Kugutsuuta, the theme song for Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence, is not talked about as often as Utai is.
Yet, its lyrics are vague and worth analyzing. Let’s check the background of the lyrics.
The original lyrics
1st song
Flowers Grieve and Fall
一日一夜に月は照らずとも
悲傷しみ鵺鳥 鳴く
吾がかへり見すれど
花は散りぬべし
慰むる心は
消ぬるがごとく
新世に 神集ひて
世は明け
鵺鳥 鳴く
咲く花は
神に祈ひ祷む
生ける世に
我が身悲しも
夢は消ぬ
怨恨みて散る
Even though the moon does not shine through day and night
night birds sing in grief
Even if I look back
flowers will fall away
It is as if all solace
had vanished
As gods gather in the new era
day breaks
and the night birds sing
Blossoms
pray to gods
in this mortal world
lamenting over themselves
Dreams shall vanish
They fall away in grief
3rd song
The Ghost Awaits in the World Beyond
陽炎は黄泉に待たむと
陽炎は黄泉に待たむと
咲く花は
神に祈ひ祷む
生ける世に
我が身悲しも
夢は消ぬ
怨恨みて散る
百夜の悲しき常闇に
卵の来生を統神に祈む
Mirage shall wait in the underworld
Mirage shall wait in the underworld
The blossoms
pray to gods
in this mortal world
lamenting over themselves
Dreams shall vanish
They fall away in grief
in the everlasting darkness of grief
praying to gods for the reincarnation in the egg
Background
As I explained in the analysis of Utai lyrics, Kenji Kawai researched ancient text and wrote the lyrics in GitS. He made the lyrics of Kugutsuuta in the same way. Mamoru Oshii entrusted it to Kawai.
In this article, I’d like to check the meanings of the phrases from the same ancient text, especially from Manyoshu, again.
Preparatory research
一日一夜に/ day and night
The “day and night” phrase appears in some poems from Manyoshu:
…うつせみの 人なる我れや 何すとか 一日一夜も離り居て 嘆き恋ふらむ...
…in this earthly life, I don’t know why but I cannot help grieving to be away from her even for a day and night…
…遠くあれば 一日一夜も思はずて あるらむものと 思ほしめすな...
…even though we are distant from each other now, please do not believe that I would spend a day and night without thinking of you…
Both are poems about the sadness of being away from a lover or a wife.
“Day and night” emphasizes that they can’t stand being away from lovers even for a short time.
月は照らずとも/ even though the moon does not shine
This phrase appears in Manyoshu:
我が背子と ふたりし居らば 山高み 里には月は 照らずともよし
As long as I spend time with my man, I don’t mind if the high mountain hides the moon from this village
It’s a poem about friendship. The two guys were going to spend time watching the moon at night, but the mountain hid it. The important thing was to be with each other, not the moon.
The poem’s context doesn’t look so important in this case. I suppose it is a reference to Utai. The moon also symbolizes lovers in other poems, so it means that the sadness of separation doesn’t last so long. It also leads to the next phrase.
悲傷しみ鵺鳥 鳴く/ night birds sing in grief
There are several poems about sadness and night birds, but only once do those two phrases appear in the same poem:
…あやに悲しみ ぬえ鳥の 片恋づま...
…the princess yearns for his late wife so much like a night bird…
Again, the night bird symbolizes separation from lovers. As I mentioned in the analysis of Utai, it looks like Batou’s feelings are the basis of the lyrics’ theme.
吾がかへり見すれど/ even if I look back
“Look back” often appears in Manyoshu:
…露霜の 置きてし来れば この道の 八十隈ごとに 万たび かへり見すれど...
…I left my wife like frost or dew. I looked back at every corner, but…
…延ふ蔦の 別れし来れば 肝向ふ 心を痛み 思ひつつ かへり見すれど...
…I left my wife like crawling ivy. In this pain, I looked back, but…
…敷栲の 妹が手本を 露霜の 置きてし来れば この道の 八十隈ごとに 万たび かへり見すれど...
…I left my wife in bed like frost or dew. I looked back thousands of times at every corner, but…
Those are the same author’s poems about a separation from his wife and child.
In the lyrics, “look back” symbolizes one’s yearning for someone or something.
