Ujō Noguchi
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was a Japanese
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...
of
children's songs A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...
and traditional
Min'yō , ''Nihon min'yō'', Japanese ''min'yō'' or Japanese folk music is a genre of traditional Japanese music. Characteristics Styles Many ''min'yō'' are connected to forms of work or to specific trades and were originally sung between work ...
folk music. He wrote some of the most beloved and familiar pieces for children and youth choirs, such as "
Akai Kutsu is 1of 2 essays from a Japanese nursery rhyme written in 1922 by Japanese poet Ujō Noguchi, and composed by Nagayo Motoori. Lyrics There is evidence that in the original manuscript the line read "Every time I see red shoes, I remember her ...
(Red Shoes)". He, along with Hakushū Kitahara, and are considered to be the three great poets and children's songwriters in Japan.


Early life

Ujō Noguchi was born , encyclopedia, vol.17, 645, article for 「のぐちうじょう」by Michio Namekawa ( :ja:滑川道夫) or 栄吉,, p.159- in the former town of Isohara, Ibaraki, which is now incorporated into the central part of Kitaibaraki city. He was the eldest son of , a cargo-shipping wholesaler, and . Eikichi was born into a prestigious family that claimed its descent from
Kusunoki Masasue Kusunoki Masasue (Japanese: 楠木正季, died July 5, 1336) was a samurai warlord during the Nanboku-chō period, and the younger brother of Kusunoki Masashige. He died alongside his brother as part of the Battle of Minatogawa on July 5, 1336. He i ...
, the younger brother of
Kusunoki Masashige was a Japanese samurai of the Kamakura period remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty. Kusunoki fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in the Genkō War to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate and restore power in Japan to the Imperial Court. Kusunoki ...
.) After completing his 4-year elementary and 4-year senior elementary schooling in his home town, the teenage Eikichi moved to the capital in 1897, where he attended Tōkyō Middle School. It was there he began composing
haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...
., pp.11-19, cited source is He continued on to Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō, the precursor of
Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...
, where he was mentored by novelist
Tsubouchi Shōyō __NoTOC__ was a Japanese author, critic, playwright, translator, editor, educator, and professor at Waseda University. He has been referred to as a seminal figure in Japanese drama. "Wetmore deals cleanly with Japanese theatre as part of the mod ...
. In 1901, he became captivated by the ''Shintaishi'' or "New form poetry" movement. He quit college after one year to concentrate on writing poetry.


Head of the household

His father's business failure and death in 1904 forced him to return to his hometown as head of the family., Memorial hall in Iwaki, Fukushima. The family had earlier arranged a marriage for Eikichi to the daughter of a wealthy financier from
Tochigi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 Square kilometre, km2 (2,474 Square mile, sq mi). Tochigi ...
as a way to salvage the languishing family fortune. Eikichi's married in 1904, when both were 23. The marriage was a reluctant one, and was ultimately doomed. Eikichi is said to have drowned himself in alcohol, even as he worked on poetry. He formed a salon for poets where they could critique each other's works. It was around this time that Eikichi adopted the
pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...
of Ujō. He was now able to avail himself of private funds to make his first publication, a collection of min'yō poems, titled out of
Mito Mito may refer to: Places *Mito, Ibaraki, capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan *Mito, Aichi, a Japanese town *Mito, Shimane, a Japanese town * Mitō, Yamaguchi, a Japanese town * Mito District, a district in the province of Concepción, Per ...
, but it failed to bring him either fame or fortune. Hiro gave birth to their first child, Masao, in March 1906. In June that year, Ujō traveled to
Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...
on what became a failed business venture. He had traveled to Ōdomari with a geisha, where she then ran off with most of his investment capital. He tried to make a profit by shipping a train-car load of apples to Tōkyō, but to his misfortune, the apples had rotted by the time they arrived. Hiro came to Tōkyō to urge him to return home, but Noguchi declared that he would stay in Tōkyō and become a poet. In January 1907 he started a monthly periodical of folksongs, , without acclaim. He and fellow members and
Rofū Miki (23 June 1889 – 29 December 1964), better known by his pen name , was a Japanese poet, children's book author and essayist. He is considered a significant representative of Japanese symbolism. Life file:Rofu Miki House01n4592.jpg, alt=Rofū ...
founded Waseda shisha (Waseda poetic society), and were to meet on a twice monthly basis. Noguchi soon found himself in
Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...
, trying to earn a living as a newspaper correspondent. He started at , a small paper in
Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
, working there from 1906 to 1909. Hiro and their son later came to live there with him. When the newspaper was formed in the city of
Otaru is a city and port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces Ishikari Bay and the Sea of Japan, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular to ...
, Noguchi and
Takuboku Ishikawa was a Japanese poet. Well known as both a tanka and or poet, he began as a member of the Myōjō group of naturalist poets but later joined the "socialistic" group of Japanese poets and renounced naturalism. He died of tuberculosis. Major wo ...
, who was four years his senior, were recruited by the newspaper, becoming colleagues for a brief period. They had first met while still in Sapporo, and in his journal (9/23/1907) Ishikawa described his first impression of Noguchi as being "gentle and polite, black-moustached, and from his very looks he was obviously of a introverted character". Takuboku in ''Kanashiki omoide'' adds that Noguchi was "very self-deprecating and would say ''-goansu'' instead of ''-masu''," going on to say that the man was less than dashing, and had certain distinct quirks in his pronunciation. They became fast friends. Noguchi tried to organize an ouster of the newspaper's editor-in-chief, and was fired as a result. Around this time (October, 1907), Noguchi's wife gave birth to a girl, Midori. The child lived for only eight days. It has been said that Noguchi wrote the lyrics to "
Shabondama (lit. "Soap Bubbles") is a Japanese nursery rhyme written by Ujō Noguchi in 1922. It is widely taught in Japanese nursery schools and kindergartens as a simple melody; it is also sometimes used in elementary school moral education courses, whe ...
(Soap bubbles)" in 1922, when he wrote of a bubble blown out of a straw that burst and faded before uplifting itself into air; in remembrance of his own child that died without her chance in life. Noguchi moved to , and worked for three other newspapers before moving to Hokkaido. before he left Hokkaido, he returned briefly to his hometown, eventually returning to Tōkyō. He worked at six papers during this time. With the death of his mother in 1911, he again returned to his hometown to manage the family-owned timber forests and farms. He had not wholeheartedly abandoned literature, and loathed his livelihood.


