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Nanbu Ushioi Uta

南部牛追唄

[Genre]Min'yo
[School]Min'yo

Nanbu Ushioi Uta appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonBeyond Time And Space Shakuhachi : Koga Masayuki
Cow herding song

The song is one of the most popular Japanese folk songs such as "Hietsuki-Bushi " and "Esashi Oiwake". Nanbu a place now called Iwate-prefecture, is mountainous region of northern Japan. It used to be a farmers' song. It is said that in those days when they plowed the soil by oxen and horses, they sang the song. It is a very melancholy song.
Play ButtonKoto Melodies of Japan - Hogaku Yonin no Kai (The Four Players Group) Koto : Yazaki Akiko
Koto : Gotō Sumiko
Shakuhachi : Kitahara Kōzan II
Koto : Kikuchi Teiko
In Iwate, near the eastern end of the Japanese mainland, this tune is sung by the people when they drive their cattle to pasture. The sound of the shakuhachi conveys the effect of pastoral scenery in a peaceful farming village.
Play ButtonMin'yo - Folk Song from Japan - Takahashi Yujiro and friends
This "Nambu Oxherd Song" from the north was sung while leading oxen carrying rice from the mountains to the sea, then bringing back salt and fish. Singing would soothe the oxen, as well as keeping away bears, boars and boredom.
Here Yujiro is accompanied by the sound of his whip and by shouts to the cattle. Verse 1 has a pun on the word ki meaning both "spirit, will" and "tree"; such puns, frequent in all Japanese poetry, defy translation.

My cattle, I know it's hard for you now, but the spirit/tree of perseverance
will bear the fruit of wealth.
Ekari and Kuzumaki are the home towns of the oxherds:
we always set out in spring and return in autumn.
(spoken:) Why does this ox just keep eating grass all the time? Com on, get moving faster!

Copyright 1999 - Dr David W. Hughes
e-mail dh6@soas.ac.uk

Minyo Meijin Series Kikuchi Tansui Shakuhachi : Kikuchi Tansui

Minyo Meijin Series Watanabe Kidō Shakuhachi : Watanabe Kidō

Minyo no Sekai Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu

Minyo Shakuhachi no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Kubota Yōhō

Nihon Minyo - Shakuhachi Tokusen Shu - 1 Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonShakuhachi - Hamabe No Uta Shakuhachi : Mitsuhashi Kifu
Play ButtonShakuhachi Min'yo - 1991

Shakuhachi Min'yo - Furusato no Uta - Vol 4 Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonShakuhachi Minyo Shakuhachi : Yoneya Iwao

Shakuhachi Minyo no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Fujimaru Teizō

Shakuhachi Minyo no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Yoneya Iwao

Shakuhachi no sekai - 1 Shakuhachi : Yoneya Iwao

Shakuhachi no Shirabe Shakuhachi : Hayashi Yūshō
Shakuhachi : Uchida Yūsen
Shakuhachi : Yamazaki Ryō

Shakuhachi/ Kaze no Tabi - Volume 4 Shakuhachi : Suzuki Jofū
Shakuhachi : Yamashita Mufū
Shakuhachi : Saeki Shōfū

Special Selection of Folk Songs for the Shakuhachi - 1 Shakuhachi : Watanabe Kidō

Take no Uta - Tōdō Teruaki Shakuhachi Min'yō Shū Shakuhachi : Sekiguchi Shunyū
Shakuhachi : Nagayama Yūdō
Voice : Tsukushi Ken
Shakuhachi : Imai Takudō
Voice : Tōdō Teruaki

Tōhoku Min’yō Dai Zenshū vol. 2 Voice : Sasaki Toshio
Shakuhachi : Takahashi Chikusui
Voice : Hatakeyama Kōichi

Tokusen Shakuhachi Minyo Shakuhachi : Kikuchi Tansui
Play ButtonWorld of Shakuhachi Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu
Play ButtonWorld of Shakuhachi, The Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu

Yashita Isamu no Sekai Shakuhachi : Yashita Isamu