Lullaby of Takeda [Takeda No Komoriuta], Japanese Folk Song - The Red Birds [Akai Tori]

"Lullaby of Takeda", one of Beautiful Japanese Folk Songs, but in reality the lyrics of the song is including significant meanings, which is based on a sad folklore of a small girl, born at a very poor family in an isolated small village which is called "Takeda", located at current Fushimi-Ward, Kyoto Prefecture of Kansai Region.

One day she was forcibly put out to service for a rich family of a landlord to earn their keep, whose house was located at the next village over a mountain even though she was an infant,.

During the period of her bitter days, her dairy hard works carrying a small baby in her back always have reminded her of her family and a sweet home with looking at the silhouette of the mountains in the direction of her homeland.

That is to say, such circumstances seem to have made her sing this song sadly in her mind, and which orally has been transmitted from people to people and changed to be a very beautiful lullaby across Kansai Region.

Song performed by Akai Tori [The Red birds], Japanese folk-song group.


Contents of Lyrics in English

Unwilling baby-sitting,
Thinking of days after mid-summer Bon[*] holiday,
Then a flurry of cold snow continues,
And a baby's repeating cry.

Even coming Bon holiday, what is so joyful.
No clothes and no sash to attire.

The baby is so irritable to cry,
That baby's crying annoys me

Baby-sitting for a whole day,
That makes me getting so skinny

Wishing to get back home in a hurry across the border,
That's my parents' home which can be seen far away.
That's my parents' home which can be seen far away.

Bon[*];
Bon or Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the deceased spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars.
It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori, Mid-summer Dance Festival.
The Festival of Obon lasts for three days; however its starting date varies within different regions of Japan.