Thoughts on Yorushika's "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" (Summer Grass)
These are my thoughts on the album title "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" by Yorushika.
Please be aware that this contains spoilers, as it touches on the contents of the first-press editions of "Elma" and "Tōsaku" (Plagiarism).
The fact that the top part of the character "Natsu" (Summer) in the "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" logo is "Hyaku" (Hundred) might connect to the crape myrtle (hyakujikkō) or the white lily (first night) after waiting for a hundred years.
There are also crape myrtles and white lilies on the cover art for "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru".
Since the character "Natsu" is said to originate from the shape of a person dancing, it feels like it's "transforming into a lily while dancing."
In the "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" logo, the "me" (eye) part of "Natsu" is replaced with "hi" (sun).
Since the lyrics say "Yoru shika mou nemurezu ni" (I can only sleep at night), perhaps the sun of the summer grass disturbs the sleep, or the eye becoming the sun means "waking up."
In "Cattleya," the line "If my perspective changes, that is my wish; I will buy new, clear eyes" might imply that the changing perspective becomes the sun, and the clear eyes are the sun.
In "Nautilus," the lyrics also mention "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru," and since it is a song about "waking up once the night breaks," I thought it fits the interpretation that the summer grass disturbs sleep.
If we interpret "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" as "Summer grass is intruding" (o-jama suru),
I thought it could be linked to Matsuo Basho's haiku, "Natsukusa ya / tsuwamono-domo ga / yume no ato" (Summer grasses / the aftermath of dreams / of warriors).
Meaning that the summer grass has intruded upon (grown over) the aftermath of the warriors' dreams.
In Elma's diary, there is a story about how Yosa Buson admired Matsuo Basho, and the concept of returning to the Basho style (Shōfū kaiki) is mentioned.
Therefore, I think the lyric "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" in "Nautilus" is based on Basho's "Summer grasses..." haiku.
I feel that the place where you spent time with your former self (or perhaps a past life?) is now just covered in summer grass.
If we take Matsuo Basho = matsu basho = "a place to wait," then
it could also mean that the summer grass is disturbing the place where (Amy or Elma) are waiting.
A bus stop is, after all, a place to wait for a bus.
In "Tada Kimi ni Hare" (Just Sunny for You),
"The stone in the summer field in the memory where you rest" = "If I peek behind the bus stop, that summer you are in my head."
In other words, it can be taken that you are resting at the stone in the summer field (= the bus stop).
Perhaps the summer grass at the bus stop (matsu basho = Matsuo Basho) disturbs the memories of the two (the days of the warriors), turning them into the aftermath of a dream.
Based on Yosa Buson's admiration for Basho and the return to the Basho style,
if Summer Grass = Basho's haiku,
then "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" might be saying that being strongly influenced by something and inevitably imitating it is a disturbance.
Amy might have been such an object of admiration for Elma.
The line "The eyes that reflect you are a nuisance" in "Kutsu no Hanabi" (Fireworks of Shoes) might also
mean that I cannot help but see only you, and I am strongly drawn to you.
Perhaps n-buna, who repeatedly creates summer songs,
is also strongly influenced by the scenery of summer (summer grass) and continues to imitate summer.
The haiku quoted in the "Tōsaku" (Plagiarism) novel,
"Uchitokete / ichirinsō no naka ni iru" (At ease / I am inside the anemone),
was written by Sōjin Furudate, who was the person who discontinued the haiku magazine "Natsukusa" (Summer Grass).
The plagiarism man's wife says that while the anemone (ichirinsō) is a flower that blooms in spring, it is also a flower that blooms in summer (from its other name, ichinatsusō).
I think it is "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" because every time he sees the anemone (ichinatsusō), his wife, who called it a summer flower, crosses his mind.
Jama (disturbance) -> jama -> pajama
If so,
Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru -> Pajamas in the summer grass -> Sleeping in the summer grass.
This can be interpreted as such.
I felt that "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" in "Nautilus" depicted a scene where Elma and Amy are sleeping in a summer field.
It is similar to the scene in the "Tōsaku" novel where one is "at ease inside the anemone."
In the lyrics just before "Nautilus," it says, "They say let's go together."
I thought the summer grass invited the two who were about to go to sleep, and disturbed them.
Amy passed away in the summer,
and Elma wakes up to go beyond the summer.
"Summer grasses / the aftermath of dreams / of warriors" can also be taken to mean that the summer grass showed the aftermath of a dream.
Perhaps Elma saw a dream of the sleeping Amy in the summer grass.
If we take the "kusa" (grass) in "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" as the internet slang "kusa" (meaning laughter),
it can also be interpreted as expressing how Nico Nico videos are covered in comments like "kusa" and "www" as "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" (the summer grass is getting in the way).
Amy speaks of Henry Darger, who continued to draw stories all alone without anyone knowing, as the ideal form of a creator.
