2023.12.22release "Suiu Ryuko" Work Commentary Thank you for listening to the album "Suiu Ryuko". A few years ago, I was asked to "make an album about water." Although I came up with various ideas, I was not able to create a sufficient work or composition at that time, so I ended up declining the offer. Since then, I have had that theme in mind, but this year, I have been connected with various connections with the themes of "water" and "dragons", and when I was initially working on an album with a different concept, various unexpected events occurred, and I have decided to release this water-themed album "Suiu Ryuko". The motif of the whole work is the great circulation of water that travels through the universe, reaches the earth, travels around the earth, and eventually evaporates and returns to the sky. The Japanese archipelago itself is said to be a dragon body, and water and dragons have been closely related since ancient times. For this reason, I was inspired by Japanese classical literature, mythology, and folklore that remains in various places to express various forms of water. The photo for the CD jacket was taken at Lake Biwa. The latitude of the photo is 35 degrees 22 minutes north, and Mount Fuji, Mount Ibuki, Chikubushima in Lake Biwa, Motoise, Mount Oyama, and Izumo Taisha are all lined up in a straight line, and the sun rises and sets on this line on the spring and autumn equinoxes. The photo for the jacket was taken in early April, so it's a little off, but it was taken with the sun rising over Mount Ibuki and Chikubushima in the background. There's been a long-standing legend that Lake Biwa is home to a dragon palace, and Chikubushima is also home to a dragon god legend that says dragons rise there, so this photo was chosen. 01. Tenchi Mihatsu Before the beginning of the universe. A world where time and space had not yet come into being. A realm of zero that includes infinite + and infinite -, from which everything is born. Inspired by the opening sentence of the Kojiki, "Tenchi ha no ho shin shi ki" (When the heavens and the earth first appeared), I chose the title "Tenchi mi hatsu" (The heavens and the earth never emerged). 02. logos The opening sentence of the Gospel of John in the New Testament, "In the beginning was the Word." I took the original Greek expression, "En archē ēn ho logos," and named the song "logos." 03. Underwater -minaca- When my teacher once listened to this song, he talked about the perspective of water traveling through space, for example, the path of water as the solar system goes around the galaxy over about 260 million years, and the journey of water traveling through space to come to Earth. I was also told that the name of the god Amenominakanushi, who appears in the Kojiki, can be said to mean the Lord of the Water, and from that I decided on the title of the song Minaca. The four songs from 04. Light-filled Hill to 07. Mikumari were chosen from songs that were written during visits to shrines all over Western Japan. 04. Light-filled Hill This song was written when I visited a shrine on a hill on Iki Island. The sight of the light pouring into the shrine was so sacred that it looked like light was pouring from the universe, so I gave it the title Light-filled Hill. 05. Crossing the Sky This song was written when I visited a shrine on the sea in Fukuoka Prefecture. The day I visited was a clear day, and the breeze blowing from the sea into the shrine grounds was very pleasant, and I felt as if the wind was freely crossing the sky, so I named it Minaca. 06. Seyu This song was written when I visited a rock in the Izumo region where rain-making ceremonies were held in ancient times. I named it Seyu because it was here that rain-making ceremonies were held. 07. Mikumari This song was written when I visited a shrine near Mount Ira in Hida. I felt the spiral of water pouring down from the sky to the earth, so I chose this title. 08. Narukami Two poems from Volume 11 of the Manyoshu, 2513 and 2514 (Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection) "The sound of the thunder god resonates a little, and it's cloudy. Will it rain? I will stay you here." "The sound of the thunder god resonates a little, and even if it doesn't rain, I will not stay here. If I stay with my sister." This is a piece that expresses these poems in music. There is a certain amount of silence in the song, but the first half of the song expresses the first poem, and the second half expresses the second poem. The gist of the song is, 2513: The sound of thunder faintly echoes, the sky is cloudy, and rain may fall. If I do that, I can stop you from returning. 2514: Even if the sound of thunder faintly echoes and rain does not fall, I will stay here. If you will stop me. 09.snow crystal This song expresses the beauty of snow crystals. Following on from the previous song, thunder, it expresses the different phases of water on the ground. 10.Water's Hometown This song was written at the Shirakawa water source in Minamiaso, Kumamoto. A few years later, when I visited another water source nearby, I heard the same melody, and I felt that it was the music of the water source area in Minamiaso, so I named it Water's Hometown at that time. 11.ascend It expresses the way water evaporates and returns to the sky, and the way it rises in a spiral from the earth to the heavens. Combined with the seventh song, Mikumari, it expresses two spirals, one turning left and one turning right, from Heaven to Earth and Earth to Heaven.