Kagome Kagome
Kagome Kagome ( Japanese か ご め か ご め ) is a Japanese game for children. One child is chosen as an Oni ("demon" or "monster") and sits blindfolded in the center of the circle. The other children hold hands and run in circles around the "Oni" while they sing the song to the game. When the song and with it the orbit stops, the "Oni" has to say the name of the person behind him, and if he is correct, that person swaps places with the "Oni".
Kagome literally means "basket / cage eye", whereby the eye here means the mesh. The name of the game comes from the fact that the Oni sits like a bird in the other children's cages.
song lyrics
The exact text of the song varies from region to region. One variant is:
| Japanese writing | transcription |
|---|---|
| か ご め か ご め 篭 の 中 の 鳥 は | Kagome Kagome, Kago no naka no tori wa |
| い つ い つ 出 や る 夜 明 け の 晩 に | Itsuitsu deyaru? Yoake no ban ni |
| 鶴 と 亀 と 滑 っ た | Tsuru to came to subetta. |
| 後 ろ の 正面 だ あ れ. | Ushiro no shōmen daare? |
Translation:
Kagome, Kagome, the bird in the cage,
when will you come out?
In the evening of dawn,
who is behind the traps of the turtle and the crane?
Who is behind you now?
Sometimes the last two lines are translated as follows:
At dusk and in the evening.
Who is behind you
Where a crane and a turtle slipped and fell?
Individual evidence
- ^ A b William E. Deal: Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan . Facts on File, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8160-5622-6 , pp. 354 ( limited preview in Google Book search).