His divorce from Hiro

In 1914, Noguchi went to the
Iwaki Yumoto Onsen is an '' onsen'' resort in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. History Although known since the Nara period, the hot springs at Iwaki developed with borehole drilling in the Jōban Coal Fields in the Meiji period. To the west of the traditio ...
hot springs in
Iwaki, Fukushima is a city located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , Iwaki had a population of 337,765 in 143,500 households, and population density of 270 persons per km2. The total area of the city is , making it the largest city in the prefecture and the 10th ...
to treat his
hemorrhoids Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...
. There, he became intimately involved with a geisha house madam named (whose real name was ). He began living at the Kashiwaya geisha house, staying there for three and a half years. In May 1915, he obtained a divorce by consensual agreement from Hiro. 「大正四年五月妻ひろと協議離婚、大正七年に水戸に出て中里つると再婚したが、この頃より再び創作活動を始め Noguchi then took custody of and raised his two children. In 1918, at the age of 36, Noguchi went to
Mito Mito may refer to: Places *Mito, Ibaraki, capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan *Mito, Aichi, a Japanese town *Mito, Shimane, a Japanese town * Mitō, Yamaguchi, a Japanese town * Mito District, a district in the province of Concepción, Per ...
where he married . It was at this time he resumed composing poetry.


Literary fame

In 1919, Noguchi published the poetry collection ("Urbanity and pastoral"), returning to the literary circle. That same year, the magazine (Later to be called ''Kin no Hoshi'') was founded, and through the referral of , Ujō was able to publish a series of
children's songs A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...
beginning in November. Teaming up with such composers as
Shinpei Nakayama was a Japanese songwriter, famous for his many children's songs and popular songs (''ryūkōka'') that have become deeply embedded in Japanese popular culture. Nakayama was born in Nagano Prefecture, Nakano City, in 1887. His father died while ...
, and
Nagayo Motoori Nagayo Motoori (sometimes spelled Motohori) (本居 長世 ; 4 April 1885 – 14 October 1945) was a Japanese composer.20-seiki no Ajia no sakkyokukatachi - Page 225 Nihon Sakkyokuka Kyōgikai - 2002 "Komatsu, Kiyomi Fujii (1889–1944), and Shin ...
, and the prolific but obscure , Noguchi wrote a number of classic songs of lasting fame. In the recession in the wake of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Noguchi & Nakayama's '' minyō'' folksong '' Sendō kouta'' (Boatman's song, 1921) struck chord with he audience with its melancholic strains, with its use of the
pentatonic A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancie ...
minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...
(五音短音階). "'Sendo Ko- uta' (Boatman's Ditty) was particularly successful, with its mood of despair and pessimism (lyrics by Noguchi Noguchi) emphasized by the typical minor- inclined pentatonic scale, which touched the heartstrings of the Japanese "『日本の詩歌(別巻:日本歌唱集 Nihon no Shika: supplemental volume, Nihon shika shū)』(Chūo Kōron Sha, 1974), pp.228-9 (commentary by music critic ) This song was turned into a film in 1923 ( Shōchiku studio), the year the
1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...
struck the Kantō area. Another song lyric that Noguchi wrote that year was set to music by Nakamura in 1928, and became the hit song ' set in the port of the
Izu Ōshima is an inhabited volcanic island in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea, off the coast of Honshu, Japan, east of the Izu Peninsula and southwest of Bōsō Peninsula. As with the other islands in the Izu Island group, Izu Ōshima for ...
island, it was recorded by Chiyako Sato and by tenor
Yoshie Fujiwara was a Japanese tenor singer. Biography He was born in Osaka. His mother Kinu Sakata was a biwa-player and a geisha, worked in Shimonoseki of Yamaguchi Prefecture. Her mother was born in Osaka too. His father, Neil Brodie Reid Neil is a mascul ...
