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.

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!🌸

Ketsumeishi -- Train（トレイン）

The above is a photo of the special "Girls Und Panzer" train going from Mito to Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture where the hijinks of the beloved anime took place. However, I'm not talking about tanks here and for that matter, I'm not even talking about an anison this time.

But my anime buddy handed me a whole bunch of episodes of "Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion"（新幹線変形ロボ シンカリオン）recently, touting the greatness of this show. I even got to see the special episode of the tribute to the legendary "Neon Genesis Evangelion" with some of the characters in there and even the actual original theme song thrown in. It would have made certain anime fans swoon. However, since I'm not a train fan (although I admire the streamlined shapes of the Bullet Trains), I'm not quite sold on the merits of "Shinkalion" yet so I will have to take a look from Episode 1 and let you know later.

At the same time, though, my friend also showed me the above video of obviously a tore-ota's beloved train setup and its operation. An old junior high school classmate had something similar established all throughout his living room decades ago, and all I could say was that his parents must have been the most understanding pair of guardians. What got me intrigued in that video though was the song that was used as the background music.

With the appropriate enough title of "Train", this was a song by the hip-hop/reggae band Ketsumeishi（ケツメイシ）that was released as their 14th single back in April 2007. I did hear about this band before but never paid any attention to them. However, starting with the catchy march-like rhythms and the spacy synths, "Train" got me to come aboard on a soothing musical ride of encouragement with a bit of rap thrown in.

There were a couple of videos that I had wanted to put up; one was the actual music video which was really well done for its animation and poignancy, and the other was a tribute long-form commercial for Japan Railways. But unfortunately, it looks like both got the copyright strikes so they are no longer there. Still, the above video will do quite nicely.

Banding together in 1993, the lineup for Ketsumeishi consists of Ryo Tanaka（田中亮）, Ryoji Otsuka（大塚亮二）, Daizo Yoshida（吉田大蔵）and Kenta Kohno（河野健太）. According to Wikipedia, the name of the band comes directly from a type of herb used in Chinese medicine. When it comes to "Train", I think, indeed, Ketsumeishi makes for a nice salve. The song made it up to No. 3 on Oricon.