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- Kajimakura -

楫枕

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This is a Jiuta piece in the Tegotomono style from the Ikuta Ryű school . This piece was composed for koto by Yaezaki Kengyo . This piece was composed for shamisen by Kikuoka Kengyo .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
This piece was originally composed by Kikuoka Kengyo of Kyoto in the jiuta style, that is, as a song accompanied by a shamisen with an extensive interlude called tegoto. Later it was arranged into an ensemble piece for koto and shamisen by Yaezaki Kengyo (1766?-1848), the famous koto virtuoso of Kyoto.

Kajimakura literally means 'rudder-pillow,' which actually implies 'asleep on a boat trip,' and the song expresses the yearning of a riverboat courtesan for a young man who might disregard her background and see the innocence and purity of her heart.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
The dipping oars
Raise clouds of spray
Across the waters.
Firm in their stand,
The bamboo reeds
Make me sad
Through the sleepless nights
On this river boat.

Night after night
My thoughts torment me.
Is it the waves,
My tears,
Or the dew dripping
Through the grass roof,
That soaks my sleeves
Bound up in sorrow?
I drift here and there
To drown my sadness,
With a rudder
As my pillow.

However far
My travel takes me,
Let the final destination
Be the foot of a pine tree
Along the shore.
A firm pledge of love
Is all I ask,
All I ask of you.

I place my heart
In your hands.

Hold it there
Forever and ever.

Kajimakura appears on the following albums:



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