In memory of Shuntaro Tanikawa, one of Japan’s leading poets who passed away on the 13th at the age of 92, approximately 900 students from Takatsu Junior High School in Yachiyo City, Chiba Prefecture, sang a school song with lyrics written by Tanikawa at the city’s Civic Hall on the 28th. was sung in chorus. While expressing his gratitude for writing the lyrics, he sang a beautiful song and prayed for the soul’s repose.

The school’s school song was established in 1978. According to the school, Mr. Tanigawa and the wife of the principal at the time were close, and when they asked him to write the lyrics, he gladly agreed. Mr. Tanigawa listened to the opinions of the students at the time and wrote the lyrics for the song, calling it “a school song unlike any other school.”

“♪ Wind, come blow, let the grass of the savannah wave” “♪ Let’s dream of tomorrow together, step here now.”

It is an unusual school song that uses many words that evoke a sense of nature and does not include the school’s name. Takatsu Junior High School is the only school where Tanigawa wrote the lyrics for the school song for a public elementary and junior high school in the prefecture.

Hayato Kobayashi, a second-year student, said, “Mr. Tanigawa supported Japanese culture with the power of words,” and Yuna Takao, a third-year student, said, “Easy-to-understand words are filled with deep meaning.Big dreams and hopes.” “A school song that makes you feel good and makes you want to do your best,” they each said in their speeches.

Tanigawa also wrote the school song for Josai International University in Togane City. The lyrics include, “Cross the windy bridge and head toward the limitless unknown” and “The campus is the earth itself, a melting pot of people learning from each other.”

On the school’s website, Ms. Tanigawa says, “The world of academia and the real world, Japanese culture and other cultures, women and men, everything and every detail…Look at the potential for harmony hidden within them, without fearing contradictions. It is introduced that the words were chosen with the thought of “I want it.”

Mr. Tanigawa is from Tokyo. A poet representing postwar Japan, known for works such as “Two Billion Light Years of Solitude” and “Ikiru.” He was active in a wide range of fields, including songwriting and translation. (Tsubasa Matsuzaki)