What's with the butterfly obsession?
So I was just listening to some music on shuffle, and Sadie's "アゲハの亡骸" came up. What a powerful song, ne? It made me think though, what is the obession with アゲハ? It's the Japanese name for the Swallowtail Butterfly, but it seems to come up quite a bit in song titles/lyrics in the VK scene. Here's some examples for you.
1) Sadie - アゲハの亡骸. The title is "Ageha no Nakigara", which translates as "Corpse of a Swallowtail". Though note that they used "Nakigara", a more respectful term than the literal "死体" or "Shitai", which is the word you find in papers for a dead body. Corpse perhaps doesn't really do the word justice. A line in the second chorus reads something like "the swallowtail with destroyed wings", and the song itself is about trying to understand feelings of love and sacrifice.
2) MUCC - アゲハ. So here the song is just titled "Swallowtail". It starts of as an evocative song about a woman described as the titular butterfly, and ends on a more reflective note about protecting a love. Again the image of a loss of wings, symbolising freedom, appears in the line "you've lost your wings and realise you can no longer fly".
3) the GazettE - Swallowtail on the Death Valley. Titled in English this time, the recurring insect appears yet again in a song title. The lyrics also speak of a swallowtail woman, losing her butterfly's wings, and "living with scars on your back which can not fade away". Looks like the same imagery is used in an altogether different song to the previous two.
So what's up with this? Anyone know why Swallowtail Butterflies are such a popular image in Japanese music? Perhaps they merely perform the job of a beautiful symbol - a free and glorious insect with wonderful wings, yet something fragile and to be treasured.