(no subject)
Today's Get Fuzzy cracked me up:
Japan certainly loves all things esoteric. Traditional literary compositions often skirt around the core issue, laying the groundwork before getting to the point. In the case of the national anthem, May Your Reign Last Forever (君が代, Kimi ga Yo), the "aimlessness," as Bucky posited, is set not only by the wandering melody, but by the lyrics as well. The lyrics were penned in the 10th century, as a tanka (5 lines, 31 syllables). Though the poem is attributed to an anonymous source, some scholars believe that the author's name was withheld because he was from a lower class.
The officially recognized words and translation are:
君が代は May your reign
千代に八千代に Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations,
さざれ石の Until the pebbles
いわおとなりて Grow into boulders
こけのむすまで Lush with moss
The melody for the anthem didn't come until the 19th century. As any good music-history student should know, brass bands were all the rage in the 1860s, and Japan was no exception. The newly reopened country was soaking up European culture like a sponge. This was the atmosphere when an Irishman named John William Fenton entered the scene. Fenton came to Japan as a bandmaster with the British army, but stayed on in Yokohama to train the first-ever Japanese military band. When he realized that Japan had no anthem, he offered to write one. He had two weeks to write, arrange, and teach the song to his band before the emperor's visit. But he succeeded in his task and, in 1870, Japan had its first anthem (and the world had one of its shortest anthems). Fenton's arrangement was ultimately criticized for not having enough solemnity, and a new melody written by Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi (Akimori was a student of Fenton's) was approved in 1880. This second version was quickly disseminated throughout Japan, but wasn't officially recognized until 1999, when a nationalistic bill was passed, denoting it as the official anthem and the hi no maru flag as the official flag. Many people rightly worried that this was an unnecessarily nationalistic move on the part of the Japanese government, especially since the Tokyo Metropolitan School System requires its schools to fly the flag and sing the anthem at all official events. Teachers are likewise required to "respect" the flag and anthem by standing and singing. Teachers who refuse risk being fined, losing their jobs, or being imprisoned. To skirt these rules, some teachers sing alternative lyrics that mock the original lyrics. Between 2003 and 2008, 410 teachers were punished for refusing to sing or stand for the anthem.
And here, for your listening pleasure, is the Kimi ga Yo, in all its esoteric, brief, controversial glory:
Japan certainly loves all things esoteric. Traditional literary compositions often skirt around the core issue, laying the groundwork before getting to the point. In the case of the national anthem, May Your Reign Last Forever (君が代, Kimi ga Yo), the "aimlessness," as Bucky posited, is set not only by the wandering melody, but by the lyrics as well. The lyrics were penned in the 10th century, as a tanka (5 lines, 31 syllables). Though the poem is attributed to an anonymous source, some scholars believe that the author's name was withheld because he was from a lower class.
The officially recognized words and translation are:
君が代は May your reign
千代に八千代に Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations,
さざれ石の Until the pebbles
いわおとなりて Grow into boulders
こけのむすまで Lush with moss
The melody for the anthem didn't come until the 19th century. As any good music-history student should know, brass bands were all the rage in the 1860s, and Japan was no exception. The newly reopened country was soaking up European culture like a sponge. This was the atmosphere when an Irishman named John William Fenton entered the scene. Fenton came to Japan as a bandmaster with the British army, but stayed on in Yokohama to train the first-ever Japanese military band. When he realized that Japan had no anthem, he offered to write one. He had two weeks to write, arrange, and teach the song to his band before the emperor's visit. But he succeeded in his task and, in 1870, Japan had its first anthem (and the world had one of its shortest anthems). Fenton's arrangement was ultimately criticized for not having enough solemnity, and a new melody written by Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi (Akimori was a student of Fenton's) was approved in 1880. This second version was quickly disseminated throughout Japan, but wasn't officially recognized until 1999, when a nationalistic bill was passed, denoting it as the official anthem and the hi no maru flag as the official flag. Many people rightly worried that this was an unnecessarily nationalistic move on the part of the Japanese government, especially since the Tokyo Metropolitan School System requires its schools to fly the flag and sing the anthem at all official events. Teachers are likewise required to "respect" the flag and anthem by standing and singing. Teachers who refuse risk being fined, losing their jobs, or being imprisoned. To skirt these rules, some teachers sing alternative lyrics that mock the original lyrics. Between 2003 and 2008, 410 teachers were punished for refusing to sing or stand for the anthem.
And here, for your listening pleasure, is the Kimi ga Yo, in all its esoteric, brief, controversial glory:
Click to view