#9 June Prayer ~Umui~

In Okinawa Prefecture, June 23rd is designated as "Memorial Day," and during this month, each school in the prefecture conducts its own peace studies. "Prayer in June - Umui" was born from peace studies.

16 years ago, Urasaki was working at Kuroshima Elementary and Junior High School. The grandmother of one of the staff members was a survivor of the Himeyuri Student Corps, so the school decided to ask her to give a talk about her wartime experiences as part of peace studies. The vice principal was asked by the school principal to compose a song for the talk.

"It was a sudden request, but it didn't take long for the song to be completed," said Urasaki. The lyrics and melody came to him at the same time.

After that, this song was also sung at the school where I was transferred. I wrote a poem about a mother and her young daughter fleeing under attack by the American military at the end of the Battle of Okinawa, and also incorporated a recitation. At the school, I sang with a three-person band (vocals & guitar, keyboard, sanshin, etc.) and taught the children the importance of peace while playing footage of the Battle of Okinawa.

The Urasaki family is a musical family, with his grandfather and father playing the sanshin and flute at festivals on Hatoma Island. His older brother, Yoshihiro, is a holder of the Yaeyama Classical Folk Song designated as an intangible cultural asset by Okinawa Prefecture, and his two older sisters are members of the chorus group Mami-zu (Takako Kawahira and Tetsuko Ikeda). Takashi started playing the guitar in middle school and was the head of the folk song club in college. He started writing songs in his twenties, and won prizes at the NHK FM Young Festival (1982), Yamaha Popcon (1983), and NHK Okinawa's "New Okinawa Songs" (1986), as well as many songs related to school settings, such as school cheer songs, songs for choral competitions, club activities, and graduation songs.