[Inspiration for a Certain Work #2] Kakushiten the Composer

Let me tell you a story from a little while ago.

About 20 years ago, I moved to Tokyo to attend university.
I think I was a delicate young man, far from being described as thick-skinned.

The first thing I felt upon arriving in Tokyo was that the water didn't agree with me.
I never had a strong stomach to begin with, but I was rushing to the bathroom every day to an extent I had never experienced before.
My stomach was so weak at the time that a friend branded me with the stinging label of being "not just the weakest human, but lower than a plant."
Thinking back, I believe that was when I developed irritable bowel syndrome, so it has been with me for 20 years now.

I was born and raised in a regional city, and my dream of city life and my life as a music college student majoring in composition began, but
I was overwhelmed by the new environment, new acquaintances, talented peers, invisible competition, anxiety about the future, and the Tokyo water issue.

Before I knew it, I developed an abnormality in one of my ears and was hospitalized in an emergency.

We had to submit works to earn credits at the end of each term, but fortunately, the composition course at the music college I attended exempted first-year students from submitting works, which saved me.
Even so, everyone usually submitted works anyway, so I have a bitter memory of being the only one who couldn't submit a piece for the new chamber music concert.

After about three weeks of hospitalization, my ear fortunately recovered and I was discharged.
I faced a reality far from the university life in the city I had envisioned, but from then on, I threw myself into composing and studying music, literally day and night.

Work Introduction

Mental Landscape - Fallen Leaves -

I wrote this piece bit by bit on the staff paper I brought into the hospital during that autumn, around this time of year, when I was 18 or 19 and wallowing in grief, and I named it "Fallen Leaves" from the Japanese word for fallen leaves.
(What a sentimental young man. Get a grip.)

At that time, a poster for the first music college student audition held by a certain major record label, which no longer exists, was posted at the university.

Since I couldn't submit a work to the university, I submitted a demo tape of this song I had written at the time (which was an orchestral arrangement including a development section), and it caught the eye of the producer in charge, which led to my entry into the world of commercial music.
It is a song filled with various events and emotions for me.