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Kumoi Rōsai

雲井弄斎

[Genre]Sokyoku
[Style]Rosai mono
[School]Ikuta Ryû - 生田
[Composed]Yatsuhashi Kengyō - Koto

History (Tsuge Gen'ichi):

The title means a 'Rosai-bushi in the tuning of the kumoi-joshi for the koto.' Rosai-bushi are a kind of popular song, possibly named after their creator, Rosai, a Buddhist priest of the early seventeenth century. These somewhat vulgar and melancholy love songs enjoyed their greatest popularity during the first half of the seventeenth century in both Kyoto and Edo (present Tokyo). Around that time, one of the Rosai-bushi was also adapted to the koto repertoire, probably by Yatsuhashi, and has been preserved in a quasi-kumiuta form.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)

Together with the moon
Yare no (1)
I wish I could disappear
Behind the edge of the hill.
The floating clouds drifting apart
Make me think of our parting
On the morrow.

I have fallen in love-
My sleeves of deep purple
Have been dyed a thousand times
By my tears of blood,
Sayuei (1)
By my tears of blood.

I wish I had a stalk
Of 'forgetting grass'-
I would plant it and raise it
So that I could forget you,
Sayuei (1)
So that I could forget you.

(1) Old Japanese exclamations with a tint of vulgarity.
Tsuki to ya iroo
yare noo
yama no ha ni
(ai)2
hanare-banare no
ukikumo mireba
(ai)
asu no wakare mo
ano gotoku

Omoi someta yo
koki murasaki no
(ai)
sode wa chishio no
waga namida
(ai)
sayuei
waga namida

Wasuregasu ga no noo
hitomoto hoshi ya
(ai)
uete sodatete noo
mite wasuryo
(ai)
sayuei
mite wasuryo

Kumoi Rōsai appears on the following albums

Album Artist

Kikuhara Hatsuko Zenshu vol. 6 Voice : Kikuhara Hatsuko
Koto : Kikuhara Hatsuko

Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 04 Voice : Koshino Eishō I
Koto : Koshino Eishō I

Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 10 Voice : Tomiyama Seikin I
Shamisen : Tomiyama Seikin I