MY FAVORITE SONG: A Profound Mystery

A Profound Mystery is not a song. Tried You Tube and found one video on the subject. However, not worth your while to click on it. No dictionary even defines Profound Mystery, but that is because it only does this for an individual word. Appropriately enough, as this is Sunday, most of the reference to this term comes from religious sources.

God is a Profound Mystery. So is the Big Bang. Experts dally around the term, but no one can pin down the reality or unreality.

Similarly, I don't know why my favorite song is Wakare No Isochidori. It is distinctly possible that of the 7.6 billion people living on Planet Earth, I am the only person who has it as #1. WNI is the only song that was written and first popular in Hawaii, then gained some fame in Japan. When? Not sure, but probably in the 1930's.

Here is a quote from a posting of a decade ago, when I traveled from Sapporo to Wakkanai, the northern most city on Japan:

I was listening to some Japanese music on my iPod on the return trip back to Sapporo, and just about the point closest to Utashinai (on the map, 12 miles right of Takikawa), Wakare No Isochidori (parting song) came on, and for no explainable reason, tears came to my eyes. This is the only song written by someone from Hawaii that became popular in Japan. The songwriter, Francis Zanami, was born around the time of the birth of Kenjiro's son--my father. Hear the Misora Hibari version by clicking on her name. Another version by Nakamura Mitsuko. And a male rendition followed by his really old Columbia 78. And an instrumental. This can go on an on, for it was a very popular song.

(Interesting that none of those above videos is now made available on You Tube.) Utashinai was the original home of Kenjiro Takahashi, my father's father. Maybe tears came to my eyes because I had chosen not to stop there. That photo to the left was taken when I did return last year.

Zanami's life itself was eerie, for at a relatively young age, he was the leader of the Hawaii Shochiku Orchestra. He is third from the right in the top row from this photo, and the primary voice of this Club Nisei version could be that female to the right, Doris Taketa. He died at either the age of 34 from kidney failure, or 44 of a heart attack.

According to Rev. Hoshu Matsubayashi (born in Olaa, Hawaii):

One of the eight kinds of suffering in Buddhist teaching is: "separation from a loved one." The sentiment of this suffering was expressed in a Japanese popular song, "Wakare no Isochidori (Departure of Beach Plovers)." The song is about separation from a loved one in Hawaii. A line from the song is "Although I know the meeting is the beginning of the separation, the memory remains cherished in my heart..."

Wakare No Isochidori is a sad song, evoking a long journey, homesickness and hope. It still brings tears to my eyes, and I don't know why. Perhaps I identify with it because it represents my past life and the future.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

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