When I opened my umbrella, 66 stories came raining down. | From the #MinnaNoKotobaCho2 entries

When you open an umbrella,
what kind of story begins?

The sound of rain.
Someone's presence.
A small sigh on the way home.
Or perhaps, the memory of someone you can no longer meet.

“What would happen if we all wrote about the same prompt?”

A project started from that small curiosity,
“Minna no Kotoba-cho”

The prompt for the second round was,
“When I opened my umbrella”
.

Thankfully, many people participated this time as well.
Excluding my own article, the collected works numbered66 variations.

Every time I opened the tag page, there were so many different umbrellas lined up there.

A gentle umbrella.
A bittersweet umbrella.
A slightly unsettling umbrella.
An umbrella that makes you laugh.
An umbrella that reminds you of someone.

Even though they all started with the same sentence,
the scenery each one saw was not the same at all.

I would be very happy if you could read everyone's work 💖

This time, I would like to introduce a few of the works that left an impression on my heart.

※This is not to say which one is the best.
Every article was truly wonderful.
In this article, I am simply introducing a few works that I felt, “I love how this one unfolds.”

Kairoudouketsu-san

The first one that left an impression was a piece by Kairoudouketsu-san.

When I opened my umbrella, what was there was—a gecko.

I was hooked right at that moment.

On a rainy night, you could go home if you wanted to.
But faced with a small creature clinging to the umbrella, the reason to hurry fades just a little bit.

Is it the gecko taking shelter from the rain, or is it the narrator?
It was a quiet, warm piece that leaves such an aftertaste.

The work is here 👇

Hana*Hana8787

As the title suggests, Hana*Hana8787's "Connecting." was a piece where time and memories gently connect.

A white parasol gifted on Mother's Day.
It returns to me as a keepsake after she passes.

What tumbled out when I opened that parasol.
And what was left behind inside the umbrella.

Even though it is a very short story, three generations of time flowed through it.

I realized that an umbrella is not just something to shield you from the rain or sun;
it can also be the very memory of having protected someone.

Read the piece here👇

Choros

I couldn't get enough of the gap between the first and second half of Choros's piece.

When I was little, my mother always walked with the parasol tilted toward me.
That shadow wasn't just a sunshade; it was the kindness of matching someone else's pace.

And now that I have become a mother, I walk matching my daughter's pace in turn.

Up to this point, it is a flow that already makes me want to cry.
From mother to daughter, and then to the next daughter.
I was reading it thinking it was a beautiful short story about kindness being passed down.

But then, at the end, the strength of daily life suddenly peeks through.

I felt a lightness characteristic of Choros in the way it didn't just end with pretty words.

Read the piece here👇

Oshiro

Oshiro's piece was impressive for the beauty with which it captured a single moment on a rainy day.

Under the eaves of a convenience store.
A sudden downpour.
Two people on their way home from school who gave up on running to the station.

If she opens her umbrella, this moment will come to an end.

Rain is usually a nuisance, but
sometimes it becomes a reason to be with someone, doesn't it?

It's faint, quiet, yet it leaves a definite mark deep in your heart.
It was a piece that felt like getting a glimpse of a scene from youth for just a few seconds.

Click here for the work👇

Kuroirusuke-san

And, Kuroirusuke-san's work.

I loved it just from the title.
"An umbrella won't protect you."

Umbrellas are supposed to protect us from the rain.
Even though we think that, in reality, sometimes you get wet because of the umbrella.

It's just so true to life.

I thought the beauty of this project lies exactly in moments like this.

When asked to write about "opening an umbrella,"
some people head toward magic, love, or memories,
while others depict the frantic few steps taken to get into a car.

But both of those are stories, aren't they?

Click here for the work👇

Call for prompts for the 3rd round and beyond

And, we are continuing to accept
prompts for the 3rd round and beyond of #MinnaNoKotobaCho.

"I'd like to read a story that starts with this sentence"
"I'd like to see how everyone would write about these few seconds"
"This motif seems interesting"

If you have any such ideas, please feel free to share them in the comments section of the article below.

Click here to submit a prompt👇

Even just a single sentence,
or even just a fleeting image is more than welcome.

The words we receive from you
might become the gateway to the next little story.

From a single scene,
many words are born.

I would be happy if we could continue to enjoy that fascination together.

Sincerely, Yuki