Abstract
One can find a strong connection between MOTOORI Nagayo’s children’s song, “Jūgoya Otsuki-san” (The Dear Full Moon, composed in 1920) and “Usagi” (Hare), a children’s folk song from the Edo period (1603–1867). Ethnologists, scholars of Japanese literature, and scholars in other fields have presented numerous findings on the word jūgoya [literally “the 15th night,” signifying the full moon] that appears in the song title, along with related insights. However, they have yet to reach the field of musical expression study. Thus, this paper revisits those writings on the significance of jūgoya, and sheds light on the following: what a fifteenth-night (full) moon represents; the beginnings of moon-viewing customs; how those customs evolved over time; the relationship between the moon and a hare; and the moon as an object of worship. Next, this study analyzes what the moon represented to the lyricist NOGUCHI Ujo. We then examine the reaction to the work at the time of its release. Taken all together, we thereby synthesize a new performance perspective.Evidence of the musical ideas MOTOORI had when composing his children’s songs is only available in his writings. This study correlates MOTOORI’s words with his score, analyzes its musical structure, and identifies his ideas in excerpts. It also compares the song with transcriptions of his other compositions in order to clarify the characteristics of MOTOORI’s children’s songs and provide new insights for performance.
https://ror.org/03zhhr656 
