after every line in the song. The same alternating choruses are used in most of the other foundation pounding songs as well.
3. Daikoku and Ebisu are two popular deities of good fortune. Small wooden images of the pair are to be found in the houses of most farmers.