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I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Sasori-za (SWAY) -- Mado Garasu no Henohenomoheji​(窓ガラスのへのへのもへじ)

From Wikipedia
 
It's not something that I drew myself when I was living in Japan, but I've come across this doodled face consisting of hiragana characters that has been likened culturally to "Kilroy was here"Henohenomoheji is made up of he (へ), no (の), he (へ), no (の), mo (も), he (へ), and ji (じ) stylized together into a visage which has been used as the face of Japanese scarecrows but more often than not in various aspects of media as a running gag.

Several weeks ago at the end of October, I posted a song by the folk duo SWAY with Kana Sugiyama(杉山加奈)and Masako Horibe(堀部雅子)titled "Minminzemi no Natsu"(ミンミン蝉の夏)The act lasted between 1985 and 2000, but for the first five years, the original name for the duo was Sasori-za(さそり座...Scorpio) when Sugiyama and Horibe were junior high school students.

In 1984, the two created their own song "Mado Garasu no Henohenomoheji​" (The Henohenomoheji in the Window) which won them a prize at the 28th Yamaha Popular Song Contest, and it became their debut single in February 1985. The song hit No. 40 on Oricon and sold 36,000 records. It is a bittersweet song about goodbyes with the poignancy even more enhanced by the adorably young vocals by Sasori-za. The tune probably hit a lot of the kids and perhaps adults too in the feels.

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