MOTHER GOOSE SOCIETY OF JAPAN
(1) What is MOTHER GOOSE Society of Japan?
With the aim of studying Mother Goose rhymes from various perspectives,
we established MOTHER GOOSE SOCIETY OF JAPAN in 1988. We have a membership
of over one hundred all across the country. If you want to join us, just
let us know. we would like to send you an application form
for the membership (available only in Japanese).
Major activities are as follows:
*issuing a newsletter bimonnthly (July 1988〜)
*holding a nation-wide convention every other year (1991〜)
*publishing a scholastic bulletin every other year (1994〜)
*holding a study meeting in Kanto and Kansai areas
(2) What is "Mother Goose" all about?
"Mother Goose" rhymes are the beloved heritage of
all English speaking people, repeated and modified by children
and grown-ups for hundreds of years. They are the nursery rhymes,
melodies, songs, jingles, riddles, catches, counting-out rhymes,
lullabies, prayers, drinking songs, love songs that have enlivened
life for all ages.
---"The Annotated Mother Goose " Edited by William
S. Baring-Gould and Ceil Baring-Gould, Bramhall House, 1962
The term "Mother Goose" seems to be popularly used among
people in the United States while the term "nursery rhyme"
is frequently used among the British people. In Japan, however,
we usually refer to English nursery rhymes as Mother Goose, partly
because Mr. KITAHARA Hakushu, himself a poet and a translator, chose
that term when he introduced English nursery rhymes into Japanese
in 1921.
(3) What Mother Goose rhymes are you familiar with?
How many Mother Goose rhymes do you know among the following titles?
(1) Humpty Dumpty
(2) Old King Cole
(3) Hey Diddle Diddle
(4) Hush-a-bye, Baby
(5) The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
(6) Jack and Jill
(7) Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
(8) What Are Little Boys Made of?
(9) Solomon Grundy
(10) Mary Had a Little Lamb
(11) Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat
(12) Wee Willie Winkie
If you know more than half, you can say you are familiar with Mother Goose.
They are all well known rhymes, which appear in most of Mother Goose books.
(4) Rhymes are often quoted in novels, movies, cartoons, and magazines.
Interestingly enough, as an English teacher in Japan, I often
come across phrases of some Mother Goose rhymes in English publications.
We can better understand stories if we know the background of
those nursery rhymes. To be frank, I didn't know anything about
Mother Goose when I became an English teacher. I didn't hear a
word of Mother Goose when I was in college. It took more than
ten years since I became an English teacher that I first realized
the existence of English nursery rhymes.
The more I got to know about Mother Goose, the better I felt I was able
to understand English. When I introduced some of the famous rhymes, like
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" or "Jack and Jill went up
a hill" to my students, they showed keen interest in the poems, in
the illustrations, in the molodies and the stories in the background. That
was the motivation that led me to learn more about English nursery rhymes
for myself.
(by Sadao)
You can read some of the examples if you click the following:
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