Part 3: "Rin"
Isshi: Up until now it's been continuing with a little darkness, but this time we'll proceed refreshingly. (laughs)
In part two before this, the darkness was excessive in a way, and the occultic world exploded. (wry smile) To that extent, this time it's very lovely with a sense of the seasons, and charm.
Isshi: That's right, continuing from Bikuni and Boufura, I think that this one will make you feel a little cheerful.
"Rin" was the song published on a single you released in the summer two years ago, right? If I'm not mistaken, I remember hearing that at the time you said it was a song you wrote when you got inspiration from a certain book.
Isshi: Ahh, yes. When I wrote "Rin," the book I had read was Kyogoku Natsuhiko's "Nochi no Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari" (saying this, he slowly takes the book out from his bag)
That's it, that's it. This book, don't the contents offer the one-hundred stories that the title says?
Isshi: I get that impression too, but they aren't simply mystery stories, they're stories that delve into human-like points. Incidentally, this is the third continuation of "Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari" and "Zoku Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari."
Isshi: Because by the third volume, it's finally depicted that the protagonist becomes older and passes away.
Could you briefly give us a summary?
Isshi: Up until the protagonist becomes old, he's traveling to various countries and collecting ghost stories from each place. Making them into a book was his dream, but that doesn't come true, even as he's dying.
Isshi-kun, in what way did you feel that this book can be related to "Rin"?
Isshi: As I was reading this, I often remembered things from my own past. Things like summer scenes that I experienced when I was a child, right? Whether it was the melancholy of the end of summer, reading such things gave me great feedback.
Isshi: That's right. Somehow, when the children of my relatives who came to stay also returned home, I felt that I missed them all at once. The summer I depict in "Rin" is not the so-called midsummer, but the summer from that time.
And that was the cause of the lightly floating sympathy, isn't that right?
Isshi: Recently, wasn't there a movie called "Always-Sanchome no Yuuhi-"? The atmosphere kind of has a sense of a time period like that, and feelings of the summer of that time period. I wrote that here.
But that time period is year 30 in the Showa Era (1955), so naturally it can't actually be in real time for you, Isshi-kun?
Isshi: Yes. However, I was raised in a fairly rural area, so it's been left behind tremendously. For events, at any rate. For example, the children in a district will gather together and dare each other.
Surely, things like that aren't done anymore in present day urban areas right?
Isshi: The summer memories I experienced in those days, even now I vividly remember them as having been fun. Because in rural areas, the four seasons are more distinct than in cities. And I think it's good to experience such changing seasons while living in Japanese buildings.
That reminds me, Isshi-kun, your home in Tokyo is not the apartment building type, but you live in an old Japanese style single house, right?
Isshi: For one thing, if it was an apartment complex my children (dogs) couldn't live with me, but for basic daily living it has a good floor size.
It seems comfortable, certainly.
Isshi: Yeah, but the people who come to visit are split into two groups. Either people who say it's comfortable, or people who somehow say that my house is scary.
Isshi, what is the interior of your house like?? Previously, you mentioned various things you decorate with didn't you?
Isshi: Ah, that's right. Things like youkai paintings and my Gozen doll. (laughs)
It's said that those kinds of occultic things make it easy to call evil spirits, but is that okay with you, Isshi-kun?
Isshi: I think so, or rather, although I adore things like scary stories and mystery stories, it's not that I particularly believe it. Nor do I have a sense for the supernatural.
I always think this, but that's an interesting thing about you, Isshi.
Isshi: After all, with things like mystery stories and monsters, the point is not that they're things created by humans.
Nevertheless, I think there are many mystery stories that are wholly fictional, but among them there are what we call "stories of personal experiences."
Isshi: In such cases, I don't deny it. But, for people who unexpectedly experience such things, shouldn't we consider their mental condition at that time? That's what I think. Maybe, such people are so concerned with seeing and feeling things、that it's often on their mind? And it happens as a delusion of the brain.
A delusion. That's probable, isn't it?
Isshi: After all, you know, there are strange things in the world, and in the meantime there's various things like space development and advanced technology that are being improved upon. But, if I were to say what is the most strange thing, or what needs the most explanation, that would be regarding the human body and the brain, definitely.
I'm starting to be convinced, as I would say (laughs)
Isshi: Generally, when I say something is scary, it's not that it's superior to living humans. Such things as the recent news, I just can't believe it. Children killing their parents. It's absurd, isn't it? And yet, things like monsters are different, because isn't there a way to recognize people who do such things by their appearance?