花は散りぬべし/ flowers will fall away
That phrase appears in one poem from Manyoshu:
妹が見し 楝の花は 散りぬべし 我が泣く涙 いまだ干なくに
The chinaberry flowers my late wife saw will fall away even before my tears dry up
It’s a poem about mourning for the poet’s wife’s death. The flowers symbolize that time flies quickly leaving the poet’s sadness behind. It’s a symbol of ephemerality.
慰むる心は/ solace
“Solace” often appears in Manyoshu:
慰むる 心はなしに 雲隠り 鳴き行く鳥の 音のみし泣かゆ
Nothing solaces me. I just cry like a bird in the cloud
…橋だにも 渡してあらば その上ゆも い行き渡らし 携はり うながけり居て 思ほしき 言も語らひ 慰むる 心はあらむを...
…if there was a bridge over the river, they could cross it, hug, hold hands, and talk with each other, which would solace them, but…
Needless to say, it’s related to various sadness like death or separation.
消ぬるがごとく/ it is as if … had vanished
That phrase appears in two poems from Manyoshu:
…うつせみの 借れる身なれば 露霜の 消ぬるがごとく...
…her transient body has vanished like dew or frost…
…置く露の 消ぬるがごとく…
(my mother’s life is,) as if mist vanishes,…
Again, it means the ephemerality of life.
新世に/ in the new era
It appears in three poems from Manyoshu:
…我が黒髪の ま白髪に なりなむ極み 新世に ともにあらむと 玉の緒の 絶えじい妹と 結びてし ことは果たさず...
…we promised to live together even in the new era when our black hair turns totally white, but that promise was not fulfilled…
…頼めりし 奈良の都を 新世の ことにしあれば 大君の 引きのまにまに 春花の うつろひ変り...
…we had relied on Nara city, but as the emperor moved to another capital in the new era, Nara changed like spring flowers…
… 図負へる くすしき亀も 新代と …
…even a turtle with a good omen appears in the new era…
In two of those poems, “new era” means the new capital cities. The interesting thing is that the new era is compared to a late wife in the first poem. I’m not sure if Kawai was inspired by that poem or not, but it is certain that death and the new era make a good contrast. That’s related to the reincarnation theme from the third song.
神集ひて/ gods gather
It appears in one poem from Manyoshu:
…八百万 千万神の 神集ひ 集ひいまして 神分り 分りし時に 天照らす 日女の命 天をば 知らしめすと...
…when gods gathered and had discussions, Amaterasu started to rule heaven, and…
In this context, the Yaoyorozu gods’ gathering means the determination of territories. In other words, they make the rules of the new era. In the context of the lyrics, it can mean that our old rules and customs vanish, and new ones appear.
世は明け 鵺鳥 鳴く/ day breaks and the night birds sing
I already explained that sentence in the analysis of Utai. The daybreak symbolizes the sun god’s revival from the Ama-no-Iwato myth, but the night birds symbolize a sad separation from a lover. And I wrote that maybe the sad separation part reflects Batou’s feelings for Motoko. That analysis is in line with the preparatory research above. (Or maybe the preparatory research was affected by my own analysis.)
咲く花は/ blossoms
Blossoms often appear in Manyoshu:
咲く花は 過ぐる時あれど 我が恋ふる 心のうちは やむ時もなし
Blossoms may fall after full bloom, but my love won’t stop
咲く花は 移ろふ時あり あしひきの 山菅の根し 長くはありけり
Blooms may be ephemeral, but the lilyturf roots last long
As I explained in the “flowers will fall down” part, blossoms/ flowers symbolize ephemerality. In the context of the lyrics, it probably means the mortal entities abandoned by the new era.
祈ひ祷む/ pray to gods
Such phrases appear in several poems from Manyoshu, but the exact phrase is used only once:
布施置きて 我れは祈ひ祷む あざむかず 直に率行きて 天道知らしめ
I make an offering and pray to the gods. Please lead him directly to heaven, without deception
There are many reasons for praying to gods, but it is a prayer for the repose of the dead in this case. (The repose of the poet’s child.) When compared to the other parts of the lyrics, it looks like mortal entities’ prayer for reincarnation.
