Nagasaki, with places like Dejima, exudes an exotic atmosphere.
In this article, we’ll introduce folk songs and children’s songs that capture Nagasaki’s customs, practices, and current events.
Above all, many of Nagasaki’s folk songs, in their melodies and in many other aspects, carry historical backgrounds and convey a distinctly non-Japanese feel.
Listening to these Nagasaki folk and children’s songs, you can’t help but picture the streetscapes of Nagasaki.
Please try listening while imagining Nagasaki brimming with that exotic charm.
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Folk songs, children's songs, and nursery rhymes of Nagasaki: The heart of our hometown passed down in song (1–10)
Denderaryu
If you watched NHK’s children’s program “Nihongo de Asobo,” this might feel familiar.
The traditional children’s song “Denderaryū,” long sung in Nagasaki Prefecture, is known for its catchy melody and lyrics.
It’s a kind of wordplay song that incorporates the Nagasaki dialect.
Listening to it makes you want to sing along.
There are also recordings included as works by singer-songwriters Masashi Sada and Masaharu Fukuyama.
It’s a song from Nagasaki that we hope parents and children will enjoy together.
Flower Picking Song
As you may know from history classes, Nagasaki Prefecture served as a key gateway for foreign cultures.
Because of that, there are folk songs like Hanatsumi-uta that strongly reflect the influence of Christianity.
Hanatsumi-uta, passed down on Iojima, an island in Nagasaki City, is characterized by lyrics that also reflect the residents’ views on life and death.
If you listen closely, it might even serve as a starting point for unraveling a part of Nagasaki’s history.
Buy some manju in town.
“Machi de Manjū Kōte” has long been sung as a shuttlecock song and a hand-clapping rhyme.
A distinctive feature is that place names from Nagasaki Prefecture appear in the lyrics.
If you live in Nagasaki, names like Himi, Yagami, Koga, and Kuyama might ring a bell.
With its rhythmic phrasing that’s easy on the ear, it’s a quintessentially Japanese children’s song.
In the past, there was even a tour themed around this song that took participants along the Nagasaki Kaidō.
Hearing that makes me feel like trying something similar myself.
Nagasaki Bon Dance
Composed after the end of World War II with prayers for repose and peace, this piece is the widely beloved “Nagasaki Bon Odori,” enjoyed at summer festivals throughout the prefecture.
About two years after the war ended, during the Nagasaki Peace Bon Dance Festival—organized primarily by Masakuni Honda, who himself had served in the war—the song was unveiled to the world for the first time.
Its lyrics express a yearning for reconstruction, and one can imagine how people of the time danced, encouraged by the music.
It remains a Bon dance song deeply rooted in the hearts of the prefecture’s residents and cherished to this day.
Nagasaki Uproar
Here is the folk song “Nagasaki Sawagi,” which celebrates a new beginning.
This piece is an arrangement of a song called “Waraji-zake.” “Waraji-zake” was reportedly played at the end of celebratory banquets, as people were leaving restaurants and teahouses.
Because people would drink sake while still wearing their straw sandals (waraji) and sing, it came to be called “Waraji-zake.” From there, it evolved into a celebratory song known as “Nagasaki Sawagi.” Indeed, even just reading the lyrics gives a festive feeling.
It is also well loved as a piece performed on the shakuhachi and koto.
Nagasaki Burabura Song
Many of you may know it as the title of a novel or a film.
The folk song “Nagasaki Burabura-bushi,” passed down as a song sung over drinks, is said to be based on the Edo-period tune “Yadachū-bushi.” While it has been recorded on vinyl and thus has a certain standardized format, a defining feature is the abundance of lyrics rooted in the regions where it’s sung.
Given that it was performed at banquets and in raucous, boisterous settings, that may be how it developed in such a way.
Shimabara Lullaby
The song sung around the Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture is “Shimabara no Komoriuta” (Shimabara Lullaby).
Its lyrics depict the poverty of everyday life and the tragic fates of young girls that arise from it.
In 1957, it was released on record as a popular song performed by Chiyoko Shimakura, and later a version sung by Peggy Hayama was released through a different label and became a hit as well.
The tune and melody line, with their somewhat wistful atmosphere, are striking.
It’s a lullaby full of melancholy, yet it has a calming effect.