eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
2025.05.19
eSOM: The Road to D (20) ~ Singularity High School’s Starting Point for Further Flight (1) ~ Opening Ceremony Festival with HIPPY
1 On Friday, May 16th, the SHS Opening Ceremony Festival was held. This festival will serve as a starting point for SHS’ further leap forward. Another starting point is the idea that emerged from listening to Mr. Akira Asada and Mr. Ichiro Tomiyama in Kyoto on Saturday, May 10th, and Ms. Audrey Tang in Tokyo on Monday, May 12th: the idea of SHS taking a central role in building an East Mediterranean cultural sphere as “D = Digital Democracy.” Originally, as stated on the current HP, SHS embarked with the goal of building the Setouchi region as “the region with the highest level of well-being in the world.” The constructionism of learning various things for that construction, in the form of learning what is necessary for life after graduating from SHS, has been the co-education philosophy of SHS from the beginning. And a little over a year has passed since the current HP was created. Thanks to many new encounters and reunions with “my favorite teachers” over this period, SHS has taken Giant Steps towards the goal of building “D.” Giant Steps by John Coltrane (1960) music.youtube.com/playlist?list= 2 In what sense will this festival and the East Mediterranean cultural sphere serve as a starting point for SHS’ further flight? Let’s start with the festival. The festival was held in a concert format, featuring a dialogue between singer-songwriter HIPPY, a “senior” in the Hiroshima City Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) Testimony Inheritor Training Project, and me, a “junior.” HIPPY himself sang all seven of his songs, including the SHS school song “Sakuhana,” which he composed for us. Based on the script I wrote, I will present a digest of the day’s events: First, the concert began with his major hit song, “Kimi ni Sasageru Ouenka” (A Cheer Song for You). youtube.com/watch?v=DiRXDp Endo: Hello everyone, I am Katsuhiko Endo, and I will be the MC for today’s Singularity High School Opening Ceremony Festival. Thank you for coming. In the first half, I will be interviewing HIPPY, and he will be sharing “very insightful stories” (laughs) for all of you who will be starting your high school life at SHS. In the second half, he will perform a mini-concert of six songs closely related to these “very insightful stories.” So, HIPPY-san, the first song you sang, “Kimi ni Sasageru Ouenka,” has now become a representative cheer song of our time. I heard that you yourself aimed to play in Koshien as a high school baseball player, but in fact, you had to start music in order to play baseball. Could you tell us more about that? HIPPY: (HIPPY shared stories about his childhood as a baseball player, including how his mother, an electone instructor, allowed him to play baseball on the condition that he took piano lessons.) Endo: So, you were such a good baseball player that you received offers from multiple high schools and aimed for Koshien. However, due to an injury, you had to give up baseball. In despair, you joined the nationally renowned Sotoku High School Male Chorus Club Glee Club and began your path as a vocalist. Could you please tell the SHS students about your high school days, focusing on that period? 3 Endo: And after graduating from high school in 1999, you formed a band called maegashira while in university, which disbanded in 2011. Immediately after that, you began your solo career, and your major debut was in 2015. Then, in 2017, your second album “HomeBase ~Arigato~” (HomeBase ~Thank You~) was released, and the song “Kimi ni Sasageru Ouenka” gained attention in a “very mysterious” way, finally putting your career as a musician on track. And finally, next month, on Saturday the 14th, you will be holding your first arena concert at the Hiroshima Sun Plaza Arena Hall (most recently, the Southern All Stars performed there): hippy-web.com/schedule/20250 Thus, a quarter of a century has passed from the time you started your professional career as an artist to becoming an “arena artist.” I have three questions about this period: ① Regarding the point that “Kimi ni Sasageru Ouenka” gained attention in a “very mysterious” way. ② What do you think was the biggest reason you were able to continue as a musician for nearly 20 years when things didn’t go as planned? ③ Looking back on these nearly 20 years and leading up to your first arena performance this June, could you share just one thing that you can confidently say is a guiding principle for life, something to believe in, both for yourself and for the SHS students here, as concretely as possible? HIPPY: (Note: Please refer to the following interview articles, which include parts that overlap with HIPPY’s on-stage answers to these questions, including the question about his high school days in the previous section.) news.livedoor.com/article/detail barks.jp/news/?id=10002 barks.jp/news/?id=10002 4 Endo: So, now we move on to the second part. The second part is about the story of the Hibakusha testimony that connected HIPPY and me, the behind-the-scenes story of the birth of the SHS school song “Sakuhana,” which is closely related to it, and a mini-concert of six HIPPY songs that formed the basis of the school song. In 2012, the year after he went solo, HIPPY began participating in the “Atomic Bomb Storyteller: Testimony Meeting by Atomic Bomb Survivors” (hereafter, “Storyteller’s Meeting”) held every 6th of the month at the bar “Swallowtail” in the city, which Mr. Yojiro Tomie had been running since 2006. (Here, a photograph of Mr. Tomie during his lifetime is projected onto the screen at the back of the stage.) instagram.com/bar_swallowtai magazine.cliiip.jp/social/4672/ Then, in 2017, the same year that his second album “HomeBase ~Arigato~,” which includes “Kimi ni Sasageru Ouenka,” was released, HIPPY took over the “Storyteller’s Meeting” immediately after Mr. Tomie passed away from lung cancer. Even during the period when in-person gatherings were not possible due to the pandemic, he continued to broadcast it every 6th of the month on YouTube, and I am convinced that these videos are a precious asset to humanity: youtube.com/playlist?list= Having kept Mr. Tomie’s last wishes in his heart, the “Storyteller’s Meeting” reached its 230th session on May 6th, 2025. Could you please talk about the “Storyteller’s Meeting,” which you have continued to hold to this astonishing number while traveling around the country as a musician, , and about Mr. Tomie, who continues to watch over it as “the stars”? HIPPY: (Please refer to the following interview articles, which include parts that overlap with HIPPY’s on-stage answers to this question.) hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=57216 hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=69113 youtube.com/watch?v=fiBKpj youtube.com/watch?v=njak5l nikkei.com/article/DGXZQO The book that Mr. Tomie was writing as his death approached, mentioned in the above news video about him: “Counter no Mukou no 8 Gatsu 6 Nichi Hiroshima Bar Swallowtail ‘Kataribe no Kai’ no 4000 Nichi” (August 6th over the bar counter: Hiroshima Bar Swallowtail “Storyteller’s Meeting”‘s 4000 Days) books.kobunsha.com/book/b10130736 5 Endo: HIPPY-san, you participated in the Hiroshima City-sponsored “Hibakusha Testimony Inheritor Training Project” from 2016, a year before you took over the “Storyteller’s Meeting” from Mr. Tomie, and became a trainee: hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/blog/wp-conten Actually, I also became a trainee immediately after moving to Hiroshima in 2022. On July 26th, 2024, during your concert at the Ueno Gakuen Hall, I met you backstage for the first time and told you about it. You said to me, “Then you are my junior.” (Please refer to the following installments of “The Road to X,” the predecessor to this “The Road to eSOM: The Road to D,” for the story of our first encounter.) The Road to X (2): HIPPY and Hibakusha Testimony x.com/shinkoukouwa/s The Road to X (3): HIPPY, the Genius Poet x.com/shinkoukouwa/s I heard that a word from one of the Hibakusha you met in this “Testimony Inheritor Training Project,” Ms. Emiko Okada, had