School song - Kouka

A song is a song that a school creates and has students sing, incorporating the school's educational policy, school spirit, local environment, etc. into the lyrics. The oldest such song in Japan is recorded as being sung by Tokyo Women's Normal School (now Ochanomizu University), where a waka poem bestowed by the Empress was composed by Suehiro Togi of the Music Department of the Ministry of Ceremonies in 1878 (Meiji 11). After that, around 1887, songs to be sung on national holidays in each prefecture were stipulated by prefectural ordinance, and at the same time, each school created its own school song. In May 1893, the Minister of Education notified Tokyo Shita-ya Ward's Shinobu-ga-oka Elementary School that the school song, with lyrics by Masakoto Kimura (professor at Tokyo Imperial University) and music by Sanemichi Ues (head of the Music Department of the Imperial Household Ministry), "should be used as a ceremonial song." On August 12 of the same year, the Ministry of Education announced the "Lyrics and Music for National Holidays and Festivals" to elementary schools nationwide, and the momentum for creating school songs increased. At that time, the lyrics often included teachings on morality, loyalty, filial piety, and encouraging morale, and were rarely sung outside of ceremonies.

In 1895, the former First Higher School (now the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo) set the precedent for writing school songs, and in 1902 (Meiji 35), the East Dormitory school song "Aa Gyokuhai ni Hana Ukete" was released and became a favorite among the general public. Since then, school songs have been widely created not only in elementary schools but also in higher schools, and they have come to be sung on various occasions other than ceremonies. Due to the influence of education reforms after World War II, school songs have changed from solemn to simple, colloquial, and many of them are in major key and four beats, and can be sung at school events and recreational activities mainly attended by children and students.

School songs are not only found in Japan, but also in many Asian schools, including Korea and China, but in Europe and the United States, there are school songs that are sung at school events. Recently, many schools have started setting up websites on the Internet, and there are many cases where not only the lyrics but also the melodies of their school songs are introduced on these websites.

[Sakakibara Yoshikazu]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

学校が自校の教育方針、校風、地域環境などを歌詞に織り込み、独自に制定して生徒に歌わせる歌。日本でもっとも古いものとしては、東京女子師範学校（現お茶の水女子大学）で、皇后から下賜された和歌を1878年（明治11）式部省楽部の東儀季煕(すえひろ)が作曲し、校歌として歌われた記録がある。その後、1887年ごろから各府県ごとに祝日に歌う歌が府県令で規定され、同時に各学校で校歌も制定されていった。東京下谷区立忍ヶ岡(しのぶがおか)小学校でも、木村正辞(まさこと)（東京帝国大学教授）作詞、上真行(うえさねみち)（宮内省楽部長）作曲の校歌が1893年5月、文部大臣から「儀式用唱歌に供することをうべき」旨通達されている。同年8月12日、文部省が「祝日大祭日歌詞並音譜」を全国の小学校に告示、以後、校歌制定の機運は高まった。当時の歌詞は、修身、忠孝、志気の鼓舞などの教えを掲げるものが多く、儀式以外に歌われることは少なかった。

　1895年旧制第一高等学校（現東京大学教養学部）が寮歌作成の先鞭(せんべん)をつけ、とくに1902年（明治35）作の東寮寮歌『嗚呼(ああ)玉杯に花うけて』が発表され、一般人にまで愛唱され出して以後、校歌は小学校のみならず、上級学校においても盛んに制定され、儀式以外のさまざまな機会にも歌われるようになった。第二次世界大戦後の教育改革の影響で、校歌は荘重なものから口語体の平明なものとなり、長調の4拍子系が多く、児童・生徒中心の学校行事、レクリエーションなどでも歌えるものに変わってきた。

　校歌は日本だけでなく、韓国、中国などアジアの学校にも多いが、欧米ではスクールソングがあり行事で歌われている。最近、インターネット上にホームページを開設する学校も多く、そこでは校歌の歌詞ばかりかメロディまで紹介している例も少なくない。

［榊原烋一］

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