ABSTRACT
We have seen how, at the end of the Meiji period after the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, resignation and lingering attachment (miren), despair and self-scorn, transience and loneliness became the dominant motifs of the popular song. Earlier, during the period spanning the people’s-rights movement and the war with China and Russia, it had been criticism and irony, ambition and anger, hope and joy which had held sway. Going further back to the years just after the Meiji Restoration, we find that jest stands out as the leading motif. In the present study, it appears in 19 out of the 33 songs from 1868 to 1874 (57.6 per cent), and in 14 of the 20 from 1875 to 1881 (70 per cent). Although it was no longer the main motif after the mid–1880s, jest by no means disappeared. At least one or two amusing songs are among the most popular in every 7-year interval thereafter. (See Figure 8.1.) Proportion of popular songs with humorous motifs https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203843956/5452df2c-10f5-4c2b-854f-a25b132a7cbc/content/fig8_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
