Most of the Japanese folk songs have been generated and inherited by nameless ordinary people, so called “Jōmin”. Jōmin were people who worked and lived in village forest, by the sea and rivers, and overcame the hard daily labor by singing.
With the times, the work of Jōmin has been replaced by machines, and folk songs have been performed on stage. We decided to return the folk songs to village forest once again in order to find out what the body and voices of Jōmin are.

Location : Ogose and Moroyama,(Saitama pref.)

1, Yamayuki-Uta
sung by Taku, Sachiyo, Maaya
A coal miner's song sung in coalfields in Tochigi. It is also called "Yaroyattana-bushi" because of its characteristic shout. Even after the mine was closed, it was sung on the way to mountain and at other works.

2, Asa no Degake
sung by Sachiyo
A parlor song that was once widely sung in Chiba prefecture. The prototype of the melody is the same type as "Umakata Sankudari", a packhorse driver’s song from Shinshu(Nagano) , and the lyrics might have been diverted from the grass-cutting song that celebrates a good harvest.

3, Kariboshikiri-Uta
sung by Taku
A typical folk song handed down in Takachiho, Miyazaki prefecture. In late autumn, it was sung in the process of cutting the thatches on the mountain slope with a giant sickle. The songs currently are sung in minor scale, but singing in major scale as sung here is closer to its prototype.

4, Hikiri-Uta
sung by Sachiyo
There used to be ice rooms in Chichibu, Saitama prefecture that stores natural ice until summer It is a rare song that was sung when cutting ice with a saw at the time of shipment. The melody is the same as "Mago-Uta(a packhorse driver’s song)" from Shinshu(Nagano).

5, Nomoyama-Bushi
sung by Maaya
A parlor song born in Yamagata prefecture It has been made with Shamisen accompaniment by the common people who lived in the middle of the Edo period. It used to be sung with a dance wearing a travel robe and holding a hat and a staff in hands.

6, Nambu Ushioi-Uta
sung by Taku
A typical song from Iwate prefecture, sung by cattle drivers on the mountain road carrying luggage with cows from coast to inland. "Hi pa-pa" is a shout that keeps cows from rushing or turning sideways. The lyrics are different from those that are widely sung today, and have a much stronger accent like as it was sung originally.

7, Kumahiki-Uta
sung by Maaya
A song for hunting hibernating bears and dragging them over the snow in Akiyamago, which is known as a heavy snowfall area at the northern end of Nagano prefecture. The song expresses gratitude to the gods of mountain hunting and guardianship, as well as a celebration song based on “Kiyari-Uta”(a song for carrying heavy logs).

8, Mikoshi Ondo Kiyari
sung by Taku, Sachiyo, Maaya
A song sung for the purification on the way to carry the portable shrine to each village, in Miyakejima island. The song is the same as the Edo Kiyari-Uta(woodworkers song), and has the same ritual style as Edo, but it still retains a more magical character.