Shima-uta
Shima-uta ( Japanese 島 唄 or シ マ 唄 ) refers to the folk songs of the Amami Islands in the Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima . Originally Shima means village, settlement or home in the Amami dialect . Different songs were known in the individual villages of Amamis, and popular songs varied in the text. Shima-uta therefore means something like home song . In contrast to this, Shima means island in Japanese , and Shima-uta is therefore understood to mean island songs , i.e. H. the songs of all of Okinawa. Even today there is a multitude of composers who produce such island songs as additional or full-time jobs.
Shima-uta from The Boom
The band The Boom , whose members are mainly from Yamanashi Prefecture near Tokyo, landed a big hit with Shima-Uta in 1992. This is a musical imitation of the Okinawa style (including the use of Ryūkyū dialect , a tone sequence typical for Okinawa, instruments such as shamisen ).
The text is about the Deigo trees in bloom and a storm is coming. Two people say goodbye in the sugar cane field ( う ー じ ぬ 森 , Ūji nu Mori ).
It is a very direct reference to the Battle of Okinawa . The Deigo trees bloom in April and May. The storm refers to the storm of steel, which is also known as the battle in Okinawa.
Most people at the time were also aware that they would die if they stayed on the island.
Its success is due in part to the Okinawa myth in Japan. Various longings for exoticism, originality or the like find a projection surface with Okinawa.
The people in Okinawa saw the song very critically at first, as they feared the sale of their own culture and the political and historical abuse by the Japanese.
There are different versions and cover versions.
- A Uchinaguchi version with traditional instruments; sales were initially limited to Okinawa Prefecture. This song was used in an Okinawa TV commercial for awamori liquor .
- An original version that was sold all over Japan and became a huge hit.
- Presumably because of the Japanese population living in South America, Shima-uta became known there and was subsequently covered by the Argentine Alfredo Casero , who was in the Argentine hit parades with this song for months. This cover version was used as a cheer song for the Argentine national soccer team at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea and was even sung in the stadiums by the Argentines.
- Alfredo Casero and The Boom recorded a new version of the song together due to the great success in Argentina.
- The Japanese singer Rimi Natsukawa ( 夏川 り み ), who sings in the Okinawa style, released a ballad-like version on her album Tīda ( て ぃ ー だ ) in 2002.
- Fish Leong ( 梁靜茹 ), a Chinese woman from Malaysia, released the song Will not sleep ( 不想睡 ) on her album Die Macht der Liebe ( 恋爱 的 力量 ) in 2003 , which uses the melody of Shima-uta (more precisely, the Version by Rimi Natsukawa), but with a different text underlaid.
- A Russian cover version from 2004 comes from the singer Diana Arbenina .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ 奄 美 大 島 ｜ ゆ っ く り と 島 巡 り ｜ い つ で も Bon vivant. In: お と な の た ま り 場 ボ ン ビ バ ン . Shogakukan , April 18, 2007, archived from the original on July 16, 2007 ; Retrieved January 10, 2015 (Japanese, original page no longer available).