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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Kumiuta style from the Ikuta Ryű school . Umegae is also known as: Chidori No Kyoku. This piece was composed for koto by Yatsuhashi Kengyo .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Umegae ('On a Plum Branch') is one of the 'Thirteen Yatsuhashi Song Cycles.'

The text of each song is complete by itself. Being taken from different sources, the six songs are not related to one another. The first song is from Etenraku-utamono, and the second and fourth songs obviously refer to 'The Orange Blossoms' (Hanachirusato) and the 'Suma,' respectively, from 'The Tale of Genji.'

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
On a plum branch,
Bush warbler,
You build
Your nest.
But what will you do,
Sheltered in a flower
When the wind blows,
Bush warbler?

Bored, the Lady
Of the Orange Blossoms
Plucks weakly, faintly
At her koto.
To her sleeve fragrant
With orange blossoms,
The little cuckoo (1),
Comes calling.

Asleep yet longing
In my dream at dawn
I saw you-
We were together.
I awoke
To my sorrow of yesterday
Alone, my pillow and I-
And only tears.

Plover,
Calling, crying
In the dead of night-
What keeps you from sleeping?
Banished from the world
To these shores of Suma
Do you, too,
Shed tears?

That spindle tree,
White wood of the archer's bow,
Should bend
But it doesn't.
Yet that old man
Of eighty
Bends
To new love.

The pine winds
At Miho Beach
Have stilled,
On the ocean,
No waves.
The moon casts itself on the water
With Mount Fuji
Far in the distance.

(1) The little cuckoo implies here Prince Genji.

Umegae appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Challenging Eternity Disk 14  (Listen)