a significant impact on your subsequent activities as a Hibakusha storyteller and a singer-songwriter. Please tell us about your encounter with Ms. Okada and what you learned from her. HIPPY: (HIPPY’s answers to the above questions can be found in the following article and the excerpt (in bold red) from “The Road to X” (3).) nh-times.jp/post-7487/ “Ms. Emiko Okada, the lecturer who teaches me, is a Hibakusha and a storyteller. I heard from her the desire that ‘each person should share information in their area of expertise,’ and I feel a sense of mission that what I can do is convey through songs.” Endo: During the first meeting for “Sakuhana,” when I heard this from HIPPY-san, I, like HIPPY-san, decided to pass on the experiences of the Hibakusha in “my own way” which are co-education and writing, without following the usual path taken by testimony inheritors (note: usually, after completing the training and becoming a city-certified storyteller, one gives lectures to visitors at the memorial museum based on a manuscript reviewed by the city). And I believe that one of the most important things HIPPY-san wants to convey through his songs is that “we are living in the ‘today’ that has continued since that day.” Let’s have HIPPY-san sing “Hibi no Harmony” (Harmony of Days), a song that embodies the thoughts of Mr. Tomie and Ms. Okada, with both of them credited as lyricists alongside HIPPY-san, and its sequel, the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing theme song “Hoshi ni Natta Machi” (The Town That Became Stars), against the backdrop of the visual work “Ano Hi kara Tsuzuku ‘Ima’ ~Hibaku 75 Nen Kono Machinami ni Arigato~” (The “Now” That Continues From That Day ~75 Years After the Bombing, Thank You to This Townscape~), which is based on “Hibi no Harmony” and features Ms. Okada with her grandchild. “Hibi no Harmony” by Yojiro Tomie x Emiko Okada x HIPPY youtube.com/watch?app=desk “Hoshi ni Natta Machi” by HIPPY (RCC 80th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing Theme Song) youtube.com/watch?v=OAAO6d 6 On May 6th, I participated in the “Storyteller’s Meeting” for the first time. There, I listened to the story of Mr. Tatsuro Naito, who was the storyteller for that day, and an idea flashed in my mind. I have said on various occasions, including the congratulatory address from the principal at the SHS entrance ceremony, that HIPPY-san is a “genius poet” alongside Kiyoshiro Imawano and Kazutoshi Sakurai: “The Road to D, or the Kowa Story (1): Singularity High School Entrance Ceremony, Congratulatory Address from the Principal” x.com/shinkoukouwa/s Like the lyrics written by Kiyoshiro and Sakurai, seemingly ordinary lyrics occasionally contain words that make you think so. And on this day, after listening to Mr. Naito’s story, I became convinced that one of the sources of the “awesomeness” of HIPPY’s lyrics is the words of the Hibakusha at the “Storyteller’s Meeting,” which has now reached its 230th session. What prompted my intuition were two things Mr. Naito told us. One was a short poem (tanka) that Mr. Naito wrote when he was a third-year junior high school student, expressing his feelings for his mother who had passed away: “Haruka naru sora no kanata ni insei (sumu) haha no omokage otte kyou mo noborinu” (In the distant sky, I trace the lingering image of my mother, who dwells there, and climb up again today): x.com/shinkoukouwa/s I intuitively felt that the feelings of the Hibakusha for their families who died in the atomic bomb, as expressed in this tanka, and “Kaasan e” (To Mother), one of the three songs that form the basis of the SHS school song “Sakuhana,” are two sides of the same coin. The other story Mr. Naito told, which made me intuitively realize that Hibakusha testimony is the source of the “awesomeness” of HIPPY’s lyrics, was the question that his third-year junior high school homeroom teacher, Mr. Masayuki Abeta, posed to him, which determined the course of Mr. Naito’s life: “If you don’t change now, what will you lose in the future?” x.com/shinkoukouwa/s When I heard this, I wanted to share these words with all the SHS students. And I thought that the second song among the three that form the basis of “Sakuhana,” “Kitto Kamisama wa Susume to Iu Darou” (Surely God Will Say Go Forward), could be heard as a song about Mr. Naito’s seeking the answer to this question from his teacher and following the path he found. 