2 Songs by Late Composer Koseki Revived Decades after Musical Sheet Loss

Iwaki, Fukushima Pref., Oct. 31 (Jiji Press)–Two songs made by the late Yuji Koseki, a composer from the northeastern Japan city of Fukushima, for a company called Joban Tanko, now Joban Kosan Co. , have been revived by musician Hiro Tsunoda decades after the original musical sheets for them were lost in a fire.

The musical sheets for the songs have been replicated by Tsunoda, 71, and the music for the songs was recorded recently. The songs will be unveiled at a two-day small business support event in Tokyo’s Haneda district from Thursday. Tsunoda will sing the songs at the end of the event, to be sponsored by shinkin banks from around the country.

Joban Kosan, based in the city of Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture and listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is known as the operator of Spa Resort Hawaiians in the city. Tsunoda was born in the prefecture.

The two songs are “Warera no Chikara” (Our Force), the corporate song of Joban Tanko, a coal mining company, and “Wakaki Inochi” (Young Life), the fight song for the company’s baseball club, which played in the intercity baseball tournament. Joban Tanko was established in 1944 and absorbed by Joban Kosan in 1985. The baseball team advanced to the quarterfinals in the intercity tournament in 1966.

The original musical sheets for the songs had been kept at Joban Tanko’s office in Iwaki. They were lost in a fire in the mid-1960s, but the songs have continued to be sung at gatherings among former employees, even after the disbandment of the baseball club in 1971 and the firm’s complete withdrawal from the coal mining business in 1985. But the former employees are growing old.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]