Perhaps Amy wanted to be in a place unknown to anyone (a place where grass does not grow).
If we take "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" not as a term within the work, but as words directed at real people,
it can be taken as "finding the summer grass (internet grass) to be a nuisance" ≒ "trying to go outside the internet."
I think it could be an explanation regarding moving away from Nico Nico and Vocaloid to be active as Yorushika.
Since it is the name of the first album as Yorushika, I felt it was plausible.
I think the lyric "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" in Nautilus, which is the last song posted to Niconico Douga at this point, feels like a greeting to the platform of Niconico Douga.
It's quite nice.
If you were to modernize the haiku "Summer grasses, all that remains of the warriors' dreams,"
I feel it would become "In an internet where only grass comments remain, I saw the dreams of the mighty of the past."
That is what I think.
Based on this line of thinking,
if we equate a single blade of grass = summer grass = internet grass (lol),
then "I am at ease among the single blades of grass"
could also be interpreted as being at ease and laughing together (growing grass/lol-ing).
If we take summer grass to mean summer weeds,
then perhaps the weeds (summer grass) are getting in the way.
On man-made roads, humans treat weeds as a nuisance, but
to the natural world, artificial objects are the nuisances that disrupt the environment.
The act of pulling weeds (summer grass) because they are in the way
might connect to "Kutsu no Hanabi" (Fireworks of Shoes) and "Yodaka" in the sense of taking a life to survive.
I also felt that "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" is conscious of the concept of Cordyceps (tōchūkasō, literally 'winter worm, summer grass').
Cordyceps is a type of fungus that parasitizes living creatures and is said to be a symbol of reincarnation.
I interpreted the way memories of you cling to my mind as the fungus (summer grass) parasitizing me, hence "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru."
The lines in "Toumin" (Hibernation) - "Waiting for summer, when the deep sleep awakens, becoming water, becoming a flower" -
also feel like Cordyceps.
If we take "natsu" (summer) as "nostalgic"
and "kusa" (grass) as "kusa-re-en" (an inescapable, often burdensome, bond),
then "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" can be thought of as nostalgic bonds and memories getting in the way.
"Jama" (hindrance) originally seems to be a Buddhist term for demons that obstruct Buddhist practice.
If we take summer grass = summer memories,
then perhaps memories are hindering enlightenment and causing reincarnation.
If enlightenment = Nirvana,
then enlightenment means liberation from reincarnation.
(I'm not well-versed in Buddhism, so I might be wrong.)
The line "The eyes that reflect you are a hindrance" in "Kutsu no Hanabi"
can be seen as lingering attachment to you preventing flight to the sky (Nirvana), causing a fall (reincarnation).
It seems like one cannot become a star like the Nighthawk, and instead reincarnates.
The lyrics of Nautilus contain "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru," and
Amy says in the Gekko DVD, "Even if I'm reborn, I have to go see you."
I think the summer memories with Elma (summer grass) hindered Amy's attainment of Buddhahood.
If we take "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" to mean "weeds appearing in a photograph" = "not a perfect work, containing human noise,"
then as long as we are human, we cannot create perfect works, so we continue to create without ever being satisfied,
and just as the hindrance prevents Nirvana and causes reincarnation, perhaps we continue to create.
Since there are many Yorushika lyrics that equate life to a work (music),
I feel it can also be interpreted as reincarnation = creating a new, next work.
If we take "Jama" (hindrance) = "magic",
it connects to "That must be magic" in "Replicant."
I thought the memory that the summer grass hindered was a magic like a terribly blue sky, something that remains at the very end when one has grown cold and old, something that is not a replica.
Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru -> wearing summer grass -> wearing grass (sou-mato) -> lantern slide/revolving lantern (sou-mato) - this can also be interpreted this way.
The top part of the kanji for "blue" (ao) seems to be a pictograph of plants.
The bottom part resembles "moon," and I wonder if "blue" is what happens when summer grass gets in the way of the moon.
When grass gets in the way of "moon and sun" (time), it becomes "clear" (hare).
Since the original shape of the top part of "blue" is "life" (sei, a pictograph of a plant sprouting),
I think "clear" can also be thought of as "living through the moon and sun."
I wonder if "Tada Kimi ni Hare" (Just a Sunny Day for You) meant that I just wanted you to live through the moon and sun.
I felt the English title "Cloudless" could be interpreted as not "Clouds and Ghosts," but wanting you not to be clouded by worrying about ghosts.
In the song "Amy," the line "Imagination is tracing you; you are always in that summer"
might connect to "Natsukusa ga Jama wo Suru" through imagination = lush green grass (sou-sou-ryoku).
And "The Old Man and the Sea"'s "beyond the gravity of imagination" might be about escaping from the hindering summer grass.
That is all.
Thank you for reading.