Okinawan folk songs, children’s songs, and nursery rhymes: the heart of our hometown passed down through song.

Sea ChimbōrāNakasone Hajime

Tanchamae Section: Sea Chimborā – Hajime Nakasone – Okinawan Folk Song – Sanshin – Onna Village Industry Festival

Because it’s very comical and lively, this song is often heard at banquets and in folk-music taverns.

An old folk song from Ie Island, a remote island in northern Okinawa Main Island, was passed down to the red-light district in Naha, where both the lyrics and melody changed into the version known today.

The lyrics tell a story that moves from a chimbora (a type of sea snail) to seaweed, Tsuji, Nakashima, and Watati—red-light districts that once existed in Naha—where beans were eaten…

It’s also the departure melody used at Asahibashi Station on the Okinawa Urban Monorail.

Ufumuraudun

Omura Palace (Ufumura Udun) / Mika Uchizato / Natsuki Nakamura / Ayano Uema

One of the lullabies beloved in Okinawa.

The title “Ufumu-ra Udon” refers to the Great Village Palace, said to be where the prince lived at the time.

The piano and sanshin accompaniment is gently beautiful, and listening to it is calming.

In contrast to that mood, however, the lyrics tell a scary tale: the spirit of an evil monk—punished by the prince—stands before the Great Village Palace holding a small knife or a kitchen blade.

It even says that all crying children will have their ears cut off.

Yet in the end, it reassures the children with a soothing, “So don’t cry.”

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Hane Keisuke

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the beautiful moonDaiku Tetsuhiro

Tsuki no Bishya / Tetsuhiro Daiku (1995)

This is a nighttime lullaby sung in the Yaebama region.

It is a song praising the beauty of the moon, saying that the moon on the thirteenth night—before it becomes full—is the most beautiful.

The same is said of women: the lyrics “miyarabi kaisha to onanatsu (Onna warabi misha 17)” mean that a young woman around seventeen, not yet fully mature, is considered the most beautiful.

This song is used as the departure melody at Furujima Station on the Okinawa Urban Monorail.

tinglingInami Akito

Jinjin / Akito Iha

Jinjin means firefly.

Because it’s a song often heard since childhood, it’s frequently used in beginner sanshin classes.

The “liquor shop” mentioned in the lyrics is said to refer to an awamori distillery in Shuri, and Tsuboya and Kumoji are place names in Naha.

It is also the departure melody at Okinawa Urban Monorail’s Onoyama Park Station.

Bangamuri

[Kunio Sunagawa] Miyako Folk Song: Bangamuri (Taira Lullaby)

Here is a song that was once sung by a girl from Miyako Island who had been sent out to work, to soothe the children she looked after.

Filled with love for the children, this song is said to still be widely sung today.

The title “Bangamuri” means: “ban” is “I,” and “muri” is “babysitting,” so it comes to mean “I’ll babysit you.” If you understand the Okinawan dialect, it seems you can enjoy the folk songs even more.

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Hirakawa Masako (Bōkarisuto: Sakata Mizumako)

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Kana Yo-bushiTerukina Chōichi

Okinawan folk song “Kanayo-bushi,” singer Tomokina Chouichi

Kana means “beloved person,” so kana-yo is a phrase meaning “O beloved one!” Sometimes it is sung in alternating parts by men and women.

In Okinawa, it is frequently used in Ryukyuan dance, and in the past, when people said “Kanayo,” it referred to a me-asobi (evening gathering) song; everyone would sing it together while young men and women danced kachāshī.

Uwaki-bushiKina Shouki & Kina Tetsuko

2. Uwaki-bushi

This is a call-and-response song between a wife, exasperated by her husband’s cheating, and the husband himself.

Thanks in part to the rhythmic melody, the husband’s unreasonable excuses come across comically.

While the song exposes the foolishness of Okinawan men of the time, many Okinawan men today will likely find it “uchi-atai” (striking close to home).