生ける世に/ in this mortal world
It appears in two poems from Manyoshu:
生ける世に 我はいまだ見ず 言絶えて かくおもしろく 縫へる袋は
In this world, I have never seen such fancy clothes
生ける世に 恋といふものを 相見ねば 恋のうちにも 我れぞ苦しき
Since I have never encountered romance in this world, my current romance feels like the most painful one
The mortal world and the gods’ world make a contrast in the lyrics.
我が身悲しも/ lamenting over themselves
Both 我が身/ “myself” and 悲しも/ “though I feel sad” appear in Manyoshu, but I didn’t find the exact phrase. It is just my guess, but maybe that phrase was inspired by this poem from Kokin Wakashu:
葦辺より 雲ゐをさして 行く雁の いやとほさかる わか身かなしも
Like looking at a goose flying from reeds into the sky, I feel sad for myself
The emotion of the poem fits Batou’s sentiment and the whole theme of Kugutsuuta.
夢は消ぬ/ dreams shall vanish
There are several poems about dreams or vanishment in Manyoshu, but I didn’t find the exact phrase. This is a bit different from the lyrics’ phrase, but I suppose it might be the inspiration source:
残りたる 雪に交れる 梅の花 早くな散りそ 雪は消ぬとも
The plum blossoms in the remaining snow, please do not fall away even if the snow will vanish
Mortal entities are phrased as flowers in the lyrics, so it is an understandable choice.
怨恨みて散る/ they fall away in grief
I have already checked “fall away” in earlier phrases, so I skip that part.
怨恨み is variously translated. Official CD liner notes say grief, but some other translations say anger or fury. Plus, it has a nuance of “obsession.”
Manyoshu includes several poems about urami, but the exact phrase can’t be seen.
I suppose Kawai was inspired by Kokin Wakashu in this case:
逢ふ事の なきさにしよる 浪なれは 怨みてのみそ 立帰りける
Like waves crashing on a shore, I just come and leave in grief, without meeting anyone
怨みても なきてもいはむ 方そなき かかみに見ゆる 影ならすして
Even though I resent and cry, I have nobody to say it to, other than the man in the mirror
秋風の 吹きうらかへす くすのはの うらみても猶 うらめしきかな
As the autumn wind flips kudzu leaves, I feel more and more regretful about you
I suppose the nuance of “obsession” is more emphasized in this context. Resentment or regret is a negative expression of obsession or attachment. It is also related to a Buddhistic theme.
陽炎は/ mirage
I need to give some explanations for this phrase. 陽炎/ kagiroi (kagerou) usually means heat haze, but considering the context of the lyrics, we can assume that Kawai also meant “mirage.” The official soundtrack CD liner notes say “ghost.” That is an understandable liberal translation. In this analysis, I check the context of “heat haze” from Manyoshu:
今さらに 雪降らめやも かぎろひの 燃ゆる春へと なりにしものを
Will it snow this late, in spring, the season of haze?
Mirage/ kagiroi has a much deeper context, but I’d like to explain it later.
黄泉に待たむと/ shall wait in the other world
黄泉 can be directly translated as the underworld. It feels like Kawai intended a more vague thing in the lyrics, so I wrote “the other world” in this article. The official CD liner notes say “the world beyond.”
That phrase appears only once in Manyoshu, in a very iconic poem:
…ししくしろ 黄泉に待たむと 隠り沼の 下延へ置きて うち嘆き 妹が去ぬれば...
…she said, “I’ll wait for my partner in the underworld,” and passed away, hiding her feelings deep in her heart…
It is a poem about a legend called Unai Otome. Two guys competed over a cute girl called Unai Otome, but she felt sad about it and killed herself. Since one of those guys killed himself for marrying her in the other world, the other guy killed himself too.
Considering the context of the lyrics and the story of Innocence, we can easily understand why Kawai chose it.
百夜の/ everlasting
The direct translation is “one hundred nights”. It appears in some poems from Manyoshu:
…天地の 神言寄せて 敷栲の 衣手交へて 己妻と 頼める今夜 秋の夜の 百夜の長さ ありこせぬかも
…with the help of heavenly and earthly gods, as I sleep with her this autumn night, hoping that she will be my wife, I wish it would last for one hundred nights
今夜の 早く明けなば すべをなみ 秋の百夜を 願ひつるかも
I can’t stand it if this night clears away too soon. I wish it would last for one hundred nights
We notice that it has positive meanings in any poem. I’m not sure, but I guess that the negative use of the one hundred nights is Kawai’s original idea.
