Ketsumeishi -- Sakura

 

Well, if all goes well, the cherry blossoms in the Kanto area may be reaching full bloom as of Friday (a full week earlier than expected) and with things basically back to normal over there, I figure that the cherry blossom-viewing parties will be back at places such as Ueno Park and Ichigaya. Just imagine...it will be the return of copious amounts of eating and drinking, bad karaoke, the occasional alcohol-induced fights and neckties around the head...oh, and the odd viewing of the blossoms. I'll have to speak with my student about how everything went.

Back on Monday, I wrote about Arashi's（嵐）"Sakura Sake"（サクラ咲ケ）in tribute to the cherry blossom season but then a commenter (maybe Fireminer) noted another cherry blossom-themed hit which I'm covering here now. Hip-pop group Ketsumeishi（ケツメイシ）has been written about once on the blog through their 2007 "Train"（トレイン）, but they also came up with "Sakura" (Cherry Blossoms) earlier in February 2005 as their 11th single as a major act.

Compared to "Sakura Sake", "Sakura" is a far more wistful song (although with a goodly amount of tempo) about reminiscing about a past love through the fluttering cherry blossom petals in the wind. The lyrics by Ketsumeishi delivered such a bittersweet story that the original music video was basically patterned as a 7-minute mini-drama starring Masato Hagiwara（萩原聖人）and Emi Suzuki（鈴木えみ）. Indeed, it was a Tokyo love story.

"Sakura" hit No. 1 on Oricon and it became the 2nd-ranked single of the year, becoming a million-seller and winning the JASRAC Silver Award. As a non-tie-up song, it was Ketsumeishi's biggest hit. Another accolade that it has earned is that "Sakura" has been used as the train arrival melody at Idogaya Station on the Keikyu Honsen line in Yokohama's Minami Ward since 2015. Idogaya just happens to be where Ketsumeishi leader Daizo Yoshida（吉田大蔵）grew up.

In March 2021, in commemoration of the production of a BEST album, "Ketsu no Paradise"（ケツノパラダイス...Ketsu's Paradise）, a new video for "Sakura" was created starring Asahi Ito（伊藤あさひ）and Rinka Kumada（久間田琳加）. The first album that the song was placed on was their 4th album "Ketsunopolis 4"（ケツノポリス4）from June 2005 which also hit No. 1 and was the 2nd-ranked album of the year.

For those in the Kanto area, have a very good cherry blossom-filled weekend!🌸