Note: Hyaku-Tarazu-Sama (The God of One-Hundred-Short)
NoteThis song was released by Susumu Hirasawa on December 12, 2015 to celebrate or express thanks for that the number of his twitter followers reached 80,000. The song is available to download for free from Susumu Hirasawa's official web site. Hyaku-Tarazu-Sama is presumably the name of the god or deity who specialises in or celebrates "having short of something". I had never heard of this god's name so it is likely that Mr. Hirasawa came up with the idea of this god.In Shintoism in Japan, it is believed that there are eight million gods (Yao-yorozu-no kami) in the universe. Yao-yorozu is written as "八百万" in Chinese characters. "八(hachi)" means "eight", "百(hyaku)" means "hundred", and "万(man)" means "ten thousand". And Mr. Hirasawa's twitter followers' number is eighty thousand which is written "八万(hachi-man)”, which is missing the character, "百(hundred)".Mr. Hirasawa created a song about "Missing one hundred" or "having short of one hundred of something", creating the god by the name of it.So here is the song, Hyaku-Tarazu-Sama (The God of One-Hundred-Short).In this song, it is said that having too much or too many of something often brings misfortune, and on the other hand, sometimes having less or short of something brings happiness. Here, the criticism against the contemporary world is sung in a happy Min-yo(Japanese old folk songs) style song, with the sounds of shamisen (Japanese banjo-like instrument) and taiko (Japanese drums). Traditionally since the old times, Japanese Min-yo songs had been sung by the common people to express their honest feelings and thoughts in humorous ways, and those songs often included criticism against society or the government. However, after radio broadcasting and phonograph records became dominant in the folk song market, such political or satirical lyrics of Min-yo songs almost died out. Susumu Hirasawa made a Min-yo song in the true sense in 2015.
PR