. Noguchi's children's pieces have a distinct "lonely, melancholic note" (compared with other songwriters of the period), as evident in such works as (the old nanny was given her leave, younger sister was sent away, I wish I could meet mother again), (why does the crow cry, because it has seven dear children it has left in its old nest in the mountains), (I am a doll from America came to port in Japan, I don't know what I'll do if I lose my way; will the darling girl from Japan play with me?), (When going off to be married, I will be going all alone holding the karakasa umbrella). Noguchi was one of the major exponents of the "first literary movement for improvised children's tales and children's songs (fairy tales and nursery rhymes)" (童話と童謡を創作する最初の文学的運動), to borrow the oft quoted words from the manifesto of ''
Akai tori was a Japanese children's literary magazine published between 1918 and 1936 in Tokyo, Japan. The magazine has a significant role in establishing dowa and '' doyo'', which refer to new versions of children's fiction, poetry, and songs. In additi ...
'' (although that publication was not where Noguchi published his works). The movement was part of a tide of liberal reforms to children's literature, art, and music, reacting against what
musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
has called the "moralistic and individuality-suppressing, government-brand type of songs and tunes". The movement was not dismissive of the traditional ''warabe-uta'', but respectful of it. For this reason, educators such as characterize the movement merely as the "creation of new songs infused with the modernist spirit nddrawing on existing traditions of Japanese folksong and children's song". Noguchi resurrected the ''Nihon Minyō Kyōkai'' in 1935, becoming its chair (note that this is a different group from the eponymous society active today, which was founded in 1950). He traveled widely throughout Japan, composing pieces that were set locally. In January, the Buddhist music society was founded, and Noguchi was selected as a peer. He also had a hand in creating new Buddhist music, and aiding in its propagation. In 1943 he suffered a mild brain hemorrhage, and died in 1945 in the suburbs of
Utsunomiya, Tochigi is the prefectural capital city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 519,223, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its ''gyoza'' ...
, where he had been evacuated during the
bombing of Tokyo The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing ...
in World War II.


Memorials

File:Noguchi Ujo's Memorial Yumoto Hot Springs Children's Song Hall.JPG, Noguchi Ujo's Memorial Yumoto Hot Springs Children's Song Hall File:Wakasa Kouta.jpg, Song monument to ''Wakasa kouta'' at
Wakasa Station is a passenger railway station located in the town of Wakasa, Yazu District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the third sector company Wakasa Railway. Lines Wakasa Station is a terminus of the Wakasa Line, and is located 19. ...


List of other works

* * ''Kogane mushi'' *


See also

* Hakushū Kitahara


Notes


References


Texts and translations


野口 雨情
Aozora bunko e-texts by author) *


Biographical sources

* (world encyclopedia, in Japanese). * * * * This piece was started a few years before Ishikawa died, after he was misinformed of Ujō's death, but left incomplete after Ishikawa learned of the mistake. *


External links

* (romanized transcription, score, audio)
Ujo’s Monuments Inscribed With His Poems
( Minami-Ise, Mie site)
野口雨情の童謡自然詩 (Noguchi Ujo's children's song naturalism poetry)
* (Noguchi Ujo's Memorial Yumoto Hot Springs Children's Song Hall)in
Iwaki, Fukushima is a city located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , Iwaki had a population of 337,765 in 143,500 households, and population density of 270 persons per km2. The total area of the city is , making it the largest city in the prefecture and the 10th ...
* (Waseda University and Literature site). {{DEFAULTSORT:Noguchi ujyo 1882 births 1945 deaths 20th-century Japanese poets Children's musicians Japanese lyricists Musicians from Ibaraki Prefecture Writers from Ibaraki Prefecture