Tsunami-Hit Survivors in Iwaki Hoping to Revive Old Song as Symbol for Fresh Start (2)

Tsunami-Hit Survivors in Iwaki Hoping to Revive Old Song as Symbol for Fresh Start (2)

Suzuki, the old woman who had inherited the song, lives with her family, who runs a bed-and-breakfast near the sea. When the strong tremor occurred, she was at home with her husband, her eldest son and his wife. But her grandson was out. The four immediately escaped to the second floor of a building next to the inn when the tide began to flood the area. They spent the first night on the second floor of the building with local people who came to find safe places. The whereabouts of her grandson was unknown until a few days later.
Suzuki got up the next morning and went out to see how the seashore is. She saw a horrible scene out there, with broken pieces of many houses and boats as well as bodies scattered around on the shore. She cried and shouted, “God! Buddha! Why are you so cruel?’” Suzuki, the youngest of nine brothers and sisters, was told by her last living elder sister on her death, “Never cry, Toyono.” Since then, she had not cried at all, but she cried for the first time after her sister’s death when she saw the dreadful scene. Victims in her community included 10 of the 30 members of the elderly persons’ club in the area.
Suzuki's family tried to reopen their business as soon as possible, but she had spent gloomier days since the disaster. One day, she was visited by friends of her and asked by them “Can you sing the Song of God Anba-sama, mom?" They told her that a Mr. Yamana, a shrine priest, is looking for somebody who can sing the song because he intends to revive the song as a symbol for local people’s struggle for recovery from the disaster.

Winds blowing from God Anba-sama in the offing
How wonderful How wonderful!
Catch sardines, catch sardines
Winds blowing on cedar leaf fragrances
How wonderful! How wonderful! /
The New Year’s God we welcome once a year
How wonderful! How wonderful!
The whole family is here together
And all are harmonious.
How wonderful! How wonderful! /
Sounds like a crane’s voice on the New Year’s Day
That spring well bucket
How wonderful! How wonderful!
Let’s ladle fresh water into the turtle-like jar
How wonderful! How wonderful! /
(A personal translation)

These are the first three sequences of the lyrics of the song Suzuki had inherited from people in the community when she was young. (Note: It was believed that cedar leaves have the power of dispelling evil spirits. The crane and the turtle are considered to be symbols of happiness in Japan and their pronunciations in the Japanese language are the same as those of the well bucket and the jar. In other words, the two terms are used as puns in the song. ) Yamana’s approach to the old woman helped her regain her spirits and resume her work as before.

-“All episodes were not tragic. We had also good ones”-
“The episodes we saw in the disaster were not all tragic,” Yamana said. A green belt along about 10 kilometers of coastlines extending north to south across Natsui River helped protect communities inside the zone from the tsunami waves. This is one of good episodes, if not many, in Iwaki, he said.
The green belt, with a width of 50 to 100 meters, is actually a forest of densely planted pine trees. The trees sacrificed themselves to block the tide from invading the communities inside. The original pine tree zone was built early in the Edo era in the 17th century in a project engineered by the then lord in the region. It was designed to protect rice fields from being damaged by salty breezes. Local people called the green belt the “Dosan Forest,” taking the pen name of the lord, according to Yamana. This episode must be used as a lesson for the future, the former high school principal said.
Yamana and his supporters held a meeting in February to announce their endeavor to revive the Song of God Anba-sama, inviting tsunami survivors and other people in the area. It is uncertain if their undertaking will make smooth progress, but they are determined to revive the song and related traditions by all means.
“We know how strong traditional festivals, songs and dances are in rescuing us from the deep well of sadness. They can bring up beautiful water for us,” Yamana wrote in a booklet published in January. “The Song of God Anba-sama would have never been revived, I would say, if the tsunami disaster had not occurred. Only if we have a will to revive the festival related to the song, we should be able to do so,” he wrote.