Itsuki's Lullaby - Itsuki's Lullaby

The title of a folk song. Girls who were sent to work as babysitters in Itsuki Village, Kuma County, Kumamoto Prefecture, lamented their own fate while rocking their babies on their backs. The origin is unknown, but it is thought to be a reuse of a local farm song that used a "jinku" as a mortar song. At the end of the Edo period, 33 land stewards (also called "danna") ruled the village in Itsuki, and ordinary villagers were called "nago" (natives) and had a relationship with landlords and tenant farmers, so it was practically obligatory for them to send their daughters to work as babysitters. The sad lyrics and melody attracted interest, and in 1951 (Showa 26), a version arranged by Koseki Yuji was broadcast daily by NHK's Kumamoto branch as "Before the Holidays," and began to be sung in various places, and in 1953, it spread nationwide as the song "Terugiku."

[Tsutomu Takeuchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

民謡の曲名。熊本県球磨(くま)郡五木村で子守奉公に出された娘たちが、背中の赤ん坊をあやしながらわが身を嘆いて歌ってきたもの。源流は不明であるが、この地方の農作業唄で、「甚句(じんく)」を臼唄(うすうた)にでも利用したものの再利用と思われる。五木では、江戸時代末には33軒の地頭（旦那(だんな)ともよばれる）が村を支配しており、一般の村人は名子(なご)とよばれ、地主と小作人の関係を結んでいたことから、娘を子守奉公に出すことは、なかば義務づけられていた。歌詞と節のもの悲しさに興味が集まり、1951年（昭和26）古関裕而(こせきゆうじ)編曲のものがNHK熊本局から「お休みの前に」で連日放送されて各地で歌われだし、53年に照菊(てるぎく)の唄で全国に広まった。

［竹内　勉］

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