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Kumo no Ue

雲の上

[Genre]Sokyoku
[Style]Kumiuta
[School]Ikuta Ryû - 生田
[Also Known As]Musashino No Kyoku
[Composed]Yatsuhashi Kengyō - Koto

History (Tsuge Gen'ichi):

'Kumo no ue' ('Beyond the Clouds' or 'The Imperial Palace') is one of the 'Thirteen Yatsuhashi Song Cycles.' It is classified into the ura category (1). The texts of the six songs are not related to each other. However, each poem demonstrates a link with older song traditions such as the tsukushi-goto songs.

(1) Kumiuta are traditionally classified into four categories according to the degree of profundity and stylistic proficiency required and sometimes the technical difficulties involved. These are omote (lit. "outside"), ura (lit. "inside"), naka (lit. "interior"), oku (lit, "deep interior"). By way of illustration, it may be helpful to imagine these categories as representing the structure of the imperial palace or a Shinto shrine with outer and inner walls, and further inside, the outer and inner sanctuaries. It should also be mentioned that these categories represent stages of a student’s progress in the learning of the koto repertoire, and are regulated by the issuing of diplomas along the way.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)

The Imperial Palace
Unchanged now as always
In its heavenly grandeur,
Yet must be different from my memories,
Since I no longer serve
Inside your jaded curtain.
Oh, how I miss
Those days gone by (2)!

How wonderful!
Early summer rains,
The fragrance of orange blossoms,
And the call of the
Hototogisu (3).
There is hardly time for sleep
On these short nights
Of the Fifth Month.

If only we had never met
In the beginning
I would not suffer so now.
'Forgetting grass' is a wild flower
Which eases one's sorrows,
But I am surrounded
By fields of 'remembering grass'
Which bring his memory day and night (4).

Filled with emotion,
My heart a storm of discontent,
I gave myself up to sleep,
But the flood of my tears
Was too great to hold back.
Now my pillow alone knows
The secret of
My lovesick heart.

Overtaken by night on the road,
I lay down in Musashi Field
A bundle of grass for a pillow.
Gazing at the moon,
I drifted into a dream of my lover
When I awoke
My sleeves were wet
With tears of longing.

Drops of rain falling from the eaves
Resemble the sound of the koto.
Listened to so attentively
For the first time
After seven years (of worldly noise),
This night rain
Takes me into an exquisite world of dream
Never known to me before (5)!

(2) Based on the waka composed by Ono no Komachi (9th c. poetess), in reply to a poem by the ex-Emperor Yozei..
(3) The hototogisu is a Japanese cuckoo which signifies the coming of summer. The rain, the blossoms and the short nights are also associated with early summer.
(4) The two grasses mentioned are wasuregusa, or 'forgetting grass' (hemerocallis fulva) and shinobugusa, or 'remembering grass' (davallia bullata).
(5) Based on a poem composed by Lu Wu-kuan, a Chinese poet, upon his retirement from the capital after his seven year service to the emperor of Shu Han.
Kumo no ue no
nagame wa
arishi mukashi ni
kawaranedo
mishi tamadare no
uchi zo tada
natsukashi ya
yakashiki

Omoshiro ya
samidare
hana-tachibana no
nioeri
hototogisu
otozurete
mijikayo naredo
nemurarenu

Nakanaka ni
hajime yori
narezuba mono wo
omowaji
wasure wa kasu no
na ni aredo
shinobu wa hito no
omokage

Omoi amari
sekikanete
urami nuru yo no
namida wa
toko susamaji ya
hitori tada
makura ni koi zo
shiraruru

Musashino ni
yukikurete
tsuki wo nagamete
kusamakura
koishiki hito wo
yume ni mite
utatane no
sode shiboru

Noki wo meguru
tenteki
koto no ue ni
tatoete
shichinen no
yoru no ame
katsute shiramu
yume no yo

Kumo no Ue appears on the following albums

Album Artist

Kikuhara Hatsuko Zenshu vol. 3 Voice : Kikuhara Hatsuko
Koto : Kikuhara Hatsuko