Among countless Japanese nursery songs there is a large group of unique lullabies which were created in a span of about 100 years before 1945 by children who nursed babies as work. Unlike most European lullabies, the Japanese nursemaid songs do not express peace and happiness. The lyrics are usually sad or angry, and the subjects hardly ever concern love for the baby. These songs have a unique beauty that touches one deeply. Komori means "nursemaid" and uta means "song" in Japanese. It expresses the feeling of a nursemaid slave who wishes to escape from her hardships.
The nursemaids were mostly 5 to 12 year old girls. Their families were so poor that they could not support all of their children, so the parents sent some of their children to richer farmers or merchants as nursemaids. The peasants were expected to send all of their female children, when they became a certain age, to the landowner family for some decided number of years in order to pay a part of the rent. In
the master's house the nursemaids were given meals and coarse clothing but no salary. On top of babysitting, they had to wash diapers in the river, help in the kitchen, mend clothes, and do other chores around the house. The life of the nursemaids was difficult and they missed their families. They hated their job, and often they hated the babies whom they had to carry on their backs all day. They sang songs while rocking the baby. The songs express all kinds of emotion: sadness, loneliness, despair, anger, malignity, desire to enjoy life, and vague hope for a better future.
Some songs have their own music, but many songs use music from other types of folksongs sung by women, such as rice farm songs or stone mill work songs. Regardless of the original music, the melodies of these songs are usually monotonous with the rhythm of a slow walk or rocking a baby, except some songs which accompany children's play. They were usually passed on among nursemaids while working. The nursemaids spent the daytime together in groups because they were banned from the houses and farms where adults were work-ing. They were often on streets and sometimes stayed in the shrine yards.
These nursemaids, under such slavery conditions, started to disappear when the hierarchy of the landowner and the peasants was destroyed and child labor was prohibited by the postwar policy. However, the tradition of nursemaid songs remained. During the folksong revival movement in the 70's and 80's, some of these songs got on the hit chart.
There are songs in which a nursemaid sings of her love or resentment to ward her parents, songs that describe her job and hardships, songs in which she criticizes the master and mistress who mistreat her, and songs that show her love of singing and the way she enjoys her life in spite of the difficult circumstances.
The nursemaids could express themselves straightforwardly in songs, because they were free from the eyes and ears of the mistresses and the masters during the daytime. They consoled themselves, criticized adults, released their anger, and felt a little better by singing. The beauty of these nursemaid songs lies in simplicity, straightforwardness, and the feeling of joy of singing in contrast with their miserable life.
The tremendous number of nursemaid songs proves that their own songs were so much a part of their life. Although such nursemaids probably existed only in Japan, their sadness, anger and joy of singing expressed in their songs share themes that are universal in folksongs sung by oppressed people in various societies throughout the world.
