Requiem for a Departed Era: Remembering the Piano Rendition of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

This collection consists of piano scores based on the composer's own piano rendition of the soundtrack for the movie 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.' I will never forget the excitement and emotions I felt when I finally purchased it from a local CD store, along with the CD album 'CODA' containing that piano rendition. It was during the second or third day of the New Year's national holiday. Instead of simply going home and playing the CD, I decided to take a train from the nearest station to a shrine in the suburbs, a place I frequented during my childhood. Although it was a few kilometers from the small wooden terminal station (with just one platform) to the shrine, I walked alone through the cold winter, surrounded by rice paddies. The shrine was bustling with visitors due to the New Year holiday. In fact, it was my first time visiting that shrine alone. After retracing my steps along the same road, I took the train back to the station in my town and returned home. I then opened the CD and played it on my large speakers. I vividly recalled hearing someone play it in the music room at school long ago, and it moved me so deeply that I found myself holding my breath. As Ryuichi's piano performance played on the CD, I turned the pages of the scorebook "Avec Piano" and was captivated by every note on every page. At the time, I knew almost nothing about music theory, but rather, because of it, every note of every score in the book really dazzled me.

By the way, the department store where the CD store was located has long since been demolished. The small terminal station was also demolished because visitors to the shrines mostly used cars instead of trains. Now, nothing remains but an overgrown vacant lot with weeds in that area.