I came across this music as I was searching for the song at the end of the movie Tokyo Story (東京物語). Tokyo Story is a movie from 1953 about an older couple who go to visit their children in Tokyo. What I most enjoyed about the film was its nod to the passage of time. The parents commented on their grown children, how they used to be in the past, visiting old friends and how much Japan had changed since the war. At the end of the movie the mother passes away and after the funeral the grown children are soon gone as well back to their own lives.
We’re here, we live a life and then we die, soon to be forgotten over just two or three generations. Looking at life this way certainly puts into perspective that most of the things we concern ourselves with on a daily basis are quite trivial.
Anyway, I really liked the song at the end which it’s opening lyric, “Where have the old people gone?” Yet, finding the song has proved to be a great challenge. I found one website that explains the music is “Yube No Kane” (夕の鐘) but the lyrics are by an American – Stephen Foster – with this explanation:
Since the late nineteenth century, Stephen Foster’s songs have been among the best-known American music in Japan for his simple, familiar tunes, which Japanese people associate with pastoral scenery or nostalgia for their native place or their childhood. Most Japanese students learn a number of Foster’s songs in their music classes, from elementary through high school.
https://ask.metafilter.com/378116/ID-Japanese-song-at-the-end-of-Tokyo-Story
Foster’s Songs In Japan – https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/americanmusic.30.3.0308?seq=6
Therefore, it appears the song I was looking for isn’t sung by an artist, but is a Japanese melody with American lyrics translated into Japanese?
昔の人 今やいずこ
訪れ来て たたずめば
黄昏ゆく 空をたどり
通いて来る 鐘の声
家鳩の 羽ばたきに
乱れて消ゆ 軒の妻
みどりの風 岸をそよぐ
川のほとり さまよえば
黄昏ゆく 路地を越えて
おとない来る 鐘の声
牧の童が 笛の音に
消えては行く 村はずれ
People of the old days
Where are they now?
Now I’m back and as I stand alone
The sound of the bells
Travels to me
Across the sky in the gleam of twilight
When the pigeons flap their wings
The eaves dissolve and disappear
The spring wind caresses the shore
I tried so hard to find this song that I ended up asking ChatGPT as well as Google’s Gemini and they both gave me the wrong answers. However, happily the answers it gave were traditional songs similar to what I was looking for: songs that speak of time passing by, the beauty and peacefulness of the countryside, simpler times.
里の秋
里の秋
しずかなしずかな 里の秋
おせどに木の実の 落ちる夜は
ああ かあさんと ただ二人
栗の実にてます いろりばた
あかるいあかるい 星の空
なきなきよがもの 渡る夜は
ああ とうさんの あのえがお
栗の実たべては おもいだす
さよならさよなら 椰子の島
お舟にゆられて かえられる
ああ とうさんよ ご無事でと
今夜もかあさんと 祈ります
Silent, silent autumn of a village
At night fall the fruits of the trees in the back
Ah, together with mom
I stew nuts in the hearth
Shiny, shiny is the starry sky
At night the birds go across the world
Ah, the smile of dad
I remember while eating nuts
Good bye goodbye, palm trees islands
Shaking on the boat, I’ll go home
Ah, dad, stay safe
Tonight with mom I pray for you.
ゴンドラの歌 – Gondola Song
いのち短し 恋せよ少女
朱き唇 褪せぬ間に
熱き血潮の 冷えぬ間に
明日の月日の ないものを
いのち短し 恋せよ少女
いざ手をとりて 彼の舟に
いざ燃ゆる頬を 君が頬に
ここには誰れも 来ぬものを
いのち短し 恋せよ少女
波に漂う 舟の様に
君が柔手を 我が肩に
ここには人目も 無いものを
いのち短し 恋せよ少女
黒髪の色 褪せぬ間に
心のほのお 消えぬ間に
今日はふたたび 来ぬものを
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before the crimson bloom
fades from your lips
before the tides of passion
cool within you,
for there is no such thing
as tomorrow, after all
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before his hands
take up his boat
before the flush of
his cheeks fades
for there is not a person
who comes hither
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before the boat drifts away
on the waves
before the hand resting on your shoulder
becomes frail
for there is no reach here
for the sight of others
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before the raven tresses
begin to fade
before the flames in your hearts
flicker and die
for today, once passed,
is never to come again
五木の子守唄 – The Lullaby of Itsuki
おどま盆ぎり盆ぎり
盆から先ゃおらんと
盆が早よ来りゃ
早よ戻る
おどま勧進勧進
あん人たちゃよか衆
よか衆ゃよか帯
よか着物
おどんが打っ死んだちゅうで
誰が泣ゃて来りゃか
うらの松山ゃ
蝉が鳴く
おどんが打っ死んだら
往還りゃいけろ
通るひと毎ち
花あぐる
花はなんの花
ツンツン棒
水は天からもらい水
(Most Common Version)
Here until Bon ends, until Bon ends
After it ends I won’t be ’round
If Bon had come sooner
The sooner I’d return
I’m a beggar, a beggar
Others are of a good family
Those rich have good obi
Good clothes
Even once I am dead and gone
Will there be anyone to come weep?
Behind the piney mountains
Cicadas cry
When I am dead and gone
Lay me in a grave by the road
So that every passerby
Will give me flowers
Flowers, what kind of flowers?
Spikey camellias
Their water is water from the heavens.
(Original Version)
I certainly hate
Taking care of the crying child.
They hate me for keeping the child to cry,
They hate me for keeping the child to cry.
The sleeping child’s
Cuteness and Innocent look!
The crying child’s ugly look,
The crying child’s ugly look
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsuki_Lullaby
Origin of song per Wikipedia
The lullaby was rediscovered by a school teacher in 1935, long after the song ceased to be sung.
It has long been believed that this song was sung by babysitters from poor families. Itsuki was next to Gokanosho, where the Heike people came to settle after their defeat in the Genji-Heike War in the Heian period and later the Kamakura shogunate sent their Genji samurai families to watch over them, thus creating the rich Genji families and poorer Heike families.
This is fascinating for me. I try to find a folk song at the end of an old movie and I end up learning a bit of history.
