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Sarashi

さらし

[Genre]Jiuta
[Style]Tegotomono
[School]Yamada Ryū - 山田
[Also Known As]Bleaching Cloth - 晒
[Composed]Nakanōshima Shōsei I - Koto
Fukakusa Kengyō - Shamisen

History (Tsuge Gen'ichi):

This jiuta piece was originally composed by Kitazawa Koto, and about a century later arranged by Fukakusa Kengyo (A. 1770).

Sarashi means 'bleaching cloth.' This piece shows the earliest style of the tegoto-mono form of koto music, in which songs are connected with one another by virtuoso instrumental interludes (ai, ainote or tegoto). The song text deals with a scene in which people are bleaching cloth in the Uji River near Kyoto.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)

At Makinoshima,
Where bleaching linen
Is so lowly a task
Let us go to the Uji River,
Where the whitecaps
On the water are like snow.
Let's take our linen
For bleaching.

The white of the linen
We bleach there
Will be whiter than the frost
That falls
On the magpie bridge (1)!

Hey, ho!
You can see the mountain now!
Look,
The mist on Asahi Mountain!
Is Mount Fuji or Suruga
So much better?
Is Mount Fuji of Suruga
So much better?

On the waves
That wash Kojima
On the waves
That wash Kojima
Send down
Moon light
Send down
Moon light.

Look, look
What a place!
The equal
Of Fushumi
And Takeda,
Of Yodo and Toba!
The equal
Of any scenic spot.

The rolling waves,
The rolling waves...
Tame them
With wicker weirs
And stop
The water's flow,
And stop
The water's flow.

At such a place,
At such a place,
We of Makino Village
Now one by one
Take up our linen
And off we go together
To our humble homes.

(1) According to an ancient Chinese legend, a magpie spreads its wings across the milky way (in Japanese, amanogawa 'River of Heaven') on the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month of each year so that the weaver girl and the shepherd boy may meet.
kinoshima niwa
sarasu asanuno
shizu ga shiwaza ni
ujigawa no
nami ka yuki ka to
shirotae ni
iza tachiidete
e, nuno wo sarasoo
(ai)
Kasasagi no
wataseru hachi no
shimo yori mo
saraseru nuno ni
shiromi ari sooroo

(ainote)

Noo noo
yama ga miesooroo
asahiyama ni
kasumi tanabiku
keshiki wa
tatoe suruga no
fuji wa mono kawa
fuji wa mono kawa

(ainote)

Kojimagasaki ni
yoru nami no
kojimagasaki ni
yoru nami ni
kojimagasaki ni
yoru nami no
tsuki no hikari wo
utsusabaya
tsuki no hikari wo
utsusabaya

(ainote)

Miwatase ba
miwatase ba
fushimi takeda ni
yodo toba mo
izure otoranu
meisho kana
(ai)
Tatsu nami wa
tatsu nami wa
zeze no ajiro ni
saerarete
nagururu mizu wo
sekitomeyo

(tegoto)

Tokorogara tote na
tokorogara tote na
nuno wo tegoto ni
makino satobito
ychitsurete
modoroo yare
shizugaya e

Sarashi appears on the following albums

Album Artist

Jiuta no Sekai - 1 Voice : Tomiyama Seikin I
Shamisen : Tomiyama Seikin I

Kinko-Ryū Shakuhachi / Yamaguchi Gorō no Sankyoku (Yamada-Ryū Hen) Shakuhachi : Yamaguchi Gorō
Voice : Yamaguchi Hozumi
Shamisen : Yamaguchi Hozumi
Voice : Ōtani Tosumi
Koto : Ōtani Tosumi
Voice : Suzuki Seiju
Koto : Suzuki Seiju

Sankyoku Gassō Dai Zenshū (zoku) vol. 21 (続三曲合奏大全集21) Shakuhachi : Araki Kodō V
Koto : Itō Shōchō II
Voice : Itō Mieko
Koto : Itō Manami
Shamisen : Yamato Ikubo

Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 22 Koto : Nakanoshima Kin'ichi
Voice : Nakanoshima Keiko
Play ButtonTake-Ikkan Shakuhachi : Aoki Reibo II
Play ButtonYamada Ryu Sokyoku Meikyoku-shu Koto : Nakanoshima Kin'ichi
Shamisen : Shinagawa Masami
Voice : Nakanoshima Keiko
Koto : Yoshida Junzō

Yamada Ryū Sōkyoku Tokusen 2 - Okayasu Ginuta (山田流箏曲特選 二ー岡康砧) Voice : Fujii Chiyoga II
Koto : Fujii Chiyoga II
Voice : Nakanoshima Keiko
Koto : Nakanoshima Keiko
Voice : Yamase Shōin III
Shamisen : Yamase Shōin III