Folksongs, children's songs, and nursery rhymes of Fukushima: the heart of our hometown passed down in song
The Tohoku region has traditionally been rich in folk songs.
Since ancient times, there have been festival songs and the like that are rooted in the local land.
Many of these songs are ones that everyone from the area would know, but this time we’ve gathered pieces to help more people appreciate the beauty of folk music.
Younger people and others may not be very familiar with it nowadays, so I’d be happy if this sparks your interest!
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Folk songs, children’s songs, and nursery rhymes of Fukushima: The heart of our hometown passed down in song (11–20)
Nakoso Kouta (Nakoso Little Song)Hatsune Miku
Located in the southern part of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, Nakoso sits on the border between Ibaraki and Fukushima, and in the past it was the site of the historic “Nakoso Barrier.” As time passed, during the high economic growth period in 1957, the Jōban coalfield and the Nakoso Thermal Power Station were established, and the town of Nakoso prospered rapidly.
This text is a lyric for a drinking song that was sung to celebrate those flourishing times.
Haramagama Great Catch Celebration SongMitsuna Koyama
Since the Edo period it was known as Kita-minato or Haragama Port, and it prospered as a shipping hub for rice—the domain’s staple—and salt.
Entering the Showa era, it was also refurbished as a fishing port, and along with that an industrial park was established, which contributed to Soma’s development.
Soma lies where the cold Oyashio Current and the warm Kuroshio Current alternate with the seasons, making it a region famed as a treasure trove of fish.
In the poem, bonito, mackerel, and sea bream appear, and the song rings with the high spirits of times of big catches.
trainKazuo Kobayashi
A monument inscribed with the lyrics of this song has been installed at JR East’s Joban Line Hirono Station.
It’s said that the lyrics mention “Hironohara,” referring to Hirono Town in Futaba District, Fukushima Prefecture, which suffered heavy damage in the earthquake and tsunami.
The town’s website states that Kenkyu Owada wrote the lyrics based on the scenery between today’s Hisanohama Station and Hirono Station when the Joban Line opened; however, there is also a view that this is a popular belief and that the lyricist is unknown.
Be that as it may, it’s hardly surprising that steam locomotives once ran in Iwaki, a coal-mining city, and in an era when people rarely rode trains, they enjoyed various landscapes and sang about them.
Fukushima OndoKoume, Ichiro Tsukuba
This is a bon odori song that Yuji Koseki and Toshio Nomura created in 1954 for their hometown of Fukushima, but now, across the ocean on Hawaii Island, Maui Taiko has become popular, and this “Fukushima Ondo” is being sung and danced.
I believe that a bon song, which is not very familiar in Japan, continues to be sung by people of Japanese descent who think of their ancestral homeland.
Aizu Otsu-eToyoko Yamamura
Otsu-e refers to a set of ten designs that were reduced and standardized in the late Edo period from images originally drawn as talismans.
They functioned as a kind of amulet, featuring motifs wishing for health or for becoming wealthy.
Songs based on these designs gave rise to the Otsu-e-bushi.
As the name suggests, it originated in Otsu and later spread nationwide to Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo, but in some regions the style was adapted into different versions.
Even today, songs like the “Kyoto Otsu-e-bushi” and the “Aizu Otsu-e-bushi” continue to be sung.
Double Sōma stitchTokuko Yamada
During the Edo period, the Tohoku region was struck by cold-weather crop failures, and Soma City was no exception.
Years of poor harvests led to a great famine and a tragic history of people starving to death, with the population shrinking to one third.
At that time, the Soma domain conceived a plan to revive Soma, and to attract immigrants from other domains, they enlisted Jodo Shinshu Buddhist monks to promote the merits of Soma.
This folk song was sung to draw people from the Kaga, Noto, and Etchu regions.
Folk songs, children's songs, and nursery rhymes of Fukushima: The heart of our hometown passed down in song (21–30)
Jōban Tankō-bushi (The Jōban Coal Mine Song)Society for the Preservation of Traditional Arts
The large leisure complex now known as Spa Resort Hawaiians used to be affectionately called the Jōban Hawaiian Center.
During Japan’s period of rapid economic growth, coal was one of the country’s important resources.
The folk song “Jōban Tankō-bushi” originated from tunes sung by miners working in Jōban Sumida on the Hamadōri coast of Iwaki City, which later became parlor songs performed at drinking gatherings.
After the coal mines—once a financial backbone of Iwaki City—were shut down, Hawaiians was born.
Today, the former mining area has been turned into a museum called the Iwaki City Coal and Fossil Museum, and the folk songs continue to be passed down.