A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

Songs of Japanese Children 217
The designs upon the pillow of this child of the house
are nightingales and plum-trees, storks and pines. I am
used to the plum-tree-design ; but I would not have the
cherry-flower design. Though the cherry-tree be equal in
beauty to the plum-tree, its blossoms too easily fall.i
[Matsui : Province of I^umo.)
Nenneko, nenneko nenneko ya
Kono ko nashite naku-yara 1
O-chichi ga taranuka ? — o-mama ga
taranuka .'
Itna ni ototsan no otono no o-kaeri ni
Ame ya, o-kwashi ya, hii-hii ya,
Gara-gara, nagureba fuito tatsu
Okiagarikoboshi !
—
Nenneko, nenneko, nenneko ya
Sleep, sleep, sleep, little one I Why
! !
does the child con-
tinue to cry ? - Is the honorable milk deficient ? — is the
honorable rice deficient? Presently when father returns
from the great Lord's palace, ame will be given you, and
* Therefore the design is unlucky. Some local bit of folklore is suggested
by this composition — ; usually the cherry-flower is thought to
be a happy symbol. — In this connection I may observe that the lotos-
flower design is held to be unlucky. It is never to be seen in patterns
for children's clothing ; and even pictures of the flower are scarcely
ever suspended in a room. The reason is that the lotos, being the
symbolic flower of Buddhism, is sculptured upon tombstones, and is
borne as an emblem in funeral processions.