A poem by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), a native of Iwate Prefecture, is gaining popularity throughout Japan and overseas as an inspirational message to the victims of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
A poem by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), a native of Iwate Prefecture, is gaining popularity throughout Japan and overseas as an inspirational message to the victims of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The poem, "Ame ni mo Makezu (Strong in the rain)," is one of Miyazawa's representative works. The poet is often known only as Kenji in Japan.
With Otsuchi-Kita Elementary School in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, unusable after the disaster, the school held its March 29 graduation ceremony at Otsuchi Senior High School.
At the event, Principal Yoko Sano, 55, recited Miyazawa's poem. Sano said she was shocked when she toured her school immediately after the quake. Classrooms on the first floor were filled with mud. Outside, the playground was a mess, filled with the hulks of autos and ruined houses driven there by the tsunami.
Looking at the mess, she said she thought of "Ame ni mo Makezu."
After reciting the poem to her young charges, Sano told them, "In difficult times, I want you to keep your minds strong by holding the poem in your hearts."
One of the graduates, Kaho Abe, 12, moved into an evacuation center after her house was damaged by the tsunami. She said she has read almost all of the books by Miyazawa available in her classroom, about 20 in all.
"Kenji is also a person who overcame hardships. I felt my current situation matches Kenji's poem 'Ame ni mo Makezu.' Though things are tough right now, I will do my best," Abe said.
Another graduate, Yumena Mizuno, 12, recalled that the checkered skirt and the junior high school uniform she had set out for the graduation ceremony had been lost in the tsunami.
"Kenji is a great person from Iwate. Like Kenji, I want to refrain from saying selfish things even during hard times and become a good junior high school student," she said.
Yumena's father, Tsutomu, 46, said, "The poem is moving. It contains important ideas, such as having a strong mind and helping each other. It impressed me."
The poem has also inspired many outside of the disaster zone to stand up.
Actor Ken Watanabe can be seen reciting "Ame ni mo Makezu" in front of a white background in a video available on YouTube.
Watanabe had asked scriptwriter Kundo Koyama, "What can I do for people affected by the quake?" After getting some ideas, he started the website "kizuna311" on March 15. Kizuna means "bond" in Japanese.
On the site, Watanabe and other actors, such as Teruyuki Kagawa and Naoto Takenaka, recite poems or offer personal messages, calling for "kizuna."
Watanabe said: "I come from Niigata Prefecture, also a snowy area, and I have, as an actor, played many people from the Tohoku region. I understand the atmosphere of the area and how the lives of the people there are. When I thought about what message I could bring the victims, I thought the most appropriate work would be 'Ame ni mo Makezu' by Kenji.'"
The poem has also found a following overseas.
On the night of April 1, a concert to support survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake was held in Victoria Park in Hong Kong featuring actor Jackie Chan, singer Agnes Chan and other entertainers.
A crowd of nearly 10,000 joined 100 performers from all over Asia to sing the Japanese ballad "Succumb not to Sorrow," which uses "Ame ni mo Makezu" as its lyrics.
A video clip, in which Hong Kong stars such as Andy Lau sing the song, was also shown on the Internet. Many found the effort the entertainers made to sing the unfamiliar Japanese lyrics moving.
"The poem describes the perseverance of the Japanese people as they grapple with hardships," said Bonnie Wong, a member of the organizing committee. "The poem's power to encourage people about the future was a message we wanted to convey."
Kenji Miyazawa was born Aug. 27, 1896, about two months after the magnitude-8.2 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake hit the Tohoku region. In the disaster, a huge tsunami hit the coastal areas, claiming about 22,000 lives.
About six months before his death, a magnitude-8.1 Showa-Sanriku earthquake also hit the Tohoku region, on March 3, 1933, killing about 3,000 people.
Four days after the earthquake, Kenji sent a postcard to poet Minoru Oki. It read, "The damage caused by the tsunami is huge, and the coasts are really in terrible shape."
It is said that Kenji wrote "Ame ni mo Makezu" in a small notebook on his sickbed two years before his death. The poem was widely read during World War II and the postwar era for inspiration when enduring hardships.
"The poem is filled with the sadness and agonies Kenji experienced," said Toshiya Ushizaki, vice director of the Miyazawa Kenji Kinenkan memorial museum in Hanamaki, Iwate Prefecture. "The poem has taken root in people's hearts when they are in need of support or healing."
(This article was compiled from reports by Nahoko Kyotani, Nobuya Sawa, Nozomu Hayashi and Kenichi Miyazawa)
Strong in the Rain (Ame ni mo Makezu)
Translated by Roger Pulvers
Strong in the rain
Strong in the wind
Strong against the summer heat and snow
He is healthy and robust
Free from all desire
He never loses his generous spirit
Nor the quiet smile on his lips
He eats four "go" of unpolished rice
Miso and a few vegetables a day
He does not consider himself
In whatever occurs ... his understanding
Comes from observation and experience
And he never loses sight of things
He lives in a little thatched-roof hut
In a field in the shadows of a pine tree grove
If there is a sick child in the east
He goes there to nurse the child
If there's a tired mother in the west
He goes to her and carries her sheaves
If someone is near death in the south
He goes and says, "Don't be afraid"
If there are strife and lawsuits in the north
He demands that the people put an end to their pettiness
He weeps at the time of drought
He plods about at a loss during the cold summer
Everybody calls him "Blockhead"
No one sings his praises
Or takes him to heart
That is the kind of person
I want to be