Aomori Prefecture is alive with a rich tradition of culture and performing arts.
In the lands of Tsugaru and Hachinohe, the emotive strains of folk songs still resound today.
Coupled with the powerful tones of the Tsugaru shamisen, Aomori’s folk music speaks deeply to our hearts.
In this article, we have carefully selected “folk songs, children’s songs, and nursery rhymes of Aomori,” born from the lives of people shaped by mountains, the sea, and a harsh climate.
We present timeless masterpieces that have been lovingly sung and passed down through the ages.
Won’t you lend an ear to the world of songs that can truly be called the heart of Aomori?
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Aomori Folk Songs, Children's Songs, and Nursery Rhymes | Soul-Stirring Japanese Songs Living On in Tsugaru and Hachinohe (1–10)
Tsugaru Sangen Kudari
Among folk songs, the “Sangakudari” is said to be the most challenging in terms of tempo and timing.
In the folk music world, it’s known as a piece that only fairly advanced performers can sing or play well.
When you listen to performances by Kohei Fukuda, an enka singer renowned for folk songs, you can really tell how advanced he is.
Tsugaru Bayashi
Tsugaru Bayashi is said to have originated when people from Tsugaru who went to work in the Murakami area of Niigata Prefecture brought back and sang the local Bon Odori.
This folk song, cherished as a drinking song, is based on the original tune Murakami Jinku, and before the war it was reportedly sung by Tsugaru entertainers to draw in crowds.
Since it was originally a Niigata folk song, it was first called Echigo Jinku, but after the war it came to be widely known by its current title.
Yasaburō-bushi
It’s a folk song that was sung toward the end of the Edo period, but it’s a wife-bullying song to a degree that would be unthinkable today! It’s said to have as many as fifteen verses.
“Yasaburō’s wife’s hands are cracked and bloody, yet she’s not allowed to put oil on them,” “Even when given delicious botamochi, they hide it and eat it so the wife won’t find out”…
How does that make you feel?
Nanbu Umakata San-ori
It is a folk song that vividly evokes scenes from travels in the southern Aomori region.
Based on a travelers’ song said to have come from Shinshu, it sets the feelings of a horse-leading traveler to a lively sanbon-downbeat style on the shamisen.
You can sense both the melancholy of crossing misty mountains at dawn and the pride of a land famed for its fine horses.
Loved as accompaniment for hand dances, its light, repetitive melody conjures cheerful images of people forming a circle and dancing together.
When you want to reflect on the majestic nature of the northern country and the lives of its people, give it a listen.
An Apple’s Soliloquy
This is a children’s song told from the very endearing perspective of a bright red fruit narrating its own journey.
It vividly sings, with rhythmic expression, of being jostled by a train from fields in the far north to the markets of the big city.
Knowing that lyricist Toshiko Takeuchi drew inspiration while bedridden from a get-well gift of apples may deepen one’s sense of her yearning for a freer world and her feelings for her hometown.
The song was recorded in February 1940, sung by Junko Kawamura.
It has even been adopted as the arrival melody at JR Gono Line’s Fujisaki Station, and is cherished as a piece that strongly evokes Aomori.
Southern Dodoitsu
This piece is a song that took shape in Edo during the Tenpō era with a 7-7-7-5 meter, was carried to the Nanbu region of Aomori, and nurtured into a distinct folk tune.
Beyond love songs, it weaves in everyday wisdom and the humor of common people who laugh off hardship, all expressed through the local dialect.
Its generous melodic phrasing offers a gentle flavor unique to Okunanbu, different from Tsugaru folk songs.
While it originally centered on singing, choreography was codified in the Showa period, and it came to be enjoyed as a dance as well.
Why not immerse yourself in this simple, heartwarming world born from local life?
Ho-hai Festival
A folk song from the Tsugaru region, notable for its striking yodel-like falsetto calls that seem to stretch on without end.
It depicts the everyday lives of people living alongside harsh nature: mountain wildflowers, bountiful rice ears, and a mother working through back pain.
The song’s greatest appeal lies in the beautiful contrast between the clear, prayer-like falsetto and the earthy, grounded chest voice.
This ebb and flow grips the listener’s heart.
Tsugaru-shamisen player Hiroki Nakamura performed this piece on his April 2023 EP, “AYUMI.” It has also been given a modern arrangement as the theme song for the local sake brand “Houhai,” further expanding the ways it can be enjoyed.