Kagome Kagome

Kagome, kagome (かごめかごめ) is a Japanese children's game. One child is chosen as the oni (literally "demon or ogre", but translates in games as "it") and sits blindfolded (or with his eyes covered). The other children join hands and walk in circles around the oni while chanting the song for the game. When the song stops, the oni speaks aloud the name of the person behind him, and if he is correct, that person will exchange places with the oni.

Lyrics

Kagome Kagome Kago no naka no Tori wa
Itsu Itsu deyaru? Yoake no ban ni
Tsuru to Kame ga subetta.
Ushiro no shoumen dare ?

Translation:
Kagome, Kagome, the bird in the cage,
when will you come out?
In the evening of the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who stands right behind you now?

Sometimes the last few lines are translated literally as the following:

At dawns and evenings.
Who is in front of the back,
where a crane and turtle slipped and fell?

Analysis

A better description of the roles the children represent in the game is that the person inside the center of the circle is "Kagome", the bird inside the "cage", which the other people make with linked hands surrounding her. The first question in the rhyme, when does she get to come out of her cage, is answered by the second question in the rhyme: she gets to come out when she answers correctly who is behind the falling of the turtle and the crane-- in other words, who is about to stab her in the back.

In reality, the people making the cage are the oni, and the person in the center is the caged bird, Kagome.

In Japan, the crane symbolizes vigilance, prudence, innocence, and a thousand years of happiness/life, and the turtle, a good omen, symbolizes 10,000 years of happiness/life.

When the rhyme asks "who is behind the fall of the turtle and the crane", or "a turtle and a crane slipped and fell, who is directly behind you", it has a sinister meaning, as in, "who is the backstabber" or the "the one who brings ill?".

The rhyme can be given even more sinister meaning when you imagine that "in the evening of the dawn" translates to "in the end of light", "the end of first light", or to "one who backstabs you early in the morning (in your sleep)". The latter makes even more sense because Kagome, in the middle, is blind-folded.

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