Nada Sōsō

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 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 phrase meaning "large tears are falling" (to compare, the Japanese phrase would be namida ga poroporo kobore ochiru (涙がぽろぽろこぼれ落ちる)). 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.

Satōkibi-batake/Nada Sōsō

All songs arranged by Koji Igarashi.

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 Okinawan concept album Begin no Shima Uta (Omato-take O) and a regular studio album, Begin. Two versions backed with sanshin 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's PlayStation 2 game Inaka Kurashi: Minami no Shima no Monogatari (いなか暮らし～南の島の物語, Rural Life: A Story of the South Island) in 2002.

The single features two B-sides: "Kariyushi no Yoru" (かりゆしの夜, Harmony with Nature Night) and "Hana (Live Version)" (花, Flowers). "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's song "Hana (Subete no Hito no Kokoro ni Hana o)" (花～すべての人の心に花を～, Flowers (Put Flowers in Everyone's Hearts))

Rimi Natsukawa version

A year after Begin's version, the song was covered by Okinawan singer Rimi Natsukawa 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 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 "Nada Sōsō Kono Ai ni Ikite" (涙そうそう この愛に生きて, Living in This Love), and a film "Nada Sōsō" 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, "Anata no Kaze" (あなたの風, Your Wind), was also written by Begin. The second, "Hana ni Naru (Acoustic Version)" (花になる（アコースティック・ヴァージョン）, Become a Flower), 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, as well as a platinum cellphone download.

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, 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 Nada Sōsō film.

Other cover versions

The song has become a standard for Okinawan folk music, Enka, choir and instrumental musicians. The song has been recorded in cello, erhu, harmonica, harp, guitar, koto, music box, piano and violin versions, amongst others. It has also been covered by overseas artists, such as Hawaiian Kealiʻi Reichel (as "Ka Nohona Pili Kai" in Hawaiian) and New Zealander Hayley Westenra, who sung a classical crossover rendition in English, and Memory (as Nunmulee Naeyo (눈물이 나요) in Korean). Two versions in Chinese exist: one by Taiwanese Huang Pin-Yuan (as "Bai Lu Si (Chinese: 白鷺鷥; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pe̍h-lêng-si White Heron)") in Taiwanese), and one by Joi Chua (as "Pei Wo Kan Ri Chu (陪我看日出 Watching the Sunrise with Me)". In Cambodia, this song covered in Khmer by Sokun Nisa 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 Kizuna Festival in 2014.