Anta-gata Doko Sa (officially, Higo Temari Uta) is one of the songs used to accompany play with a Higo Temari ball.

A Higo Temari is a colorful thread ball covered in geometric patterns, popular during the Edo Period. Traditionally, the core was created out of dried sponge cucumber, which was then wrapped in thread. Temari balls started to disappear when rubber balls became popular, but they remain a common souvenir from Kumamoto Prefecture.

While there are several songs that can be sung while playing with the ball, Anta-gata Doko Sa is the best known.

Anta-gata doko sa?
Higo sa. — Higo doko sa?
Kumamoto sa. — Kumamoto doko sa?
Senba sa.

Where are you from?
From Higo. — Where in Higo?
In Kumamoto. — Where in Kumamoto?
In Senba.

Senba yama ni wa tanuki ga otte sa.
Sore wo ryoshi ga teppo de utte sa:
Nite sa — Yaite sa — Kutte sa.
Sore wo konoha de choito kabuse.

A tanuki is in the Senba mountains.
A hunter shoots it with a gun:
Boils it — Roasts it — Eats it.
Let's hide it in the leaves.

While the beginning is pretty innocent, toward the end the song takes a gruesome turn by narrating the hunter's killing and devouring of the tanuki. This may seem like a sudden twist, but there's a prevailing theory that this song isn't actually from Kumamoto, but from Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture. It represents an exchange between local children and soldiers from Kumamoto who'd been moved into the area during the Boshin War (1868-1869), which was fought between the new Meiji government and forces still loyal to the ousted Tokugawa shogunate.

In this case, the lines aren't interpreted as the children asking, "Where in Higo," but rather, "Where is Higo?" the distant province that has now become Kumamoto Prefecture. The kids don't know where Kumamoto is either, so when the exasperated soldiers finally name "Senba mountain"—believed to refer to the earthworks above the moat of Kumamoto Castle—the kids misinterpret it as Mount Senba in Kawagoe, which is the site of Senba Toshogu Shrine. And Senba Toshogu Shrine is dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, who was referred to as a sly old tanuki.

The children then suppose that the soldiers are going off to shoot the "tanuki" of Mount Senba—meaning, they are going to kill the soldiers loyal to the Tokugawa. And what is hidden by leaves may not just be a tanuki, but rather the brutality of the conflict.

Toryanse is another song that accompanies an innocent game but comes with an obscure, cryptic meaning.

The Toryanse game is actually similar to London Bridge Is Falling Down: Two kids stand in front of one another and hold hands in the air to form an arch. The rest of the kids pass under the arch singing the song, and when the melody stops, the arch lowers, trapping one or more players, who replace the others as the arch.

This song can also be heard at busy traffic lights in Japan when the light turns green. It acts as a signal to pedestrians, telling them when it’s safe to cross the street, and warning them to stop trying to cross when the music ends.

The song itself actually dates back to the Edo Period.

Toryanse, toryanse.
Koko wa doko no hosomichi ja?
Tenjin-sama no hosomichi ja.
Chitto toshite kudashanse.
Go-yo no nai mono toshasenu.
Kono ko no nanatsu no oiwai ni
Ofuda wo osame ni mairimasu.
Iki wa yoi yoi, kaeri wa kowai.
Kowai nagara mo
Toryanse, toryanse.

Let me pass, let me pass.
What is this narrow pathway here?
This is the narrow pathway of Tenjin Shrine.
Please allow me to go through.
Those without good reason shall not pass.
To celebrate the 7th birthday of this child
I've come to make my offering.
Going in is fine, fine, but returning will be scary.
It's scary, but
Let me pass, let me pass.

In the past, since infant mortality was high, families traditionally celebrated when a child reached the ages of 3, 5 and 7 years old (something called Shichi-Go-San, which is still celebrated today) by visiting a shrine and expressing their gratitude to the gods. So the literal interpretation is that of a parent talking to a guard at a checkpoint on the approach to a castle, trying to convince him to let them go through and visit the shrine inside the castle, something allowed only on special occasions.

However, a couple of lines in particular seem to disturb this peaceful imagery. In particular, why is the return scary? One suggestion is that after the age of 7, children lose their natural protection from the gods, and must thus learn to defend themselves, making the return—in other words, the rest of the child's life—more challenging.

Another theory is that the singer is not a parent, but has some sordid business inside the castle, and knows that while it might be easy to fool the guards going in, it might be harder to go out once the deed is done. The song is also associated with buried treasure.

It's further linked to disappearances and human sacrifice. The parent may be bringing the child to the shrine to abandon it—and the return will be difficult because the guard will ask what happened to the child.

The shrine in question is believed to be Miyoshino Shrine in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, where you'll find a stone monument to the song. The shrine was considered the protector of Kawagoe Castle, and came to be known as O-shiro no Tenjin-sama, or "the Tenjin of the castle," where Tenjin is the Shinto god of learning.

Kagome Kagome is probably the most famous among chilling children's songs, and has made its way into numerous movies, video games and manga, as well as being adapted even into other songs.

The game that goes with the song is quite simple: One player is the oni (a word that means “demon” or “ogre,” but also refers to the “it” in children's games like tag) and sits either blindfolded or with his or her eyes closed. The other children hold hands and walk in a circle around the oni singing the song. Once the song ends, the oni has to guess who is standing directly behind him or her. If correct, the two children will swap places and the game will continue with a new oni.

There are plenty of variations of this song, but here's a common one:

Kagome, kagome
Kago no naka no tori wa
Itsu, itsu deyaru
Yoake no ban ni
Tsuru to kame ga subetta
Ushiro no shoumen dare?

Kagome, kagome
The bird in the basket
When, oh when will it come out
In the night of dawn
The crane and turtle slipped
Who is behind you now?

These quite cryptic lyrics have generated a lot of speculation as to their origin and meaning. Each line has several interpretations, starting with the title of the song itself, and depending on how the title is interpreted the meaning of the rest of the lyrics also changes.

The most innocent interpretation is that the lyrics just refer to the game: in this case, the kagome of the title links back to the verb kakomu or kagomu (囲む, to surround), and the rest of the song just invites the oni to make his or her guess.

Another interpretation is that kagome comes from the union of kago (籠, basket or cage) and me or mi (女, woman), indicating a pregnant woman. In this version, the bird in the cage is her unborn child, and someone pushes her down the stairs, causing her to miscarry. She is thus wondering who stood behind her on the stairs and killed her child.

A third interpretation is that the title might refer to a prostitute—a woman in a metaphoric cage—who wonders grimly who is next in line.

Yet another interpretation is that the “bird in the cage” is a prisoner in jail, sentenced to death. The crane and turtle are symbols of good fortune and longevity, and their slip indicates the coming of death. The final line indicates that the prisoner is either wondering who the executioner is, or perhaps describes a severed head looking back at its lifeless body.

In the West, the song has even been linked to conspiracy theories, with some noting that the hexagonal hole pattern (or 籠目, kagome) of a typical Japanese basket resembles the Star of David, and the song is also somehow connected to the Illuminati.

A final interpretation, probably the most original of them all, postulates that the song contains hints to the location of a great treasure. When the Tokugawa clan was stripped of its power during the Meiji Restoration, the new government tried to cash in on its wealth, only to find that it had disappeared. The theory states that the “bird in the cage” (tori, or bird, sounds similar to torii, which is the name used for a Shinto shrine's gate) and the tortoise and crane (which could refer to statues of animals) all give hints of the treasure being buried in Nikko Toshogu Shrine, the place where Tokugawa Ieyasu is entombed. However, the song also warns that if you try to unearth the treasure, someone might be watching you from behind!