Ketsumeishi -- Tomodachi（トモダチ）

 

Thirty years ago, I was at that time in my life when it seemed as if attending weddings became part and parcel of my everyday. Then following that, came the news that friends were announcing the arrival of children. Now, it looks like I've reached that age when funerals of family friends' relatives are becoming known.

Earlier today, I put on a suit for the first time in several years to attend a funeral of the father of a couple of good friends that I've known for close to forty years. It was a short but lovely ceremony filled with reminiscences and humourous incidents. I only got to meet the father, who had been a dentist for decades, a few times over the years. The first time was when he generously accepted the invitation back in the first few months of existence of the Japanese-Canadian Students' Association at the University of Toronto in the mid-1980s to give a speech at a seijinshiki ceremony that we organized for all those members turning twenty that year. I found out that he and a few others a generation before had begun their own JCSA at the U of T. Another time was when my friends and their family and I met up at the local Buddhist church here in Toronto to see a dance performance that one of my friends was involved in. The dentist and I actually got to talk directly and I found him to be a most congenial conversationalist. 

Unfortunately, I never got to be his patient but from hearing the stories from his life and from conversing with some of the other attendees, I received the very strong impression that the dentist was not only a dentist but a hub friend for a community network which included patients, old classmates, family (close and extended) and fellow hobbyists. Considering how many people attended the funeral today and the visitation last night, it was evident how much of a friend he was. My condolences go to my friends, their family and all the dentist had contact with over the years.

As such, I wanted to start tonight's session of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a tribute of sorts and I found this song called "Tomodachi" (Friend) by the band Ketsumeishi（ケツメイシ）. I've posted articles by the group before and in fact, this article comes just about two years after my last posting on them for "Sakura"（さくら）. Released in February 2002 as their 4th single, Ketsumeishi was responsible for both words and music for the wistfully hip-hop "Tomodachi" which deals how solid the bonds of friendship are no matter the stretching of time and distance.  

The song was the first entry in their discography to enter the Top 10 of Oricon by breaking in at No. 5 and ended up as the 45th-ranked single of that year, and it's been seen as the song that put the band on the map. "Tomodachi" was also included on Ketsumeishi's 2nd album "Ketsunopolis 2"（ケツノポリス2）from April 2002 which hit No. 1 and became the 40th-ranked album of the year.