7 Actually, Mr. Naito himself is here with us today. So, I would like Mr. Naito himself to tell us the story behind what I just talked about, from the time he was exposed to the atomic bomb at the age of three years and nine months in Mukainada, where SHS is located, to when he moved to Iizuka City in Fukuoka Prefecture when he was a first-year student at Aozaki Elementary School, and until he met his mentor, Mr. Masayuki Abeta, in junior high school. Testimony of Atomic Bomb Experience by Mr. Naito Himself 1．Atomic Bombing in Mukainada (Slide 1: Mt. Ogonzan) An image of the city that Mr. Naito would have seen beyond Mt. Ogonzan when he was exposed to the atomic bomb at the age of three years and nine months in Mukainada, where SHS is located: x.com/shinkoukouwa/s 2．About his mother who passed away three years after the bombing (Slide 2: His Mother’s Tanka) His mother’s condition after the bombing A school excursion when he was a first-grade elementary school student and his farewell to his mother The tanka Mr. Naito wrote when he was a third-year junior high school student, expressing his feelings for his mother who passed away when he was a first-grade elementary school student: “Haruka naru sora no kanata ni insei (sumu) haha no omokage otte kyou mo noborinu” x.com/shinkoukouwa/s 3．From Mukainada to Iizuka About his father who worked as a coal miner in a coal mine owned by the Aso zaibatsu, and about the coal mine Poverty and discrimination Scrap collection “Mountain Child” 4. Encounter with his junior high school mentor, Mr. Masayuki Abeta, who changed his life Slide 3: contribution to the newspaper about Mr. Naito written by Mr. Masayuki Abeta, Mr. Naito’s junior high school mentor, more than 40 years after graduation: x.com/shinkoukouwa/s Slide 4: The Teacher’s ‘Question'” is displayed, and he begins to talk about that “question” The words that Mr. Masayuki Abeta, Mr. Naito’s mentor, posed to Mr. Naito just before he graduated from junior high school, which determined the course of Mr. Naito’s life: x.com/shinkoukouwa/s When “Slide 5: Encounter with Teacher, Book, and Tanka” is displayed, he talks about his mentor coming to his place of lodging after graduation and sending his tanka to NHK Radio. “Words of Encouragement” from Mr. Naito to the SHS students, based on his encounter with his mentor, Mr. Masayuki Abeta: x.com/shinkoukouwa/s Endo: Mr. Naito, thank you very much. Now, HIPPY-san will sing “Kaasan e” with Mr. Naito’s tanka in the background, and “Kitto Kamisama wa Susume to Iu Darou” with his mentor Mr. Masayuki Abeta’s “question” in the background. HIPPY: “Kaasan e” youtube.com/watch?v=h_JJVo “Kitto Kamisama wa Susume to Iu Darou” youtube.com/watch?v=P0Ix_y 8 Endo: Now, we have only the last two songs left. One is “Kinsaiya,” the remaining one of the three songs that formed the basis of “Sakuhana.” And the last one is, of course, the SHS school song, “Sakuhana.” HIPPY-san has often said, “Thanks to Mr. Tomie and the Storyteller’s Meeting, I have come to truly believe that the moment the atomic bomb fell is connected to the present.” For me, what makes me feel that most strongly is “Kinsaiya.” And “Sakuhana” is the result of HIPPY-san wonderfully responding to my unreasonable request to “create a school song that incorporates all the elements of all the songs” he sang today, including “Kinsaiya.” From here, I would like HIPPY-san himself to talk about the feelings he put into these two songs, and then we can all sing together. Now, HIPPY-san, please. HIPPY: “Kinsaiya” (Special MV with lyrics exclusively for the opening ceremony festival, created by Mr. Hiroya Ando of Amane Inc., the company in charge of SHS’ visuals) x.com/shinkoukouwa/s “Sakuhana” (SHS School Song: Special MV with lyrics exclusively for the opening ceremony festival) x.com/shinkoukouwa/s (To be continued)
