Teiichi Okano

Teiichi Okano (Japanese: 岡野貞一 Okano Teiichi; 16 February 1878, Tottori, Tottori, Japan – 29 December 1941) was a Japanese composer.

Selected works

Popular songs

• "Furusato" (故郷) (1914)
• "Haru ga kita" (春が来た) (1910)
• "Haru no ogawa" (春の小川) (1912)
• "Hinomaru no hata" (日の丸の旗) (1911)
• "Momiji" (もみじ) (1911)
• "Oborozuki yo" (朧月夜; "Dark Moon Night") for soprano, flute and harp (1914)
• Momotarō's song (1911)

Oborozuki yo

Oborozuki yo (朧月夜; "Dark Moon Night") is a song composed by Teiichi Okano with lyrics by Tatsuyuki Takano [ja]. The song was written to pass down the Japanese landscape to posterity. In 1914, the song appeared in the list of "Jinjo Elementary School Songs [ja] for 6th-grade," to be taught in the Japanese public school system. It is still sung to this day.^[1]

Japanese^[2]

１．

菜の花畠に、入日薄れ、

見わたす山の端、霞ふかし。

春風そよふく、空を見れば、

夕月かかりて、にほひ淡し。

２．

里わの火影も、森の色も、

田中の小路をたどる人も、

蛙のなくねも、かねの音も、

さながら霞める　朧月夜。

Translation^[3]

1.

Evening sun goes down in a mustard field.

When I look out over mountain ridges, they are veiled in dense mist.

I feel the spring breeze and I look up at the sky.

Then, the evening moon rises high and it is colored softly.

2.

The lamps of a village, green of the forest,

people who walk along a path between rice paddies,

croaking of a frog and the sound of a temple bell

everything is shrouded in mist on a hazy moonlit night.

References