悲しき/ in grief
Grief or sadness often appears in Manyoshu:
…思へども 悲しきものは 世間にぞある 世間にぞある
…the sad thing is nothing but this whole world
海原に 霞たなびき 鶴が音の 悲しき宵は 国辺し思ほゆ
At nights when the sea is hazy and cranes sing in sad voices, it reminds me of my homeland
常闇に/ darkness
The direct translation is “eternal darkness.” It appears in two poems from Manyoshu:
…渡会の 斎きの宮ゆ 神風に い吹き惑はし 天雲を 日の目も見せず 常闇に 覆ひ賜ひて...
…the emperor confused the enemy with the shrine’s divine wind and blinded them in eternal darkness with the divine cloud…
逢はむ日を その日と知らず 常闇に いづれの日まで 我れ恋ひ居らむ
I don’t know when I will see you again. I wonder how long I need to yearn for you in the eternal darkness
It is an impactful word, but it doesn’t have a specific context in Manyoshu.
I suppose Kawai chose the word so that it fits the lyrics about the “underground” part.
卵の/ in the egg
The official CD liner notes say “in the shell,” but the direct translation is “egg.” We need to consider the context of the egg first. It appears only in one poem from Manyoshu:
鴬の 卵の中に 霍公鳥 独り生れて 己が父に 似ては鳴かず 己が母に 似ては鳴かず...
A lesser cuckoo was born in a bush warbler’s egg. Its voice is not similar to its father’s or its mother’s…
It’s a poem about the lesser cuckoo’s brood parasite. It is phrased as “born in a bush warbler’s egg.” We can see why Kawai chose that word and why it can be translated as “shell”. In other words, the egg metaphorically shows that our earthly bodies are ephemeral.
来生を/ reincarnation
The direct translation is “afterlife.” It appears in two poems from Manyoshu:
この世にし 楽しくあらば 来む世には 虫に鳥にも 我れはなりなむ
As long as I live happily in this world, I don’t mind if I would become a bug or a bird in the afterlife
この世には 人言繁し 来む世にも 逢はむ我が背子 今ならずとも
This world is full of rumors. My sweetheart, I hope we will meet in the afterlife even if we can’t now
We already saw how some phrases from the lyrics can be linked to the reincarnation theme.
統神に祈む/ praying to gods
We already checked “praying” in the earlier phrase, so I’d like to consider the “gods” in this part.
Kawai used a different word for “gods” in an earlier phrase.
This “sumekami” means the emperors’ ancestral gods or gods worshipped in the imperial court’s official rituals.
The word appears in some poems from Manyoshu:
吾が大君 ものな思ほし 皇神の 継ぎて賜へる 我なけなくに
Please do not worry, your majesty. The ancestral god sent not only you but also me to this land
…そらみつ 大和の国は 皇神の 厳しき国 言霊の 幸はふ国と 語り継ぎ 言ひ継がひけり...
…they say Yamato is a land of the ancestral god’s dignity, the land full of emperors’ word spirits…
It’s difficult to imagine that Kawai gave a message about the Japanese imperial lineage, so I suppose he chose the word just to emphasize divinity and to control the syllable. Since Utai thematized Amaterasu from Ama-no-Iwato myth, we can assume that this sumekami means Amaterasu.
Overall tone
We immediately notice that the lyrics include more sad emotions than Utai did. Utai’s lyrics are basically a story of Ama-no-Iwato. And thus, Utai sounds like a song about “revival.” Like Amatarasu saw her own image in the mirror, reappeared from the cave, and brought light to the world again, the lyrics of Utai told how the sun breaks. On the other hand, the lyrics of Kugutsuuta focus more on separation, decline, death, grief, etc. We can easily understand that Kugutsuuta is a sort of answer to Utai, and the two songs make a good contrast. We need to analyze that aspect.
