is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter

Kana Uemura , known professionally as Ka-Na, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, who debuted in 2004. She is best known for her song "Toilet no Kamisama", an acoustic ballad about her grandmother, which became a hit in 2010. Biography Uemura first became int ...

, recounting her thoughts about her late grandmother. It was the leading track from her

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

'' Watashi no Kakera-tachi'', released on March 10, 2010. The song was re-recorded with

Kotaro Oshio is an acoustic guitarist from Japan. Born in Suita, Osaka, on February 1, 1968, he is best known for his work on the steel string guitar. Oshio is a part of Sony Music Japan's SME Records division. Oshio was voted the second greatest Japanese gui ...

, and used as a promotional track from Uemura's self-cover album, '' Kana: My Favorite Things'', later in September 2010. The song was popular enough to boost Uemura's popularity, being downloaded more than 250,000 times to cellphones and 250,000 times to PCs and boosting the sales of ''Watashi no Kakera-tachi'', giving Uemura her first gold-certified album. The song inspired several other media, such as an autobiographical book by Uemura, as well as a special drama to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of

Mainichi Broadcasting System , or MBS, is a radio and television broadcasting company headquartered in Osaka, Japan, affiliated with Japan Radio Network (JRN), National Radio Network (NRN), Japan News Network (JNN) and TBS Network, serving in the Kansai region. It i ...

. The song was awarded two

Japan Record Award is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Until 2005, the show aired on New Year's Eve, but has since aired every December 30 on TBS Japan at 6:30 P.M JST a ...

s in 2010, one in the general song category along with 9 other songs, as well as Uemura being awarded the lyricist award for the song.

Writing

The song is a ballad, beginning with a simple guitar-based arrangement and later expanding to a band and orchestra arrangement. The song's lyrics are an extended narrative that tell the story of Uemura and her grandmother. When she was a 3rd grader (8 years old), she lived at her grandmother's house next door to her parents, playing

gomoku ''Gomoku'', also called ''Five in a Row'', is an abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with Go pieces (black and white stones) on a Go board. It is played using a 15×15 board while in the past a 19×19 board was standard. Be ...

, eating nanban-style duck noodle soup when they went out shopping, watching videotapes of the comedy program '' Yoshimoto Shinkigeki'' and helping her every day. Uemura was not very fond of cleaning toilets, so her grandmother told her that a beautiful goddess lives in the toilet, if she cleaned it every day, this goddess would make her into a beautiful woman. As Uemura grew older, the communication gap between her and her grandmother worsened and the two grew apart. Uemura, feeling resentful, moved away from home with her then boyfriend and rarely came home to visit. Her grandmother later became more ill and was hospitalized two years after Uemura left for Tokyo. Uemura visited her, saying "Grandma, I'm home!" as she used to when she was little, before the two began to fight. Her grandmother could not say much and the next morning died quietly in her sleep. Uemura believes her grandmother was waiting for her, besides being left alone from her all this time. She feels regret for hurting her grandmother and says thank you to her at the end of the song. The song mentions several words in

Kansai dialect The is a group of Japanese dialects in the Kansai region (Kinki region) of Japan. In Japanese, is the common name and it is called in technical terms. The dialects of Kyoto and Osaka are known as , and were particularly referred to as suc ...

, especially in the way the grandmother speaks. She adds to the ends of her sentences, and uses specifically Kansai terms, such as and , instead of standard Japanese and . Uemura thanks her grandmother by saying , as opposed to . While the song is called "Toilet no Kamisama," the word is not used in the song, instead the song talks about a in the toilet. When Uemura met music producer Yohito Teraoka, her self-introduction featured the story of her grandmother. Teraoka suggested they turn this story into a song.

Promotion

The song was first aired at

FM802 (call sign JOFV-FM) is a commercial radio station based at Daiwa Building in Tenjimbashi Nichome, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, broadcasting on 80.2 FM from Mount Iimori to Kansai region. As a latecomer to the radio broadcasting market, it was a fo ...

, on "Hiro T's Morning Jam" on January 7, 2010, and began receiving radio play in the song's full length. The song was released as a free ringtone from February 10, until March 9, when it became a paid ringtone. Uemura performed at the 61st ''

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 ...

'' New Years' singing battle. She performed the full-length version of "Toilet no Kamisama." The performance was one of the longest in Kōhaku's history, after

Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi is a Japanese singer-songwriter, actor, poet, and human-rights advocate, who is a prominent figure in Japanese popular music. He has sold more than 20 million records worldwide and has appeared in movies and television dramas. His wife Etsuk ...

's 15 minute performance in 1990. She also performed the song on Yoshimoto Shinkigeki's new years' special during the curtain call, the television show mentioned in Uemura's song.

Music videos

Two music videos were produced for the song: a live action version directed by

Tatsuaki Tatsuaki (written: , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese judoka *, Japanese Go player *, Japanese woodworker and lacquerware artist See also * TATSUAKI, a fashion label by Dan Liu Dan Li ...

