Shimabara Lullaby

Shimabara Lullaby (Japanese: 島原の子守唄 or Shimabara no komoriuta) is a folk song-like lullaby by Kohei Miyazaki of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.

General

Shimabara Lullaby was written in the early 1950s by Kohei Miyazaki (1917-1980). It is related to the Karayuki-san, the poor Japanese girls sold to work overseas as prostitutes, in Southern China, the Pacific island areas, such as Sandakan on Borneo. [1]

This song became famous when Chiyoko Shimakura recorded it in 1957, followed later the recordings by Peggy Hayama, Hisaya Morishige and others.

Lyrics

It is usually sung in three stanzas, the first of which starts with:

Japanese おどみゃ島原の　おどみゃ島原の

Romanized Japanese Odomya shimabara no, odomya shimabara no,

English translation I was born in Shimabara, I was born in Shimabara,

The original song had five stanzas. This song is a copyrighted material, and, therefore, its lyrics cannot be fully described here.

References

1. About Shimabara Lullaby (in Japanese)

See also

• Lullaby
• Folk song
• Other Japanese lullabies: Edo Lullaby, Itsuki Lullaby, Takeda Lullaby, Chugoku Region Lullaby, etc.

External links

• Shimabara Lullaby（(A Hundred Lullabies in Japanese, in Japan Society of Lullabies' home page)
• Shimabara Lullaby {Sung by Hiromi Iwasaki, YouTube）