Children’s songs, school songs, and nursery rhymes with a river theme. Beloved classics about nostalgic watersides.
Children’s songs and school songs that entrust the babbling and flow of rivers to music are filled with a unique sentiment that deeply resonates with the Japanese heart.
From nostalgic tunes hummed in childhood to memorable songs learned at school, many people still remember river-themed pieces even as adults.
In this article, we introduce works that sing of the river’s beauty as it changes with the seasons and of the creatures that live in and around it.
Please enjoy as you bask in fond memories.
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Children’s songs, school songs, and nursery rhymes themed around rivers: Beloved waterside classics (21–30)
Summer has comeTōkyō Hōsō Jidō Gasshō
The lyrics were written by Sasaki Nobutsuna and the music was composed by Koyama Sakunosuke.
It was released in 1896 and was selected for the 2007 list of 100 Selected Japanese Songs.
The content depicts early-summer scenes, including riverside landscapes.
The title, in classical Japanese, means “summer has come.”
London BridgeFunabashi Sazanka Shonen Shojo Gasshou-dan
It is one of the most representative Mother Goose rhymes in England and is known worldwide.
The lyrics vary by time and place, but it is thought to depict a bridge being washed away by floods when the River Thames overflowed.
It is used as a singing game for a gate-playing activity.
Children’s songs, school songs, and nursery rhymes themed around rivers. Beloved classics of waterside nostalgia (31–40)
fireflyManiwa Sae
With lyrics by Takeo Inoue and music by Kan’ichi Shimofusa, this is a Ministry of Education school song.
It was released in 1932 as a piece for third-year elementary school students.
The song describes fireflies gathering under a willow tree by the riverside at dusk.
The lyrics “ho ho hotaru” evoke the children’s song Hotaru Koi (Come, Fireflies).
Song of the Small RiverŌsugi Kumiko
It was the ending theme of the TV anime “Meme Iroiro Yume no Tabi.” Like the opening theme “Pocket Universe,” the lyrics were written by Etsuko Kibika and the music was composed by Takeo Watanabe.
Kumiko Ōsugi is an anison (anime song) singer known for theme songs in the “World Masterpiece Theater” series.
Little loaches and little crucian carphibari jidō gasshōdan
Based on rice-planting and children’s songs beloved in the Tohoku region, Toshiaki Okamoto composed a mixed chorus arrangement in 1936.
As for the lyrics, there are theories that Kiyoshi Toyoguchi wrote them, or that they were collected from folk songs.
On NHK’s “Minna no Uta,” it was introduced in 1961, the year the program began broadcasting, sung by Hiroko Nakamura.
Across the riverDizunī
It is a song from the Disney feature-length animated film “Pocahontas.” The music is by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and the Japanese lyrics were written by Reiko Yukawa.
It is used in the scene where the heroine, Pocahontas, sings while paddling a canoe.
The banks of a wide riverKonsei Gasshōdan Kusatsu Kantābire
It is a folk song of Scottish origin, known overseas as “The Water Is Wide” or “O Waly, Waly.” In Japan, the song appeared in the NHK morning dramas Hanako to Anne and Massan, which brought it renewed attention in recent years.