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Tsugaru Yamauta

津軽山唄

[Genre]Min'yo
[School]Min'yo

History (Takahashi Yujiro):

The "Tsugaru Mountain Song" was sung by woodcutters in the mountains, but in the late 1800s its beauty and dignity led to its use at banquets and celebrations.

In Tsugaru, in winter pure white, in spring green, in summer black,
in autumn brocade - how vivid and splendid is the seasonal changing of kimono.
(At age fifteen, climbing deep into the mountains to cut trees, hungry,
and night closes in - I'd like my parents to see what I'm going through.
If you pray three times at the pine tree of the Temple of the 500 Bodhisattvas in Hyakuzawa,
your grow young again. I'd like to pray at that pine tree.)

Tsugaru ja / fuyu wa ma-shiroku, haru aoku / natsu wa sumizome, aki nishiki / koromogae suru azayakasa.

Tsugaru Yamauta appears on the following albums

Album Artist

Folk Songs with Shakuhachi Shakuhachi : Kamiyama Tensui I
Play ButtonMemories of My Home Shakuhachi : Riley Kōho Lee
Play ButtonMin'yo - Folk Song from Japan - Takahashi Yujiro and friends Shakuhachi : Takahashi Yujiro
The "Tsugaru Mountain Song" was sung by woodcutters in the mountains, but in the late 1800s its beauty and dignity led to its use at banquets and celebrations.

In Tsugaru, in winter pure white, in spring green, in summer black,
in autumn brocade - how vivid and splendid is the seasonal changing of kimono.
(At age fifteen, climbing deep into the mountains to cut trees, hungry,
and night closes in - I'd like my parents to see what I'm going through.
If you pray three times at the pine tree of the Temple of the 500 Bodhisattvas in Hyakuzawa,
your grow young again. I'd like to pray at that pine tree.)

Tsugaru ja / fuyu wa ma-shiroku, haru aoku / natsu wa sumizome, aki nishiki / koromogae suru azayakasa.

Copyright 1999 - Dr David W. Hughes
e-mail dh6@soas.ac.uk

Minyo Meijin Series Kikuchi Tansui Shakuhachi : Kikuchi Tansui

Minyo Meijin Series Watanabe Kidō Shakuhachi : Watanabe Kidō

Minyo no Sekai Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu

Minyo no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Takahashi Kosui
Play ButtonMusic of Japan, The - Vol II Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonMusical Atlas - Japan
In the mountaineer’s song (Yamauta) from Tsugaru District in Aomori Prefecture, the text says: "a boy goes to the mountain to work when he reaches the age of fifteen: he climbs the mountain and plays an the flute a melody which blends with the sound of the wind blowing through the pine trees". This song used to be sung by mountaineers walking in the mountains, and it brought them comfort when they spent long days alone an the mountain far their work. Later it came to be sung in Sake (wine) parties at home, and as a result, the style of the song and the singing technique became gradually mare sophisticated as is shown by the example given an this record. A Shakuhachi accompaniment has been added to the song.

The main characteristics of this song lie in its distinctive rhythm, a free rhythm which is found in the music of other parts of Asia, for instance, in the folk songs of Mongolia.

Nihon Minyo - Shakuhachi Tokusen Shu - 1 Shakuhachi : Kikuchi Tansui
Play ButtonShakuhachi - Hamabe No Uta Shakuhachi : Mitsuhashi Kifu
Play ButtonShakuhachi Min'yo - 1991

Shakuhachi Min'yo - Furusato no Uta - Vol 5 Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonShakuhachi Minyo Shakuhachi : Yoneya Iwao

Shakuhachi Minyo no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Yoneya Iwao

Shakuhachi no sekai - 1 Shakuhachi : Yoneya Iwao

Shakuhachi no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Satake Shōdō

Special Selection of Folk Songs for the Shakuhachi - 1 Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu

Take no Uta - Tōdō Teruaki Shakuhachi Min'yō Shū Voice : Tōdō Teruaki
Shakuhachi : Kaneko Shidō
Shakuhachi : Sakuma Ōdō

Tōhoku Min’yō Dai Zenshū vol. 1 Voice : Shiratori Undō
Shakuhachi : Takahashi Chikuzan

Tokusen Shakuhachi Minyo Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonWorld of Shakuhachi Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonWorld of Shakuhachi, The Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu

Yagishita - 1 Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu

Yashita Isamu no Sekai Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu