Yuki Shirase's One-Time-Only Broadcast of the Shore Lullaby Goes Off Without a Hitch — No Recording, No Archive

The special program aired from 11 p.m. on the 20th in Kyokai Radio's late-night slot was, as previously announced, a genuinely one-time broadcast with no plans for a recording or rerun. Singer Yuki Shirase, 31, performed three of the Shore Lullaby's 13 verses in her official cover, developed under twice-weekly, direct instruction from transcriber Ushio Kishiura since August. The program was deliberately structured so that no recording was made at all, and station staff said, "Not making an archive was an unusual call even for our own programming department."

True to Kishiura's previously reported policy, the broadcast proceeded without ever touching on the meaning of the lyrics. "I still haven't been taught what the words mean," Shirase said on air. "All I've been told is that three words — sea, window, and the way home — are the ones scholars believe they can identify." The host never asked for a translation. As previously reported, the lyrics remain officially "undetermined" rather than simply "unknown" — a distinction the reports themselves have kept. Kishiura made a brief appearance at the end of the broadcast, saying only, "It's not that I'm withholding it. I simply don't yet have the words to teach it."

Before the broadcast, Shirase reflected on the August rehearsals: "This was the first time I'd trained under a rule of no recording. Each time, you learn it on the spot and try not to forget it before the next time. I thought of tonight's live broadcast as an extension of that same rehearsal." During the performance, her entry into the melody wavered slightly partway through the second verse, but she continued singing through it. Afterward, she said, "What I take from tonight isn't that it wavered, but that I kept singing through the waver to the end."

Kyokai Radio received an unusually high volume of listener response immediately after the broadcast. Station staff said that by midday on the 21st, most of the messages received said simply, "I'm glad I heard it" — but a steady stream of listeners who'd missed the time slot or were working also asked, "Is there really no archive?" The station could only reaffirm its no-archive policy: "There isn't one, and that's all we can say."

As previously reported, Shirase is set to perform the same official cover live again at the Sept. 23 Kishibe no Uta festival, again limited to three of the 13 verses, with no change to the policy of keeping the original score unpublished until after her death. Alongside the previously reported full unveiling of Kishibe Seven's tail choreography and rakugo performer Kishihachi's new piece "Madogei," the festival will, for Shirase, be "another one-time-only moment, coming right after finishing one."

At the close of the interview, Shirase quoted words from Tane Kishitani, 101, previously reported to have attended the Sept. 7 Arrival Remembrance Day ceremony in the role of "listener." "I heard she said she can't sing it, but she remembers the kitchen going quiet whenever it was heard. If someone's room went a little quiet tonight, that's enough."

When this reporter first heard that the broadcast would leave no recording, the honest reaction was that it seemed wasteful. But spending the 21st talking to listeners who'd missed it changed that view. The very frustration of having missed it has become the strongest invitation to the 23rd. It's the kind of slightly inconvenient, slightly kind device that feels right at home on this city's entertainment page.