“Batten Batten Batten-Ten” is a
song sung by The Peanuts in 1960. It is a recomposition of a Japanese folk song
(min'yo)
titled “Otemoyan” from Kumamoto Prefecture.
The song of “Otemoyan” is about
Chimo, a young maiden in the Meiji period, who is in love with a man with smallpox scars on his face. They just
got married but she hesitates to hold an open wedding ceremony due to possible
comments made by the townspeople about her new husband's look. Anyhow, she is
still charmed by him regardless of his look.
The writer/composer was Ine
Nagata, a teacher of Shamisen and Japanese dances. This song made a debut made by Akasaka Koume in 1935. The
oldest reference of this song is in "5 Pairs of Shoes", a book published in 1907 by five prominent men of
letters, Tekkan Yosano, Mokutaro Kinoshita (pen-name of Masao Ōta), Kitahara Hakushu, Hirano Banri and Yoshii Isamu
who visited Kumamoto at that time.
The Peanuts were a Japanese vocal
group consisting of twin sisters Emi Itō
and Yumi Itō.
The Peanuts in 1966
The twins were discovered while
performing at a club in Nagoya
in 1958 by pop impresario Sho Watanabe. He brought them to Tokyo and gave them the name The Peanuts.
They made their first recording “Kawaii Hana” (Pretty Blossoms) in 1959. In
their early years they sang Japanese covers of standards, foreign hits, and
Japanese folk songs. Then they began singing originals, written by their
producer, Hiroshi Miyagawa, and such songwriters as Koichi Sugiyama and Rei Nakanishi. “Batten Batten Batten-Ten” is
one of numbers listed in Kawaii Hana. Released in 1960 under label of King
Records Co. Ltd. Japan.
I make it as a music video displaying
some footage of Japanese women in 1930s. Two scenes of classic Japanese
animation from "Kobutori" 1929 and "Mura Matsuri" 1930 are also
displayed here. The video processing program used here is Sony Vegas Movie
Studio Platinum 9.0.
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