is a song written by Japanese band Begin and singer

Ryoko Moriyama (born January 18, 1948) is a Japanese folk singer and actress. Her father is Hisashi Moriyama, a pioneer of Japanese jazz. Her son Naotarō Moriyama is a singer. Her first cousin Hiroshi Kamayatsu is also a musician. She is known as the ''Jap ...

. It was first released by Moriyama in 1998, but achieved popularity through the cover version by

Rimi Natsukawa is a Japanese singer. She is best known for her 2001 single "Nada Sōsō." Childhood Natsukawa was born in Ishigaki, the largest city in the Yaeyama Islands chain. From a young age she enjoyed singing, and wanted to be a singer after hearin ...

in 2001.

Ryoko Moriyama version

The song first appears in Ryoko Moriyama's discography in 1998, as a track on her album '' Time Is Lonely'', an album which did not even break the top 100

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

albums chart. Moriyama re-released the song as the second A-side of the single "Satōkibi-batake/Nada Sōsō" in 2001, after Rimi Natsukawa's version had become popular. In 2003, a single featuring a special live version featuring Moriyama, Begin and Natsukawa was released.

Background, writing

Moriyama and Begin met after performing at live events together in the late 1990s. Moriyama asked Begin to write her an Okinawan-style song. The song's title on the demo tape she received was "Nada Sōsō," an

Okinawan language The Okinawan language (, , , ) or Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the Okinawa Island, island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama Islands, Ker ...

phrase meaning "large tears are falling" (to compare, the Japanese phrase would be ). When Moriyama found out the meaning of the phrase, it reminded her of the death of her older brother. She kept the title, and based the lyrics she wrote around these feelings. The lyrics speak of looking through an old photo-book at pictures of somebody who has died. The protagonist of the song is thankful to them for always encouraging them, and for being happy no matter what. They believe they will meet them again one day, and cries as they send thoughts of sadness and love to that person.

Track listing

Satōkibi-batake/Nada Sōsō

All songs arranged by

Koji Igarashi is a Japanese video game producer, programmer, writer, and creative director. Often credited as IGA, he began his career by joining Konami in 1990 as a programmer. Over the next ten years, he moved into a senior role within the company, workin ...

Special live version

Chart rankings

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Begin version

Begin released a self-cover of the song as the band's 18th single on March 23, 2000. It appears on two 2000 albums by Begin: their

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

n concept album '' Begin no Shima Uta (Omato-take O)'' and a regular studio album, '' Begin''. Two versions backed with

sanshin The is an Okinawan and Amami Islands musical instrument and precursor of the mainland Japanese (). Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings. Origins Its close resemblance in both appearance a ...

appear on ''Begin no Shima Uta (Omato-take O)'' (one in Japanese, one in Okinawan), while the regular studio version appears on ''Begin'' (and is backed with acoustic guitar and strings). Begin's version of the song was used as the theme song of

Marvelous Entertainment (MMV) was a multinational corporation that produced animation, music, video games and television series. MMV is known for its involvement in the ''Story of Seasons'' series. They merged with AQ Interactive in 2011 and became Marvelous AQL; the ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

game in 2002. The single features two B-sides: and . "Kariyushi no Yoru" also appears on " Begin no Shima Uta (Omato-take O)," and "Hana" is a cover of Okinawan folk rock artist

Shoukichi Kina , is a Japanese rock musician and politician. He, along with his band Champloose, played a large role in the Okinawan home-grown "folk rock" scene in the 1970s and 1980s. His first big hit was " Haisai Ojisan" ("Hey, old man") in 1972, which he wr ...

's song

Track listing

Chart rankings

Rimi Natsukawa version

A year after Begin's version, the song was covered by Okinawan singer

as her third single. Her version caused the song to become extremely popular, and is the only version to break the top 10. The song was used in commercials for

Japan Post Holdings is a Japanese publicly traded Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is mainly engaged in postal and logistics business, financial window business, banking business and life insuran ...

from 2007 onwards. Natsukawa first heard the song from the broadcast of the 26th G8 summit held in Okinawa, where Begin had sung the song, and found she could not get the melody out of her head. She requested she cover the song backstage at a Begin concert, to which the band composed the song "Anata no Kaze" for her. She still preferred Nada Sōsō, however, and released both songs her third single. Due to the song's popularity, it became the focus of the "Nada Sōsō Project" by Japanese television company TBS. The project consists of two dramas released in 2005, " Hiroshima Showa 20 nen 8 Gatsu Muika" and , and a film "

Nada Sōsō is a song written by Japanese band Begin and singer Ryoko Moriyama. It was first released by Moriyama in 1998, but achieved popularity through the cover version by Rimi Natsukawa in 2001. Ryoko Moriyama version The song first appears in Ryo ...

