Puneet Varma (Editor)

Shimabara Lullaby

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Shimabara Lullaby (Japanese: 島原の子守唄 or Shimabara no komoriuta) is a folk song-like lullaby by Kohei Miyazaki of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.

Contents

General

Shimabara Lullaby was written in the early 1950s by Kohei Miyazaki (1917-1980). It is related to the Karayuki-san, the poor Japanese girls sold to work overseas as prostitutes, in Southern China, the Pacific island areas, such as Sandakan on Borneo.

This song became famous when Chiyoko Shimakura recorded it in 1957, followed later the recordings by Peggy Hayama, Hisaya Morishige and others.

Lyrics

It is usually sung in three stanzas, the first of which starts with:

The original song had five stanzas. This song is a copyrighted material, and, therefore, its lyrics cannot be fully described here.

References

Shimabara Lullaby Wikipedia