The annual "Utakai Hajime" of the New Year was held at the Imperial Palace on the 18th.

The theme of this year's "Utakai Hajime" was "Window", and nearly 14,000 tanka songs were sent from all over Japan and overseas.



At the Imperial Palace, as in last year, the number of people listening to the song was greatly reduced, and people who sang songs were asked to wear face shields.



The first 10 selected songs were performed in an ancient style in front of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress and the imperial family.



Of these, Tadashi Nishimura (85) from Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture, thought of the beautiful scenery and people's activities that can be seen in early spring in the prefecture, saying, "The Asahi Shimbun begins to plant rice in the Toyama Plain from Mt. Tsurugi Sanno Window." I wrote it.



In addition, Hiroyo Kawasaka, a 55-year-old housewife in Minato-ku, Tokyo, expressed the preciousness of everyday life as she felt less opportunities to meet people freely due to the corona sickness. I wrote.



Then, a song by the imperial family was performed, and Yoshiko, the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Akishino, was happy when she opened the window of the room one day in the fall and the sweet scent of gold was drifting in the wind. He wrote about his feelings, "If you open the window, the wind of Kanagi 犀 will come in and your heart will be filled with the sweet scent."



Mr. Akishinomiya said, "Children run around through the window" when they saw children and students spending time in the school playground and felt a sense of security while the effects of the spread of the infection continued in many schools. I'm sure it will come to my heart. "



The Empress sees the view of the big trees from the "Gosho" of the Imperial Palace, where she started living on behalf of the Emperor and Mrs. Was written.

Finally, His Majesty the Emperor wrote a song, "The world that is difficult to come and go with the world continues, wishing for the day when the window opens."



His Majesty the Emperor wrote about his desire for the end of the spread of the infection, as he did last year, and wished for the arrival of a day when people's traffic with the world, which was greatly depressed, would once again flourish.



The theme for the beginning of next year's poetry is "friend", as long as the word "friend" is written in it, and it can be an idiom such as "friend" or "friendship".



Works will be accepted from the 18th to the 30th of September.

Aiko-sama's first song

Last month, Aiko, the eldest daughter of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress, who celebrated their 20th birthday and became an adult royal family, was sung for the first time at the beginning of the song.



Aiko-sama was singing a song for school assignments when she was in the middle and high school of Gakushuin University, so she wrote the theme "window" and said, "I'm open to the time when I stand in the English school building. It was sung as "The Window to the World."



This song is about Aiko attending a summer school in England during the summer vacation of the second year of Gakushuin Girls' High School.



When I visited a foreign school for the first time and faced a building that made me feel the weight of history, when the world was about to open from here, I was sung by the feeling of excitement for my stay in England. about it.



One of his aides said, "I think I wrote about the most impressive thing in 20 years."



Aiko prioritized her studies at Gakushuin University and refrained from attending the beginning of the poetry on the 18th.