" in 2006. Natsukawa's version was used for "Hiroshima Showa 20 nen 8 Gatsu Muika" and "Nada Sōsō," while Moriyama's was used for "Nada Sōsō Kono Ai ni Ikite". Two B-sides feature on the single. The first, , was also written by Begin. The second, , is an acoustic version of her previous single. A special version of the single, limited to 30,000 copies, was released in 2004, collecting the four main versions of the song (standard, Okinawan language version, special Moriyama/Begin/Natsukawa live version, instrumental track). The Rimi Natsukawa version of the song has been certified as a triple platinum ringtone by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

, as well as a platinum cellphone download.

Track listing

Standard edition (2001)

Special edition (2004)

Chart Rankings

The single is one of the slowest and steadiest selling singles in Japanese history. It began charting in late May 2002, and charted constantly until November 2007. it broke the top 50 in June 2002, and the top 20 in July. From there, it charted between #20-#50 until January 2003. After a performance at the 53rd

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

, the song reached #8. It stayed within the top 40 until June. The single charted steadily until next year's Kōhaku Uta Gassen, where Natsukawa, Begin and Ryoko Moriyama performed the song together. The single reached #8 again, and stayed within the top 40 until March. The single still continued to chart slowly, between #50 and #200 before breaking the top 50 once again in 2006, after the release of the

film.

Other cover versions

The song has become a

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

for Okinawan folk music,

Enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

and instrumental musicians. The song has been recorded in

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-s ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'') ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

versions, amongst others. It has also been covered by Yonashiro Sho 【The Leader of the Japanese boys group (JO1)】‹Pre-Debut cover› and also overseas artists, such as

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(as "Ka Nohona Pili Kai" in Hawaiian) and

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, who sung a

classical crossover Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers who appeal to different types of audience. This can be seen, for example, (especially in the United States) when a song appears on two or more of the record charts which track differ ...

rendition in English, and Korean singer

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

(Maeng Yu Na 맹유나), (as Nunmulee Naeyo (눈물이 나요) in Korean). Two versions in Chinese exist: one by

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese Huang Pin-Yuan (as "Bai Lu Si ( ''White Heron'')" in

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

), and one by

Joi Chua Joi Chua (, born 3 August 1978) is a Singaporean female pop singer. Her most famous songs are "Waiting for a Sunny Day" (《等一个晴天》), "Watching the Sunrise With Me" (《陪我看日出》), the Chinese version of " Nada Soso" and "Wi ...

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). In Cambodia, this song covered in Khmer by

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and it's called "ចិត្តស្មោះក្នុងខ្លួនមនុស្សក្បត់" (a kindness inside my betrayed lover) in 2007 and 2008. It also performed by Saori Kawabata, Narumi Ii, Kenta Tanahara, Taiki Tokuda and Cambodian musicians whose jointed perform this song at night as its original Japanese song during CJCC (Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center) Kizuna Festival in 2014. *

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(2009, album "My Life" DVD) *

Tsutomu Aragaki is a Japanese tenor. He was born in Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture. He was blinded shortly after birth when a midwife put overly-strong drops in his eyes. When he was a year old, his parents divorced and his Mexican-American father went back to the ...

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Marié Digby Marié Christina Digby ( ; born April 16, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist known for her acoustic cover version of Rihanna's "Umbrella", which was posted on YouTube in 2007 (and has since been viewed over 22 million ...

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") *

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(2005, album "Loco Princess") * Naoki Gushiken ( B-SHOP) (2003, Begin tribute album "Let's Begin!: Omoto-take O Songs") * Huang Pin-Yuan (2002, album "Jian Dian Qing Ge") * Infinix (2005, album "Relaxation Asia III: Chikyū no Nami") *

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(2008, EP "She Dreamed that She Was Flying Like a Bird") * Kanako Minami (2006, album "Kanako no Hajimete no Album") *

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(2006) * Naori Uchida (2005, album "Stylish: Love & Favourite Songs") *

(2007, album " Hayley sings Japanese Songs") * Yanawaraba (2008, album "Nagi Uta") * Kazuha Yasuda (2003, compilation album "Yūsen Enka Best 16") * Yilana (2005, album "Birei-teki Ōsōgen") * Tōru Yohana (2003, compilation album "Ryūkyū Shika") *

(2008, Khmer Version in album "RHM CD VOL 342") * Dr. Metal Factory (2009, album "Cover Metal Now") * Arina Mocca and Hiroaki Kato (2017, Indonesian Version) * Solar (2018, Korean version in album "Solar Sensitivity pt.6") *

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nada Soso 2000 singles 2001 singles 2003 singles 2004 singles Japanese film songs Japanese television drama theme songs Japanese-language songs 2000 songs