I found a firefly. The song, “Hotaru-no-Hikari (Firefly light)”, comes to my mind immediately. Speaking of “Hotaru no Hikari”, it was a staple of the graduation ceremony song, along with “Aogeba Tootoshi (Respectable Teacher)”. At the graduation ceremony of elementary school, junior high school, and high school, I was always crying, singing this song. About 30 years ago, it was when my daughter graduated from high school that I last shed tears in this song. Since then, these songs are no longer being sung at any school, and instead of that, “Day of departure”, “Fly, Birds”, “To the future/Kiroro”, “The wind is blowing/Ikimonogakari” etc., they’re the graduation songs. I sometimes hear it at “the Red and White Singing Battle” at the end of the year and the closing ceremony of high school baseball, which makes me remember nostalgicly.

蛍を見つけました。直ぐに思い浮かぶのが『蛍の光』。『蛍の光』と言えば、『仰げば尊し』と並んで卒業式の歌の定番でした。小学校、中学校、高校の卒業式では、いつでもこの歌を歌いながら涙を流したものです。この歌で最後に涙を流したのは、娘の高校の卒業式の時でしたから、今から30年ほど昔です。それ以来、もうどの学校でもこれらの歌は歌われなくなって、それに変わって、『旅立ちの日に』『はばたけ鳥』『未来へ／Kiroro』『風が吹いている／いきものがかり』などが定番の卒業ソングになりました。年末の紅白歌合戦や高校野球の閉会式などで時折聞くことがありますが、懐かしく思い出されます。