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 classics of waterside nostalgia (31–40)
BeginningNagoya Shiritsu Shiroyama Chugakkou
This is a choral piece with lyrics by Naoko Kudo and music by Makiko Kinoshita.
Other choral works in which Makiko Kinoshita set Naoko Kudo’s poems to music include “Mainichi ‘Ohatsu’,” which was selected as the compulsory piece for the Elementary School Division of the 73rd (FY2006) NHK All-Japan School Music Competition.
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.
MoldauAichi-ken Nagoya Shiritsu Shiroyama Chūgakkō
It is the second piece from Smetana’s cycle of symphonic poems, Má vlast (My Homeland).
It depicts the flow of the river that runs through the city of Prague—called the Moldau in German and the Vltava in Czech.
Since its premiere in 1874, it has become one of Smetana’s signature works, and arranged versions are often performed as art songs and choral pieces.
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.
Bengawan SoloGusan Marutoharutono
This is a representative song of kroncong, Indonesia’s popular music.
The title means the Solo River, and the lyrics sing of the marvels of nature—the river overflowing in the rainy season but nearly drying up in the dry season—and of the hometown longings of the people who live there.
Children’s songs, school songs, and nursery rhymes themed around rivers. Beloved classics of waterside scenes (41–50).
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.