Takeda Lullaby facts for kids

The Takeda Lullaby (Japanese: 竹田の子守唄 or Takeda no komoriuta) is a well-known Japanese lullaby. A lullaby is a gentle song sung to help babies and young children fall asleep. This special song started in a place called Takeda, which is in Fushimi, Kyoto, Japan.

About the Song

This song has been sung for a very long time by people in certain areas of Kyoto and Osaka. These groups of people faced unfair treatment and were often looked down upon in Japanese society. In the 1960s, the song became a symbol for a group called the Buraku Liberation League. They used it as a theme song, especially their branch in Takeda.

The song tells the story of a young girl. She is sent away from her home to work for a rich family in another village. This village is across a mountain. Every day, she works with a baby on her back. She misses her own family. She looks at the mountains, which remind her of her home far away. The song is about her sad feelings and longing for her family.

Popular Recordings

In 1969, a folk music group named Akai Tori [ja] (赤い鳥) helped make this song very popular. Their song, released in 1971, became a huge hit. For a while, some major Japanese TV networks, like NHK, did not play the song. This was because it was connected to the groups who faced unfair treatment. However, this changed in the 1990s, and the song began to be played again.

The song was also translated into Chinese. A Taiwanese lyricist named Weng Bingrong (翁炳榮) changed the words. The Chinese version is called "qidao" (simplified Chinese: 祈祷; traditional Chinese: 祈禱; pinyin: qídǎo; literally "pray"), which means "pray." The new lyrics are about caring for everyone, not just the babysitter's complaints. This version also became famous in China and Taiwan. Singers like Dave Wang and Wang Yunchan performed it in 1993. It was presented as a classic Japanese song.

Other artists have also recorded the song. In 2001, singer Eri Sugai included it on her album Mai. In 2017, the folk group Bendith released a Welsh language version on their Bendith EP.

Song Lyrics