, which was shot on January 23, 2010, and an animated version by Daisuke Hashimoto, set to the version from '' Kana: My Favorite Things'' featuring

. The live action version features Uemura performing the song on guitar on a sunlit river bank, interspersed with scenes of a grandmother and several different actresses portraying the scenes described in the song. The final scenes show the grandmother walking with the adolescent actress along the river bank where Uemura sung the song. The Hashimoto animated version similarly enacts the storyline from the song, featuring drawings of a grandmother and a small girl. The video's artwork is based on the ''Toilet no Kamisama'' picture book, illustrated by Mari Torigoe, and released in September 2010.

Adaptations

The song inspired two books by Uemura, both with the same title. The first is an autobiography released in July 2010 through

Takarajimasha is a Japanese publishing company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is known for publishing subculture-oriented fashion magazines aimed at teens, fashion magazines in general, as well as guide books. History The company was founded on September 22, ...

, telling anecdotes about her grandmother and the process of making the song. The second is a picture book version, published through

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

in September 2010. The version features illustrations by Mari Torigoe. Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc. aired a two-hour drama based on the autobiography ''Toilet no Kamisama'' on January 5, 2011, on 28 stations including itself, TBS and CBC, also on Akita TV on January 8. It was one of the programs for the 60th anniversary of the opening of MBS. The drama starred

Kii Kitano is a Japanese actress, singer and gravure idol. Career Kitano was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, and is a former member of the celebrity girls futsal team ''Miss Magazine''. In 2005, Kitano won a Miss Magazine Award, becoming the youngest (age 1 ...

as Uemura, and

Shima Iwashita is a Japanese actress who has appeared in about 100 films and many TV productions. She is married to film director Masahiro Shinoda, in whose films she has frequently appeared. She won the award for best actress at the 2nd Hochi Film Award for h ...

as her grandmother. The drama's plot is inspired by the events described in Uemura's ''Toilet no Kamisama'' autobiography, such as the death of her grandfather and her path to becoming a singer. Under the influence of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which occurred on March 11, 2011, MBS aired the drama again on March 16, instead of "Ichi-Hachi Final Special", on 26 stations except TBC and TV U Fukushima. The drama received the TV Film Prize in the 17th Shanghai TV Festival International Program Contest in May 2011.

Main cast and staff in drama

(fro
MBS drama ''Toilet no Kamisama'' website
;Main cast :*Kana Uemura:

Mana Ashida is a Japanese actress, '' talent'' and singer. Ashida's first appearance was in Asahi Broadcasting Corporation's ''ABC Short Movie 2'', though she rose to prominence after acting in the television drama ''Mother''. She became the youngest lead s ...

(in her childhood) / Kii Kitano (after growing up) :*Waka Uemura (Kana's grandmother): Shima Iwashita :*Yoko Uemura (Kana's mother):

Yui Natsukawa is a Japanese actress. She co-starred with Hiroshi Abe in the 2006 Japanese drama Kekkon Dekinai Otoko and in Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2008 film '' Still Walking''. Filmography Film * ''Sora ga Konnani Aoi Wake ga Nai'' (1993) - Kaoru Aoki * ''Yoru ...

:*Shunji Uemura (Kana's grandfather):

Nenji Kobayashi is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 23rd Japan Academy Prize for ''Poppoya''. Kobayashi signed with Toei in 1961 and started his acting career with small roles. Filmography Film * '' Soshiki Bōryoku'' (196 ...

:*Daisuke (Kana's boyfriend in her high school days):

Shohei Miura is a Japanese actor and fashion model. He belongs to the talent agency Burning Production. Career In 2007, Miura joined the 20th Junon Superboy Contest, and won the Photogenic Award as well as the Ideal Lover Award. Before he won these awards ...

;Staff :*Dramawriter: Shizuka Oki :*Producers: Yasuo Yagi (TBS), Hajime Takezono (MBS), Hiroaki Kamei (MBS-Planning Corp.) :*Director: Hajime Takezono (MBS) :*Production cooperated by MBS-Planning Corporation :*Copyrighted by Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc.

Track listing

Chart rankings

Sales and certifications

Personnel

*Kana Uemura - acoustic guitar, lyrics, music, vocals *Hiroshi Hiranuma - recording engineer *Haruki Mino - acoustic piano,

celesta The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box ( ...

*Eiji Shimamura - drums *Masatsugu Shinozaki - string section arranger *Shinozaki Strings - string instruments *Kenji Takamizu - bass *Yohito Teraoka - arranger, producer, recording engineer *Hiroshi Yamada - additional lyrics

Release history

References

External links

*
MBS 60th anniversary drama ''Toilet no Kamisama'' website
{{Authority control Songs about old age 2010 singles Japanese folk songs Japanese-language songs Commemoration songs Oricon Weekly number-one singles Billboard Japan Hot 100 number-one singles RIAJ Digital Track Chart number-one singles King Records (Japan) singles 2010 songs