'Sakura No Kisetsu' (continued from the last post)

(Been continued from the last post)

Katayose san, the producer of Fujifabric's 1st album, 'Fujifabric', said in his blog (Grand Gallery Magazine), "The song is not framed by flashy melody, but when it is sung by Shimura kun in an abrupt tone of voice, it suddenly showed up its subtle quirky charm.".

There was once before a fan from France left a comment in my blog that "Sakura No Kisetsu shares the same charm with Japanese Manga", which Shimura kun, a big Manga lover, would be so glad to hear.  Just like in Manga, vivid scenes flash across our mind and fade out expressing Japanese feeling towards cherry blossoms casually.  I totally agree with her precise impression.

Against our expectations, a temporary title of 'Sakura No Kisetsu' was nothing to do with cherry blossoms - it was 'Training A Puppy' according to Keisuke Imamura, the staff of Toshiba EMI.  He was in charge of Fujifabric since thier debut.  (refer to 'Talking Rock!' July 2010)
The beginning of the song goes "Sakura No Kisetsu Sugitara♪", but it was once, "Koinu No Shitsuke Tetsudae♪".
There was no particular meaning for that, but just the melody line and rhythm made Shimura kun feel like that!

Shimura kun's strong will of "would like to debut with the song expressing Fujifabric fully", represented in the band's unique bitter expression - admiring fluttering cherry blossoms rather than the blossoms in full bloom.



The cherry blossoms is regarded as an iconic flower of Japan. It was around 10th century that cherry blossoms.  In fact, for manyn Japanese, it's synonymous with the word, 'flower'.
It was around 10th century that cherry blossoms became prominent one of the motifs of spring, and they are referred to in many of the narratives and poems written around that time.  The aristocrats of that time saw their own mortal lives reflected in the cherry blossoms that bloom and fall all too quickly.
Cherry trees only bloom for a particularly short period of time, and their petals seem to start dropping almost as soon as they've opened.  This dovetails perfectly with the traditional Japanese aesthetic sensibility that finds beauty not only in blooming flowers but also in the way they flutter to the ground.

When looking at the fact that there are still many young rock musicians who sing about cherry blossoms, the aesthetic sensibility over 1,000 years has gone into the core of Japanese heart.  The reason why Fujifabric is admired to be so lyrical is probably from Shimura kun's beautiful lyrics of Shiki-ban (songs of Four Season). Fujifabric's music written in Shimura kun's unique sensibility is as admirable as four seasons in Japan.

Next post will be on the interviews in 2004.

Today's song is, of course, 'Sakura No Kisetsu'.