Miyagi Songs: Popular tracks that celebrate famous sights and specialties, and timeless pieces filled with love for home

Sendai is a city of dreams.Tanizawa Shoei

Sendai, the City of Dreams / Shoei Yazawa

The interlude sounds a bit like Ikuzo Yoshi’s “Yukiguni,” doesn’t it? It’s a song that, while dragging along a dark past, returns to the hometown of Sendai and reflects on an unforgettable woman, weaving feelings of lingering attachment and love.

There aren’t many place names in the lyrics, but “Jōzenji,” now a defunct temple, was once located in the castle town of Sendai in the Mutsu Province under the Sendai Domain.

The lyrics mention a neon district, which brings to mind the well-known neon-lit area of Kokubuncho along the temple approach.

Ishinomaki BluesKajiwara Akira

Sendai Rhapsody / Funaki Bin

The name “Hiyoriyama” that appears in the song is the name of mountains found all over Japan, said to be hills sailors would use to judge whether to set sail.

The Hiyoriyama that appears in this Ishinomaki Blues refers to the mountain located in Ishinomaki City.

Though it’s a blues number, it also features powerful kobushi vocal ornamentation in places, and the song is set in the port of Ishinomaki—where departures overlapped with farewells as ships set out to sea.

Beach SongIshikawa Sayuri

Sayuri Ishikawa / Hama-uta

This is a song where you can hear Sayuri Ishikawa’s lively enka.

It sings about the everyday life that fishermen have led unchanged since long ago and will continue to lead, and it gently conveys the importance of that everyday normalcy.

In the middle, the Hama Jinku is quoted and sung; as a drinking song traditionally sung along the Miyagi Prefecture coast, this jinku conveys the vigor of the fishermen.

Pray at dawnItō Hisao

Prayer at Dawn – Hisao Ito

It’s a song that somehow brings tears to my eyes.

It was the theme song for a film made in 1940, but it’s practically a military song.

It’s the song of a man from Miyagi Prefecture who is being sent off to war, resolved never to return to his hometown, entrusting his feelings for his family to the moonlight along with his loyalty to Japan.

Every time I hear a song like this, I hope Japan will never repeat its mistakes.

The power of the song comes through in Hisao Itō’s magnificent voice and vocal strength.

Lovely SendaiDate Kiyotaka

Lovely Sendai / Kiyotaka Date

“Lovely Sendai” is a new version of the song released in 2004 as the top prize-winning piece of the Sendai Citizens’ Anthem for the 400th anniversary of the city’s founding.

It has a vibe that’s somewhat bluesy, somewhat enka-like, and reminiscent of mood kayō.

Kiyotaka Date, who hails from Tagajō in Miyagi Prefecture, celebrated his 50th anniversary since debut in 2015.

There really are so many singers who are active in their local communities.

MasamuneDate Keiichi

Masamune / Date Keiichi

When it comes to Sengoku warlords from the Tohoku region, it has to be the One-Eyed Dragon, Date Masamune.

He was also the one who built Aoba Castle.

Despite battles and hardships, he may have enjoyed the happiest later years among the warlords.

With its majestic imagery, this piece evokes a hero who, even without seizing the realm, was unquestionably a great lord who unified Tohoku.

Lament of the Kitakami RiverHirohata Atsumi

Lament of the Kitakami River

From the very first high notes, it’s absolutely impossible for an amateur to sing.

As for Miyagi’s representative rivers, the Hirose and the Kitakami, lyrics about the Hirose River often evoke faint first love or passing memories, while the Kitakami River seems to express lingering attachment and tragic love.

This song “Kitakami River Zesshō” is also a story of letting lingering feelings flow into the Kitakami before marriage, and trying to forget.