Last month In twenty years, there is a song that has been sung for Kobe: "Mangetsu no yuube" (evening of full-moon)
in this album. I confess that I went to a memorial event held at nearest place this year, and listened to this song for the first time in twenty years. This song was written by Takashi Nakagawa
from Soul Flower Union
and Hiroshi Yamaguchi
from Heatwave
This is the album of Soul Flower Union made a release after 1.17 for the first time -except for best album, that is
.
On Jan. 17, 1995
, a massive earthquake and widespread fire destroyed Kobe and surrounding town still in sleep in the early morning -under the full moon. The basic form of this song had already been written before that day. Nakagawa was in Kobe, and after the earthquake disaster, one of his band members said that she was worried about elderly people cocooning in half collapsed houses, So they began to visit evacuation places for mercy live performance. About one month passed and when the night of full moon was coming again, Nakagawa heard some survivors say that they were afraid of seeing full moon -that inspired him to finish this song then and there. Nakagawa says that people living around Osaka and Kobe and such area smile and laugh even under difficult situation; he cannot forget smiles of people who work hard to live their new lives
. Their tough spirit must be very important driving force for reconstruction.
After the 3.11 earthquake destroyed vast area and people's lives in Eastern Japan, this song had been placed on video site, and survivors posted messages that They couldn't even cry after they lost their family or daily lives. Since then, "Mangetsu no yuube" has been a mediator between Kobe and Tohoku, especially Fukushima. Nakagawa says that he is simply grad that this song is sung by many people, regardless of whether this song was written by him.
This song prays happiness for today and hope for the future in the stricken areas of earthquake disasters, encouraging all the people to live daily lives fully, and stand up again for their dreams, never to be defeated
. -And keeps on liberating many people's mind...