The continuity
The lyrics begin with the moon and night birds. They are obviously references to Utai. Since the song begins with familiar phrases, the audience notices that it is an answer to the previous song. The third sentence, “As gods gather in the new era,” is important. A similar phrase from Utai told about a god’s descent and made a tone like the divine emperor’s kingdom has begun. On the other hand, Utai tells an event of gods in heaven. We human beings don’t directly experience it. It sets a tone like the new era will begin in a totally new, different world, leaving us behind. If Utai’s lyrics were about a movement from up to down, Kugutsuuta did it conversely. The gods are rhetorically leaving from the earth to heaven. That contrast is in line with the difference between Ghost in the Shell and Innocence. Puppet Master brought light to this world in GitS, but the light leaves for another layer of the world in Innocence.
The theme of “obsession”
The later half of the lyrics tell the grief and obsessions of “flowers.” They are oriented to gods and heaven, but the higher entities abandon them in the earthly world. They grieve, envy, and get obsessed. They feel sad for themselves. We can compare such sentiment with various materials from the film. Maybe that’s Hadaly’s emotion. Or maybe that’s Batou’s feeling. It depends on which side you empathize with. Or maybe they mean the same thing. When we see dolls and feel their’ grief or anger, that’s our own sentiment projected onto the dolls. The film gives the impression like the director believes in the dolls’ agency, but we also notice that dolls are mirrors that reflect human beings. We feel sad since the world and higher entities leave us behind. Dolls show such a pitiful mirror image of ourselves.
The theme of “reincarnation”
At the end of the lyrics, it tells the flowers’ prayer for reincarnation into different shells/ eggs. The first phrase from the lyrics is important for analyzing that part:
“Mirage shall wait in the other world”
I intentionally skipped it in the preparatory research because I believe it’s a key element of the lyrics. In my opinion, this poem from Manyoshu is an important inspiration source for that phrase:
東の 野にかぎろひの 立つ見えて かへり見すれば 月かたぶきぬ
When I see the morning light in the east, I look back and see the moon declining
I explained that “kagiroi” means heat haze, but it means morning light in this poem. The poem looks mundane at first, but its context is pretty deep. The author of the poem is a famous poet/ bureaucrat called Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. Kakinomoto arguably served Prince Kusakabe and made poems about the prince. However, Kusakabe died before becoming the emperor. Manyoshu includes many poems about Kusakabe’s death. The poem from the “gods gather” part is one of them.
A while after Kusakabe’s death, Kusakabe’s young son/ the next prince called Prince Karu went on hunting with Kakinomoto. Kakinomoto made the poem at that time.
Now we can clearly see the meanings of “morning light” and “declining moon.” It’s a poem about blessing the young prince Karu and mourning over the late prince Kusakabe at the same time.
The morning light symbolizes the arrival of new life/ hope after despair/ death. Let’s put that context into the lyrics and check them again:
Morning light shall wait in the underworld
Morning light shall wait in the underworld
The blossoms pray to gods in this mortal world, lamenting over themselves
Dreams shall vanish
They fall away in grief, in the everlasting darkness of grief, praying to gods for reincarnation in the egg
I suppose the meanings of the lyrics are much clearer now. “Morning light” and “the underworld” make a paradoxical pair, but they also symbolize the cycle of reincarnation, like the sun always shines after moon nights. Flowers and the sun/ gods just make a dichotomy in “Flowers Grieve and Fall”, but they make an everlasting cycle of reincarnation in “The Ghost Awaits in the World Beyond”. By closing the reincarnation circle, it feels like even Utai was a preparation for that conclusion.
In Utai, the daybreak/ morning light symbolized Amaterasu’s rebirth from the Ama-no-Iwato myth. The moon symbolized Yata-no-Kagami, the mirror that reflected Amaterasu’s face in the Ama-no-Iwato myth. Two important symbols from the same myth make a different context in Kugutsuuta. It feels like the dolls’ sad prayer to the sun god was accepted in the third song, The Ghost Awaits in the World Beyond.
Conclusion
In Utai, the key elements of the lyrics were Ama-no-Iwato and Okuninushi’s poem from Kojiki.
In Kugutsuuta, the key element is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro’s poem from Manyoshu.
Both of them are related to the sadness of being away from someone.
Kenji Kawai reconstructed and recontextualized the dichotomy of rebirth/ hope and separation/ sadness. He connected those two things together and made them into the cycle of reincarnation. He prepared the sad atmosphere in the first song and revealed the reincarnation structure in the climax/ the third song. It is an amazing lyric-writing skill.
