[Animal Song] Fun nursery rhymes popular with children
Picking out “animal songs” from popular children’s songs!
There are so many kinds of animals—dogs and cats that are popular as pets, and lions and pandas that are symbolic of zoos.
Did you know there are children’s songs that feature a variety of animals?
In this article, we’ll introduce many animal-themed songs, including the famous Inu no Omawari-san (The Dog Policeman) and Mori no Kuma-san (The Bear in the Forest).
There are also lots of finger-play songs you can use in childcare, so be sure to make good use of them.
If children become interested in animals, it might be nice to take a trip to the zoo!
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[Animal Songs] Fun Nursery Rhymes Popular with Children (41–50)
The Hare and the Tortoise
“The Tortoise and the Hare” is a well-known Aesop’s fable, and it seems to have been known in Japan since around the late Muromachi period.
The song inspired by this story has lyrics written by Wasaburō Ishihara.
In Gunma Prefecture, Ishihara’s birthplace, postage stamps featuring the tortoise and the hare have even been issued.
Kagome Kagome
It’s a song sung in children’s games that features several kinds of animals.
Its mysterious lyrics seem to spark people’s curiosity, leading to various interpretations—even a theory that it points to the location of the Tokugawa buried treasure.
A monument inscribed with the song has been erected at Shimizu-kōen Station.
Red bird, little birdSakushi: Kitahara Hakushū / Sakkyoku: Narita Tamezō
In 1918, the children’s magazine Akai Tori (Red Bird) was launched by Miekichi Suzuki.
One of the nursery songs published in this magazine is Akai Tori, Kotorii (Red Bird, Little Bird).
It’s a unique song in which the color of the berries the birds eat becomes the color of their bodies.
The lyrics were written by Hakushu Kitahara, and the music was composed by Tamezo Narita.
Daikoku-sama
This is also a song featuring a rabbit, created based on the Japanese myth “The Hare of Inaba.” Incidentally, the deity who helps the Hare of Inaba is Okuninushi, who later came to be identified with Daikokuten.
There is a monument inscribed with the lyrics of this song at the Shirousagi (White Rabbit) Coast.
In conclusion
We introduced songs about various animals.
How did you like them? Each song was lovely and conveyed the animals’ charm.
I bet many children became interested in animals while singing.
Since many of the songs include hand motions, be sure to sing, play, and have fun with a variety of them.