This album features 13 carefully selected traditional songs from across Japan, focusing mainly on labor songs—melodies that have long been nurtured through everyday life and sung with a wide range of emotional expressions. It also includes songs associated with traditional events and lullabies.
Breathing new life into these songs through fresh arrangements, Saho Terao collaborates with musicians such as Reizaburo Adachi, Wataru Iga, Masatomo Utashima, Utena Kobayashi, Tatsuro Kondo, Choi Jecheol, Kumiko Yabu, Wataru Okuma, Fumiya Otonashi, and Altangerel Undarmaa. The album also features a duet with Yuta Orisaka on "Aragure," a traditional event song from Iwate.
The songs were discovered during her live tours across the country and through research done for various art projects. Some of the songs have already become familiar to audiences at her concerts. Despite reflecting harsh realities—such as the struggles of farm labor or the vulnerable positions of women in the workforce—these songs often carry a humorous tone or feature chant-like, magical refrains. Each one radiates the resilience and dignity that allowed these songs to be passed down through generations.
Following her previous collections "Watashi no Sukina Warabeuta" (2016) and "Watashi no Sukina Warabeuta 2" (2020), this album is another essential piece in Saho Terao’s effort to preserve and share traditional songs she feels must be remembered.
These songs, born from environments vastly different from contemporary life, were once companions to the physical hardships of labor. Yet carried by the richness of Japanese rhythm and melodic beauty, they transcend time and space to be passed on to a new generation.