Nagasaki, with places like Dejima, exudes an exotic atmosphere.
In this article, we’ll introduce folk songs and children’s songs that capture Nagasaki’s customs, practices, and current events.
Above all, many of Nagasaki’s folk songs, in their melodies and in many other aspects, carry historical backgrounds and convey a distinctly non-Japanese feel.
Listening to these Nagasaki folk and children’s songs, you can’t help but picture the streetscapes of Nagasaki.
Please try listening while imagining Nagasaki brimming with that exotic charm.
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Folk songs, children's songs, and nursery rhymes of Nagasaki: The heart of our hometown passed down in song (1–10)
Nagasaki Bon Dance
Composed after the end of World War II with prayers for repose and peace, this piece is the widely beloved “Nagasaki Bon Odori,” enjoyed at summer festivals throughout the prefecture.
About two years after the war ended, during the Nagasaki Peace Bon Dance Festival—organized primarily by Masakuni Honda, who himself had served in the war—the song was unveiled to the world for the first time.
Its lyrics express a yearning for reconstruction, and one can imagine how people of the time danced, encouraged by the music.
It remains a Bon dance song deeply rooted in the hearts of the prefecture’s residents and cherished to this day.
Flower Picking Song
As you may know from history classes, Nagasaki Prefecture served as a key gateway for foreign cultures.
Because of that, there are folk songs like Hanatsumi-uta that strongly reflect the influence of Christianity.
Hanatsumi-uta, passed down on Iojima, an island in Nagasaki City, is characterized by lyrics that also reflect the residents’ views on life and death.
If you listen closely, it might even serve as a starting point for unraveling a part of Nagasaki’s history.
Nagasaki Uproar
Here is the folk song “Nagasaki Sawagi,” which celebrates a new beginning.
This piece is an arrangement of a song called “Waraji-zake.” “Waraji-zake” was reportedly played at the end of celebratory banquets, as people were leaving restaurants and teahouses.
Because people would drink sake while still wearing their straw sandals (waraji) and sing, it came to be called “Waraji-zake.” From there, it evolved into a celebratory song known as “Nagasaki Sawagi.” Indeed, even just reading the lyrics gives a festive feeling.
It is also well loved as a piece performed on the shakuhachi and koto.
Denderaryu
If you watched NHK’s children’s program “Nihongo de Asobo,” this might feel familiar.
The traditional children’s song “Denderaryū,” long sung in Nagasaki Prefecture, is known for its catchy melody and lyrics.
It’s a kind of wordplay song that incorporates the Nagasaki dialect.
Listening to it makes you want to sing along.
There are also recordings included as works by singer-songwriters Masashi Sada and Masaharu Fukuyama.
It’s a song from Nagasaki that we hope parents and children will enjoy together.
Nagasaki Nonnoko-bushi
Isahaya Bay, famous for its vast tidal flats where creatures like mudskippers and fiddler crabs live, faces a bountiful sea.
The folk song handed down in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture, is “Nagasaki Nonnoko-bushi.” Because it’s danced while holding small plates, it’s also known as the “Plate Dance.” Its unique lyrics, which sing about the Edo-period system of sankin-kōtai (alternate attendance), may be one reason it’s so widely loved.
Rooted in the local community, the piece brings joy to many citizens who dance to it at the Nonnoko Isahaya Festival held in Isahaya City every September.
Buy some manju in town.
“Machi de Manjū Kōte” has long been sung as a shuttlecock song and a hand-clapping rhyme.
A distinctive feature is that place names from Nagasaki Prefecture appear in the lyrics.
If you live in Nagasaki, names like Himi, Yagami, Koga, and Kuyama might ring a bell.
With its rhythmic phrasing that’s easy on the ear, it’s a quintessentially Japanese children’s song.
In the past, there was even a tour themed around this song that took participants along the Nagasaki Kaidō.
Hearing that makes me feel like trying something similar myself.
Nagasaki Meganebashi (Spectacles Bridge)Baishō Chieko
This is a Nagasaki-themed song that was broadcast on NHK’s music program “Minna no Uta.” It’s sung by Chieko Baisho, who is also known for her role as Sakura Suwa in the “It’s Tough Being a Man” (Otoko wa Tsurai yo) film series.
The composer is Hirooki Ogawa, who also worked on “Sayonara wa Dansu no Ato ni,” and the lyrics were written by Takashi Yanase, the creator of Anpanman.
As the title suggests, the song features many famous sights of Nagasaki, including Meganebashi (Spectacles Bridge), which is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan.
If you live in Nagasaki Prefecture, you’ll probably feel an immediate sense of familiarity with it, even on your first listen.