Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Good day! This is a lullaby instrumental of “Kimigayo,” the national anthem of Japan.

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The lyrics are from a poem by an unknown writer in the Heian period (794-1185). A melody for the anthem was composed in 1869 by John William Fenton, an Irish musician who led a Japanese military band in the early Meiji period. Fenton’s melody was unpopular, and the current melody was chosen in 1880.

“Kimigayo” served as the national anthem of the Japanese Empire from 1888 to 1945. During the allied occupation of Japan, there was no official anthem of Japan, but “Kimigayo” remained in use as there was no effort to restrict it. In 1999, “Kimigayo” became the official national anthem of Japan again with the passing of The “Act on National Flag and Anthem” (国旗及び国歌に関する法律), which also ratified the national flag of Japanese.


Lyrics, translation, and transliteration:

Lyrics:
きみがよは
ちよにやちよに
さざれいしの
いわおとなりて
こけのむすまで


Transliteration:
Kimigayo wa
Chiyo ni yachiyo ni
Sazare-ishi no
Iwao to narite
Koke no musu made


English Translation:
May your reign
Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations,
Until the tiny pebbles
Grow into massive boulders
Lush with moss


Poetic English Translation:
Thousands of years of happy reign be thine;
Rule on, my lord, until what are pebbles now
By ages united to mighty rocks shall grow
Whose venerable sides the moss doth line.



The music in this video was made using Logic Pro.