NHK Jido Gassho Dan/Miku Hatsune -- Sakura, Sakura（さくらさくら）

 

Although February 11th 2026 has already passed into history in Japan as I'm typing this, it's still February 11th here so allow me to give a belated Happy Birthday to the nation via its National Foundation Day. As such, I was wondering what song I could contribute to commemorate the day and I remember that I had yet to post this one onto the blog.

"Sakura, Sakura" is a traditional folk song that I've known since I was only yea high. I'd assumed that this was a truly ancient creation going back a thousand years or so, but its birth was relatively recent...being sometime during the Edo era (1600-1868). No songwriter was ever identified and actual lyrics for the song weren't included until around 1888. 

I guess in a way then that the mystery surrounding its origins fits the mystique of "Sakura, Sakura" since it sounds so hauntingly beautiful with lyrics that talk about how fleeting the existence of things are...illustrated by cherry blossom petals. My early years of listening to the song were only via the instrumental version that I heard often enough whenever my family went to Nikko Gardens, one of Toronto's first Japanese restaurants. Basically, I had thought that "Sakura, Sakura" was the patron saint song of Japanese restaurants. I would always remember whether I should choose the teriyaki set or the tempura set while it was playing on the speakers. The above version, by the way, is performed by the NHK Jido Gassho Dan（NHK東京児童合唱団...NHK Tokyo Children's Choir） while the one below (with a slightly different arrangement) is performed by Miku Hatsune（初音ミク）.

It's pretty safe to say that over the decades, whenever a traditional Japanese music group comes over to the West for recitals, "Sakura, Sakura" is pretty much obligatory performing. As for my initial assumption on the age of the song, I'd thought that I would actually break a new record of how far back I could go in time with a new ancient year in Labels as opposed to 1597, but I guess I will go for the aforementioned 1888.