That's right, I think.
Isshi: In the end, those incidents are strangely picked up by media and the like. I think that such parts of humans are truly frightening.
This is an extremely interesting conversation, but we've digressed from the main point quite a bit. (laughs) I think I want to get back to the talk about "Rin" after this.
Isshi: Yes, that's right. (laughs)
Isshi: Since this "Rin" is a song with which I want to convey things like charm and feelings, that can't be expressed in a photo.
At the same time, you said that "Rin" is a song which depicts summer scenery, but it's not just that. It's also feelings of homesickness and a sense of existence. This was an important factor for you too, wasn't it Isshi-kun?
Isshi: More than simply thinking of my hometown, this is a sense of nostalgia about the significance of time.
As you were saying in the beginning, it's the summers that passed when you were a child, right?
Isshi: I think it was natural in those days, but I went with my family to the sea, and to the mountains, you know? Those were such precious experiences, that I think of them often now that I'm grown up. Those kind of enjoyable things, I didn't have them until elementary school.
Isshi: That, and around middle school was when I was hanging out with my friends more often. And another thing, when I was a child I was playing with the children of relatives who visited from Tokyo, so I had various things that I don't do now.
Do you remember what kinds of things you did when you were hanging out with your relatives' children?
Isshi: It's not that we did anything in particular, but after our fathers fell asleep we secretly played the Famicom together and kept on playing until morning. ...and saying that, we walked to a vending machine 1 km away and bought coffee, acting like adults. (laughs)
Drinking coffee and staying up until morning, such things are when we feel that a child is "acting like an adult." Cute.
Isshi: Right? I don't remember it clearly anymore, but when we looked behind us on the way back, a sea of dawn's clouds was stretching out before our eyes. And then, because we were simple children we'd cry out like "Uwaa~ Isn't that cool!?" (laughs)
Since you hadn't particularly been mountain climbing, you hadn't seen a sea of clouds before.
Isshi: That's right, it was an amazing sight. Because we felt like, 'mountains live in the clouds!'
It had to stick in your mind.
Isshi: Even if the Brocken spectre hadn't occurred, I'd say so.
In "Rin" there's the line "your echoing voice" but, to the extent that you're surrounded by mountains, can you actually hear a voice echoing?
Isshi: You can, you can. Voices sound out naturally in the mountains, and my home was surrounded 360 degrees by mountains, so when I screamed I could hear it.
Without leaving your home, it echoed?? I can't really believe it.
Isshi: You might think that but, I could generally hear it.
To talk about the future, if you were to have children of your own, Isshi-kun, would you want your children to feel the beautifully meaningful summers that you experienced?
Isshi: Of course I would want that. After all, I think the power that nature and greenery have is tremendous. In my case, although I was living surrounded by nature and time was of no concern, after I came here I started to be sick, but even now when I go back to my parents' home for a little while my singing voice is completely unaffected.
As I thought, the environment is important right?
Isshi: And lately I might have a metal allergy, even though up until now I didn't have it at all. Whatever it is about Tokyo, you can walk not even 1 km and there's a vending machine, but on the contrary, when there's nothing like that at all, humans can live happy and healthy, I think.
It's unnatural or artificial, and to put it one way the overprotective environment might be making human resistance weaken, little by little.
Isshi: Yeah, truly. Nowadays there are various medicines I can't let go of, and it's kinda frustrating.
Isshi: Ah but, humans are creatures who beg for what they don't have, you know? Even when I was a child, I thought I was envious of my relatives going to their homes in the city, but when I actually came to the city I just thought it was convenient to have a store so close. (laughs)
Incidentally, apart from the enjoyable summers you remember as a child, how do you plan to spend this summer?
Isshi: This year, the rainy season isn't very long, is it? So now, I'm just on the way of my (data collecting) tour, but after one final stop it'll be over. Saying that, the tour is over at the same time as the start of full-fledged summer, and yet after that it seems I've got some recording to do.
Isshi: That's true, but having a tour ending at the beginning of summer, and then recording, it gets lonely you know~ As for my feeling, this year's summer will end on August 5th. (wry smile)
And as usual, references that Isshi makes are linked to outside pages for those who would like to read more about them. When I have the Bikuni and Boufura interviews translated, I will link to those as well.