"Okuribito" (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: おくりびと , "one who sends off") is a song recorded by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai, released September 10, 2008, by

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

and

Universal Sigma Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

. It served as the

image song An image song or character song is a song on a tie-in single or album (often called an image album or character album) for an anime, game, ''dorama'', manga, or commercial product that is sometimes sung by the voice actor or actor of a character ...

for the film of the same name, titled '' Departures'' in English.

Background and release

After watching the ''Departures'' preview and hearing the instrumental of the image song, Ai worked with

Joe Hisaishi , known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. He is also known for his piano scores. Hisaishi's music has been known to explor ...

to add lyrics to the instrumental piece. In July 2008, the song was announced. In August, the release date of the single was announced. "Okuribito" would be released physically alongside " So Special" as a double A-side single.

Live performances

Ai performed the song live for the first time on September 6, 2008, at the '' Music Fair 21'', days before the song was officially released.

Charts

References

2000s ballads 2008 singles 2008 songs Songs written by Ai (singer) Ai (singer) songs Island Records singles Songs written for films {{Japan-single-stub Universal Sigma singles