Nostalgic Children’s Songs, Folk Songs, and Nursery Rhymes: The Heart of Japan Passed Down Through Song
When we hear the gentle melodies of nostalgic children’s songs, folk songs, and nursery rhymes, memories from our early childhood come vividly rushing back, as if we’ve crossed time and space.
Perhaps you, too, have a “song of nostalgia” that has stayed with you since you were young.
In this article, we introduce iconic Japanese children’s songs (shoka), folk songs and nursery rhymes cherished and passed down across the regions, as well as beloved tunes often featured in school performances and recreational activities.
Shall we set off on a heartwarming sonic journey into the world of children’s songs that softly reflect Japan’s seasons, culture, and everyday life?
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- [Children’s Songs] Let’s Sing of Spring! A Fun Collection of Nursery Rhymes, Folk Songs, and Children’s Songs
- [Minna no Uta] Beloved Across Generations: Nostalgic Classics and Popular Songs
- Children’s Song Medley: A playlist of classic and popular hits everyone knows
- [Children’s Songs of Autumn] Autumn songs, school songs, and traditional children’s rhymes. A collection of classic pieces to sing in autumn.
- [Minna no Uta] Tear-jerking masterpiece. A moving song you want to hear again.
- Collection of winter nursery rhymes, folk songs, and children's songs. Includes fun winter hand-play songs too.
- Nursery Rhyme Popular Song Rankings [2025]
- Kyoto’s folk songs, children’s songs, and nursery rhymes: the enduring spirit of our hometown passed down through song.
- Children’s songs of the world: songs passed down and sung by children overseas
- Children’s songs and nursery rhymes about the moon
- Nursery rhymes you’ll want to sing at karaoke: classic and popular songs everyone can enjoy together.
[Nostalgic Children's Songs, Folk Songs, and Nursery Rhymes] The Heart of Japan Passed Down in Song (41–50)
Harvest Moon
Some of you may have heard the song, but when thinking about the moon, I think many people are more familiar with singing “Usagi, usagi” (Rabbit, rabbit).
This song was composed in the Taisho era, and it is a lonely, heartrending song in which a girl, left alone on the moon, speaks to someone.
Since she had a nanny, she must once have lived in comfort, but the lyrics tell how her mother has died and her younger sister was given away—an expression of Noguchi Ujo’s distinctive world.
[Nostalgic Children’s Songs, Folk Songs, and Nursery Rhymes] The Heart of Japan Passed Down in Song (51–60)
Red sky at dusk
This melody is still played somewhere even today.
For example, at 5:00 p.
m.
in the city it can be the tune signaling children to go home, or it might be used for garbage collection or kerosene peddlers—so for many Japanese people it may be a nostalgic, unforgettable song.
As for me, I just can’t shake the image of that old commercial jingle: “Shūkan ○chō goes on sale tomorrow.”
The monk of the mountain temple
It’s a comical and fun song, but knowing the content now you might think, “What an outrageous monk!” He wants to bounce a ball, but since there’s no ball, he puts a cat in a bag instead—unthinkable, of course.
Still, this is purely an imaginative song: a satirical piece for adults about how funny it would be if such a thing happened, not something monks actually did.
Although monks—being clergy—were roped into it as characters, it ended up becoming an annoying children’s song.
Come, spring
This song is set in Itoigawa City in Niigata Prefecture, where the snow runs deep.
It tells of a little girl who has just started walking and sings of her hope to walk outside in spring, when the snow has melted, wearing red jojo (traditional straw sandals).
I think not only Mii-chan, who is waiting for spring, but everyone living in the snowy country was waiting for the thaw and the arrival of spring.
Height comparison
I think quite a few people have measured their height by making marks on a pillar, but due to today’s housing circumstances, we’ve entered an era where making any scratches on a pillar is unthinkable.
This is a song that celebrates a child’s growth for Boys’ Day (Tango no Sekku), but what catches my attention is that it says the older brother measured it “the year before last.” It makes me feel the younger brother’s special joy, since, due to certain circumstances, they couldn’t go back to their parents’ home last year.
Red Shoes
When I was little, I pictured a girl wearing red shoes, and I actually felt a bit envious of her.
But this song turned out to hide a truly sad story.
The girl’s name was Kimi-chan.
Due to circumstances, her mother couldn’t take her in and entrusted her to an American missionary couple.
However, just before Kimi-chan was to leave for America, she contracted tuberculosis, which was incurable at the time.
Taken into an orphanage, she fought the illness but passed away at the age of nine.
Her mother never learned that Kimi-chan had died.
Through a certain connection, Ujo Noguchi learned of this story and wrote lyrics that expressed the mother’s feelings.
It’s truly heartbreaking.
The Ball and the Lord
As a child, I would innocently play ball and hum “Ten Ten Tenmari,” never giving a thought to what the song meant.
Reading the lyrics again now, I can’t help but feel they contain quite a deep and cruel side of history.
Since it mentions the lord of Kii, it refers to the feudal lord of Wakayama; in daimyo processions, the peasants’ prostrating postures—often seen in period dramas—clearly show the differences in social status.
In an era when it would have been a grave offense to place something like a ball on the lord’s palanquin, why is this song so carefree? Or am I just overthinking it?