Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukou)
"Memories of a prison camp in the Arizona desert, a tsunami and a plane crash are stirred by the bittersweet Japanese song Sukiyaki, a huge global hit of the 1960s.
Originally released in Japan with the title 'Ue o Muite Arukou' ('I Look Up As I Walk'), the song was retitled 'Sukiyaki' (the name for a type of beef stew) for international release. It went to No 1 in the USA, Canada and Australia and placed in the top 10 of the UK singles chart. With melancholy lyrics set to a bright and unforgettable melody, it has since been covered hundreds of times in countless languages.
California peach farmer Mas Masumoto tells the story of his family's internment in an Arizona relocation camp following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and explains what the song meant to him and many other Japanese-Americans in the years after WWII. Violinist and composer Diana Yukawa plays the song as a way to remember her father, who died in the same plane crash that killed Kyu Sakamoto, the original singer of 'Sukiyaki'. Michael Bourdaghs, author of 'Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon', talks about the songwriting team behind the song (Rokusuke Ei, Hachidai Nakamura and Kyu Sakamoto), and the surprising roots of the song in the Japanese protest movement of the early 1960s.
Janice-Marie Johnson of A Taste of Honey talks about writing an English version of the song and how she interpreted the Japanese lyrics. Gemma Treharne-Foose speaks about her experience of travelling to Japan from her home in the Rhondda Valleys, and what the song came to mean to her. And we hear the story of how Ue o Muite Arukou became a 'prayer for hope' following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 from musician Masami Utsunomiya."
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
Originally released in Japan with the title 'Ue o Muite Arukou' ('I Look Up As I Walk'), the song was retitled 'Sukiyaki' (the name for a type of beef stew) for international release. It went to No 1 in the USA, Canada and Australia and placed in the top 10 of the UK singles chart. With melancholy lyrics set to a bright and unforgettable melody, it has since been covered hundreds of times in countless languages.
California peach farmer Mas Masumoto tells the story of his family's internment in an Arizona relocation camp following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and explains what the song meant to him and many other Japanese-Americans in the years after WWII. Violinist and composer Diana Yukawa plays the song as a way to remember her father, who died in the same plane crash that killed Kyu Sakamoto, the original singer of 'Sukiyaki'. Michael Bourdaghs, author of 'Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon', talks about the songwriting team behind the song (Rokusuke Ei, Hachidai Nakamura and Kyu Sakamoto), and the surprising roots of the song in the Japanese protest movement of the early 1960s.
Janice-Marie Johnson of A Taste of Honey talks about writing an English version of the song and how she interpreted the Japanese lyrics. Gemma Treharne-Foose speaks about her experience of travelling to Japan from her home in the Rhondda Valleys, and what the song came to mean to her. And we hear the story of how Ue o Muite Arukou became a 'prayer for hope' following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 from musician Masami Utsunomiya."
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
Lyrics to the SongUe o muite arukou
Namida ga koborenai you ni Omoidasu haru no hi Hitoribotchi no yoru Ue o muite arukou Nijinda hoshi o kazoete Omoidasu natsu no hi Hitoribotchi no yoru Shiawase wa kumo no ue ni Shiawase wa sora no ue ni Ue o muite arukou Namida ga koborenai you ni Nakinagara aruku Hitoribotchi no yoru [Whistling] Omoidasu aki no hi Hitoribotchi no yoru Kanashimi wa hoshi no kage ni Kanashimi wa tsuki no kage ni Ue o muite arukou Namida ga koborenai you ni Nakinagara aruku Hitoribotchi no yoru Hitoribochi no yoru |
About the Song (from Wikipedia)"Ue o Muite Arukō" (上を向いて歩こう, "I Look Up As I Walk") is a Japanese-language song that was performed by Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto, and written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura. Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home from a Japanese student demonstration protesting continued US Army presence, expressing his frustration at the failed efforts. In Anglophone countries, it is best known under the alternative title "Sukiyaki", a term with no relevance to the song's lyrics, as sukiyaki is a Japanese dish of cooked beef. The song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the United States in 1963, one of the few non-Indo-European languages' songs to have done so. It is one of the best-selling singles of all time, having sold over 13 million copies worldwide. The original Kyu Sakamoto recording also went to number eighteen on the R&B chart. In addition, the single spent five weeks at number one on the Middle of the Road charts. The recording was originally released in Japan by Toshiba in 1961. It topped the Popular Music Selling Record chart in the Japanese magazine Music Life for three months, and was ranked as the number one song of 1961 in Japan. Well-known English-language cover versions with altogether different lyrics include "My First Lonely Night" by Jewel Akens in 1966 and "Sukiyaki" by A Taste of Honey in 1980. The song has also been recorded in other languages."
Translation of the Lyrics
I look up when I walk, counting the stars with tearful eyes, remembering those happy summer days. But tonight I'm all alone I look up when I walk. So the tears won't fall though my heart is filled with sorrow. For tonight I'm all alone. Happiness lies beyond the clouds. Happiness lies above the sky. Remembering those happy autumn days. But tonight I'm all alone. Sadness hides in the shadow of the stars. Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon. I look up when I walk. So the tears won't fall. Though my heart is filled with sorrow. For tonight I'm all alone. |
After the Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami in March of 2011, a popular song from Japan began to be sung by people of all ages in different parts of the world, in order to encourage hope, renewal and the building of caring communities in Japan and,
more generally, throughout the world. The song is called "I Look Up as I Walk."
The willingness of people to sing together, in a language many did not understand, illustrates the power of music to bring about hope and change. It's called "musicking."
This is relational power in action: that is, the power of inspiration and friendship, not coercion or violence or war. Musicking is an exercise of that power.
In terms of the spiritual alphabet created by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, the song itself, as sung by different people , evokes and communicates many of the most important spiritual moods: connection, hope, hospitality, imagination, ove, nurturing, peace, play, and, in a quiet way, a sheer love of life.
The music does this, not with lyrics, but with the sound itself and the meaning imparted to the sound by the singers and their listeners.