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

Michinoku NarukoAoi Kawori

Kaori Aoi “Michinoku Naruko” (Short ver.)

The hot spring town is set in the famous Naruko Onsen.

With nearly 400 hot spring sources in the Naruko Onsen area, Naruko is well known throughout Japan, and even its name evokes a sense of charm.

The lyrics, as expected, sing of the sorrow of deciding to part ways, but there’s another thing Naruko is famous for: kokeshi dolls.

Naruko kokeshi are known for the squeaking sound they make, and the lyrics, which liken a “kokeshi” to a woman and lament that the one being waited for never comes, are heartbreaking.

Nice to meet you, SendaiSawada Yuki

Nice to meet you, Sendai / Yuji Mori and the Southern Cross ♪ Yukio Sawada [With Lyrics]

This is an approachable song themed around Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture.

Yuki Sawada’s vocals gently embrace the feelings of a woman who has just moved to Sendai as a bride.

You can sense her earnest resolve to seize happiness even as she feels bewildered by her new surroundings.

Among the many local songs produced by Southern Cross, its fresh and breezy atmosphere stands out.

While fully conveying Sendai’s charm, it beautifully portrays the mingled hopes and anxieties of starting a new life.

It’s a song that residents of Sendai—and those planning to move there—should definitely hear.

It’s sure to give you courage.

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.

Naruko Resort OndoMatsui Masamichi

Naruko Resort Ondo

Ah, up to “Sore Sore” I was listening with a Bon Odori vibe in mind, but the whole piece is really a full-on Naruko Onsen PR song rather than a Bon Odori tune.

It’s a laid-back song singing, “Let’s relax in the hot springs! Naruko is a great place.” By the way, Naruko Onsenkyo is a collective name for five hot spring areas in Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture: Naruko Onsen, Higashi-Naruko Onsen, Kawarada Onsen, Nakayamadaira Onsen, and Onikobe Onsen.

Definitely a resort destination.

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.

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.