Otemoyan

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Otemoyan is a Japanese folk song (min'yo) from Kumamoto Prefecture. It is played by mass performers dancing in the streets of Kumamoto in the summer. It is usually accompanied by shamisen, taiko drums and other percussion, and the Japanese used has a southern Kumamoto accent.

Origin[]

Originally, it was a song played during drinking parties with geisha girls. Several hypothesis have been formulated on the origin of the name and the most creditable one among them is that Otemoyan was a girl named Tominaga (1868-1935) who really lived near the present Kumamoto Station. The writer/composer was Ine Nagata, a teacher of Shamisen and Japanese dances. This song made a debut made by in 1935. The oldest reference of this song is in 5 Pairs of Shoes, a book published in 1907 by five promising men of letters, Tekkan Yosano, Mokutaro Kinoshita (pen-name of Masao Ōta (太田正雄, )), Kitahara Hakushu, and Yoshii Isamu who visited Kumamoto at that time.

Meaning[]

The song is about Chimo, a young maiden in the Meiji period, who is in love with a man with smallpox scars on his face. They just got married but she hesitates to hold an open wedding ceremony due to possible comments made by the townspeople about her new husband's look. Anyhow, she is still charmed by him regardless of his look.[1]

Since lyrics of this song include old Kumamoto local accents, it is hard to understand for people today. Many people understand this song in many ways.

This song is about a young woman who recently got married but in love with somebody else in a different town　- she explains she has not "officially" got married because her husband is not nice looking. Lyrics comically describe how the young cheerful lady is enjoying her young days attracting many guys - who she is explaining "ugly" and "not her type."

1st Stanza[]

2nd Stanza[]

References[]

  1. ^ "www.museumstuff.com - Origin of Otemoyan".
  • 熊本人物紀行　おてもやん(2005) 小山良　熊本出版文化会館
  • on otemoyan
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