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Old 2010.01.25, 05:46 PM   #1
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Thumbs up "Tamatebako" deserves it's own topic

So I made one for it!
To clear up any confusion, here's a summary of the old folk tale involving the "Tamatebako":
Originally Posted by wikipedia.org
The Tamatebako appears in the story "Urashima Taro", where the fisherman was invited to the enchanted palace of Otohime, who is the Mistress of the Sea, after saving a turtle. Urashima Taro went, ate at a big feast, watched the fish dance, and enjoyed the enchanted land for three days. Eventually he began to miss his home land.
So he asked Otohime to send him back home, which she was happy to do. As a parting gift, she gave him the Tamatebako with explicit instructions to never open the box. He went back home, but to his dismay, all that he once knew had changed. He did not recognize the people, the buildings, or anything at all. He came across an old man, and asked him if he had ever heard of Urashima Taro. The man replied that he had heard of him, that he had gone to the sea 300 years ago and never returned.
With time he grew very depressed, and decided to see what was in the box. When he opened to box, a white puff of smoke escaped, and he was transformed into an old, white haired man. The time that had passed while he was at the palace was great, and Otohime had stored his old age away in the Tamatebako, which Urashima Taro released.
As for Sannin Kichisa, here's a brief overview of the play and it's "moral".
Originally Posted by kabuki21.com
"The theme of the play may be described as "honour among thieves," for the three Kichisa, who have sworn blood brotherhood, have one redeeming characteristic - loyalty to each other. Because of this, in spite of the crimes they commit, the playwright allows them to escape the public executioner and die a more honourable death. The three Kichisa are: Oshô Kichisa, a priest; Ojô Kichisa, a young pickpocket who because of his girlish appearance often disguised himself as a woman; and Obô Kichisa, a rônin. The story has a moral: the evil which the same sum of money can cause if wrongfully acquired." (Aubrey and Giovanna Halford in "The Kabuki Handbook")
Now, for my interprettation: I believe the "baby" in Ringo's song is not an actual baby, but a representative of people, surprisingly defenseless, driven by simple urges into being harmed by their own greed.
Take the three men named "Kichisa": One day they're mere thieves, the next they're on the top of a mountain, stabbing themselves. "Blood brotherhood" aside, their greed got the better of them. I believe this is Ringo's interprettation of the story, given her allusion to "Tamatebako". I'm fairly certain the original play was intented to be more of a romanticized crime story, but I think it's worth seeing it for what it really is: a story about people getting in over their heads.
The final scene of Sannin Kichisa is most likely directly referenced in this stanza of the song:
Originally Posted by Nostalgic Lavender
Sleep, my baby
A snowy night is
bound to be long
Sleep now
Sleep now
Rather than romanticizing their lives of crime or criticizing them in an overt way, Ringo merely compares them to children: creatures who are naive of the world, and who are easily susceptible to allurement.
Somewhere on Google Books I found you could read a 10-12 page version of the story, but I'm too lazy to find it again.
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Old 2010.01.26, 12:06 PM   #2
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is the song on cd? i tried finding a studio version and came up with nothing but a youtube vid.
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Old 2010.01.26, 01:12 PM   #3
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As far as I know, it's not going to be released. But the part playing during the show was a studio recording, it sounds like. Maybe she'll stick it on a re-release of something someday!
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Old 2010.01.26, 01:44 PM   #4
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Are you talking about the youtube video that shadynook posted in the forum?

Not as eccentric as it seems... "give me a reason to love you" [portishead]

But i must admit that the second part of the video is pretty more interesting (4 minutes, 50 seconds)
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Old 2010.01.26, 03:45 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by ShadyNook View Post
is the song on cd? i tried finding a studio version and came up with nothing but a youtube vid.
There are no plans to release a soundtrack.
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Old 2010.01.26, 03:47 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by frecklegirl View Post
There are no plans to release a soundtrack.
now that I think of about it it was pretty stupid of Ringo to put Karisome Otome Death Jazz Vers on SG but not this song, which has never had a legit release. Obviously it was recorded but never released...it would have made much more sense to use it on SG than KO does, especially with that on HF dvd and iTunes Store.
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Old 2010.01.26, 06:44 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by kuro_neko View Post
now that I think of about it it was pretty stupid of Ringo to put Karisome Otome Death Jazz Vers on SG but not this song, which has never had a legit release. Obviously it was recorded but never released...it would have made much more sense to use it on SG than KO does, especially with that on HF dvd and iTunes Store.
Well, Ringo didn't put Mayonaka on KSK because it didn't match KSK's "worldview". Lyrically, Karisome Otome matches SG much better than Tamatebako, considering SG's relatively modern imagery and emphasis on relationship issues. I feel like songs on Adult, HF, and SG are pretty interchangeable as far as lyrical content is concerned. I mean, the title of the album is "Sanmon Gossip". I personally believe Tamatebako deserves a whole new album, because it's very trascendant and abstract, like KSK. Maybe this one based more on Mythological imagery? That would be very interesting.
I think Ringo is very old-fashioned in some regards... I think she'd be the type of person to write a song like Tamatebako and say "it can not be listened to under any other circumstance than by watching the show". She did the same thing with songs on the Sakuran soundtrack that weren't a part of HF. This is something I've had something of a problem with. I respect Ringo's decision not to put Tamatebako on SG specifically, but I think it'd be a waste if she didn't release it somehow or another someday.
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Old 2010.01.26, 06:52 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Entry№1 View Post
Well, Ringo didn't put Mayonaka on KSK because it didn't match KSK's "worldview". Lyrically, Karisome Otome matches SG much better than Tamatebako, considering SG's relatively modern imagery and emphasis on relationship issues. I feel like songs on Adult, HF, and SG are pretty interchangeable as far as lyrical content is concerned. I mean, the title of the album is "Sanmon Gossip". I personally believe Tamatebako deserves a whole new album, because it's very trascendant and abstract, like KSK. Maybe this one based more on Mythological imagery? That would be very interesting.
I think Ringo is very old-fashioned in some regards... I think she'd be the type of person to write a song like Tamatebako and say "it can not be listened to under any other circumstance than by watching the show". She did the same thing with songs on the Sakuran soundtrack that weren't a part of HF. This is something I've had something of a problem with. I respect Ringo's decision not to put Tamatebako on SG specifically, but I think it'd be a waste if she didn't release it somehow or another someday.
yeah, I considered that when I was thinking about this. Ultimately, it probably came down to her saying as much and whether she was hired to write it for them (meaning the ownership is out of her hands and she would have to get permission to publish it on her own label/record). It can get extremely tricky, something like this happened with Amano Tsukiko and her song NOISE. She wrote it for Fatal Frame IV, along with another song which was released as her single for her last album, but NOISE was left off the album and she said this was due to the theme of the album and the song not suiting each other, but then she ended up releasing it on a separate indies EP and wrote on her blog that she had to ask TECMO for permission to do so (they wanted the only way to hear the song to be through the game, to drive sales). either way, I agree the sound doesn't fit the total image of SG, but next to Togatta Teguchi and 0Chiten Kara and then Marunouchi being a bonus, I think there is definitely room for it style and space wise. I think it must have come down to licensing and such.
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Old 2010.01.26, 08:42 PM   #9
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Tamatebako. This is proper Ringo songwriting. It's two of the best tunes Ringo has written in her entire career, and coupled with those visuals it's just fantastic! She has sooo much talent, why is she not using it!
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Old 2010.01.27, 08:40 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Entry№1 View Post
She did the same thing with songs on the Sakuran soundtrack that weren't a part of HF.
What songs on the Sakuran soundtrack weren't a part of HF?
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