Home > Encyclopedia of O-CHA(tea) > Chakiribushi
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Chakiribushi
is a song represent Shizuoka tea.
The lyric goes "chakiri, chakiri,
chakiriyo" in light and uplifting
rhythm. This word chakiri is also
used for the words something about
Shizuoka. It is choreographed as
the group of girls with simple kimono
and red sash, picking tea leaves
and singing the song. You may think
this is the traditional way of picking
tea leaves. However, if you see
their hands action carefully, you
can that is not the action to pick
tea leaves by hands. They are using
scissors and cutting the leaves.
"Chakiribushi" was
introduced in 1927, and it was a
forerunner of promotional song in
Japan. Shizuoka Railroad Co., built
a big amusement park between Shizuoka
city and Shimizu city, and asked
a poet, Hakusyu Kitahara to make
a song for them as an advertisement.
Hakusyu put some dialect and the
tradition of Shizuoka into the song.
And it was the time the method of
picking tea leaves was changing
from by hands to the method using
scissors. In his home in Kyusyu,
he had never seen people using scissors
to pick tea leaves, and it amazed
him. That's why he also described
this new style of picking tea leaves.
(Yoichiro Nakamura)