Nursery Rhymes›Itsuki no Komoriuta
五木の子守唄 (Itsuki no Komoriuta)
Key: Am~54 BPMGuitar & Piano chords
Sung for generations in the mountain village of Itsuki, in Kyushu, this is one of Japan’s most beloved and most bittersweet lullabies — written, it is said, by the young girls sent from home to nurse other families’ babies, who poured their own homesickness into the songs they sang to lull the children in their care.
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Verse 1
Am Dm Am
Sleep now, little one, the mountain wind is still,
Dm Am E7
far from home I sing to you, my heart upon this hill.
Verse 2
Am Dm Am
Someday I’ll return to the house where I was born,
Dm Am E7
till then my song will rock you gently until dawn.
Play it
Chords — guitar & piano
Am
Guitar
Piano
Dm
Guitar
Piano
E7
Guitar
Piano
Good to know
What this song means
Itsuki no Komoriuta comes from Itsuki, a small mountain village in Kumamoto Prefecture. In the poorer years of old Japan, girls as young as seven or eight were sent away from their families to work as nursemaids for wealthier households. Far from home and often lonely, they sang to the babies in their care — and, without meaning to, sang about their own longing too. Their private sorrow became one of the most tender lullabies in Japanese folk tradition.
Traditional Japanese lullaby style from Itsuki Village. The English lyrics are an original singable arrangement written as a tribute to this history, not a literal translation of the historical Japanese text.
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