is a Japanese

gunka is the Japanese term for military music. While in standard use in Japan it applies both to Japanese songs and foreign songs such as " The Battle Hymn of the Republic", as an English language category it refers to songs produced by the Empire of ...

composed by with lyrics by in 1877. Upon the request of the Japanese government, Leroux adapted it along with another gunka, , into the military march in 1912.

Background

The song references the '' Battōtai'' who fought in the Battle of Tabaruzaka during the 1877

Satsuma Rebellion The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the , was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government of the Empire of Japan, nine years into the Meiji era. Its name comes from the Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in ...

. Because of supply problems and heavy rains, the Satsuma rebels were forced to engage with the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

in hand-to-hand combat. They inflicted heavy casualties against Imperial forces, who were mostly conscripts with no experience in wielding swords. Lieutenant General

Yamagata Aritomo Prince was a Japanese politician and general who served as prime minister of Japan from 1889 to 1891, and from 1898 to 1900. He was also a leading member of the '' genrō'', a group of senior courtiers and statesmen who dominated the politics ...

selected and deployed men from the surrounding area who were proficient with swords. He named this unit ''Battōtai ''or "Drawn-Sword regiment."

Composition

Charles Leroux, a

bandmaster A bandmaster is the leader and conductor of a band, usually a concert band, military band, brass band or a marching band. British Armed Forces In the British Army, bandmasters of the Royal Corps of Army Music now hold the rank of staff ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

born in Paris, arrived in Japan in 1876 as part of a French military advisory group. He composed his "Battōtai" in 1877, while serving as bandmaster of the Imperial Japanese Army Band. The song was first publicly performed the same year at a concert hosted by the Greater Japan Music Society at the

Rokumeikan The was a large two-story building in Tokyo, completed in 1883, which became a controversial symbol of Westernisation in the Meiji period. Commissioned for the housing of foreign guests by the Foreign Minister Inoue Kaoru, it was designed by ...

. It was considered the first Western-style military song in Japan and the first to become popular across the country, although it was initially believed to be difficult to sing for Japanese unaccustomed to

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

Lyrics

''Battōtai'' is included in the first volume of poetry compilation '' Shintai Shishiyou'', thanks to the common effort of Tokyo University's professors Masakazu Toyama, Ryoji Yatabe, and Tetsujirō Inoue, 10 years into Meiji's rule, in 1878; the poem posted below was contained in said compilation.

Score

<< \new Voice \relative c' \addlyrics >>

References

External links

"Battotai March (抜刀隊)"

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

{{Authority control 1877 songs 1877 in military history 1877 in Japan Japanese marches Japanese patriotic songs Satsuma Rebellion