Ichiro Fujiwara/Chieko Baisho -- Natsu no Omoide （夏の思い出）

I never went there myself but my English circle of housewives, being quite adventurous and having traveled together to all sorts of place within and outside of Japan (including my neck of the woods), has visited Oze（尾瀬）, the famous marshland that straddles the three prefectures of Gunma, Fukushima and Niigata. Oze has been characterized by that man-made wooden pathway that snakes through the entire area.

Last night, NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）came back on and the theme was the end of summer. One of the songs featured was "Natsu no Omoide" (Summer Memories), a very sepia-toned tribute to the Oze marshland.

Written by Shoko Ema（江間章子）and composed by Yoshinao Nakata（中田喜直）, "Natsu no Omoide" was first heard on an NHK kayo radio program in 1949 when it was performed by chanson singer and essayist Yoshiko Ishii（石井好子）. However, her version was never released as a 45". In fact, it wouldn't be released as a single until 1954 when venerable singer Ichiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）did a cover version with the Columbia Women's Chorus Group.

"Natsu no Omoide" hasn't belonged to any one singer but has been covered by a variety of artists over the years. It has become a standard, and the song which seems perfectly made to be sung by high school chorus groups has been listed in school textbooks and music books, and even became a part of the long list of tunes introduced on the NHK five-minute music program "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた...Everyone's Songs）in 1962.

As I said, it's been covered many times but I have to say that I adore Chieko Baisho's（倍賞千恵子）own version. It just seems so motherly. Lyricist Shoko Ema grew up close to the mountains of Iwate Prefecture in the north, and the area was known for mizubasho, a plant known as the white skunk cabbage. In her thirties during World War II, she occasionally visited Oze which also had plenty of white skunk cabbage as well as other examples of flora. As the name hints, the mizubasho isn't exactly the sweetest smelling flower but in spite of that, Ema found the area to be a wonderland and in 1947, when NHK asked her to come up with a song that would embody dreams and hopes, Oze apparently popped up in her head. "Natsu no Omoide" was the result.