Yuki Shirase to Perform an Authorized Cover of the Shore Lullaby as 'Kishibe no Uta' Festival Set for the 23rd

Record label Shiosai Records held a press conference at its Kyobashi headquarters on the afternoon of the 8th to announce that this year's Kishibe no Uta festival, celebrating drift-community music culture, will take place at Kishihama Park on September 23 — its seventh year running. Singer Yuki Shirase, 31, and Ushio Kishiura, 74, the transcriber of the Shore Lullaby, appeared together at the announcement, where it was revealed that Shirase will give an authorized cover performance of the song. About 40 reporters attended, a larger turnout than in past years.

The festival's previous six editions were held in a mid-sized hall at the Bay Civic Center; this year marks its first move to the outdoor Kishihama Park. "Choosing the same site as the remembrance ceremony was deliberate," a Shiosai Records representative said. "We wondered whether a place for mourning and a place for celebrating could be the same place." The label expects roughly 5,000 attendees, about three times last year's turnout.

Shirase has long been known for covering the Shore Lullaby, but her past performances relied on fragmentary recorded excerpts arranged informally. This time she received direct, note-by-note instruction from Kishiura herself and will perform the first three of the song's thirteen verses under formal authorization. As previously reported, the meaning of the lyrics remains officially "undeciphered," and no translation is distributed — a policy Shirase says she intends to honor. "What Ms. Kishiura taught me was only the string of sounds," she said. "It would be wrong for me to guess at a meaning and sing that instead." Kishiura offered a brief comment of her own: "One more person who can sing it. That's enough." The original score remains kept at her home altar, and her policy that it be made public only after her death is unchanged.

Shirase said the lessons began in August, with twice-weekly visits to Kishiura's home. "For the first month, recording wasn't even allowed. You learn it on the spot and have to keep from forgetting it on the spot. For someone used to singing off a lyric card, it was a genuinely hard kind of practice." Kishiura explained her ban on recording simply: "A song isn't a document. It's something passed from voice to voice." The festival performance is planned with minimal accompaniment, closer to Kishiura herself playing piano behind Shirase's voice than a full arrangement.

The lineup also includes idol group Kishibe Seven, the band Yorusagi from the city's northern district, and 68-year-old rakugo performer Kishihachi Ryutei, who will open the festival with a short piece of "shore rakugo." "My job is to get people laughing and loosen their shoulders before the singing starts," he said. Noa Kishiyanagi, 20, the center of Kishibe Seven, told reporters, "Just standing next to these performers makes me nervous." She also touched on the previous day's news that actress Hikari Shinomiya and actor Ren Kujo are to marry, saying the group had posted messages of congratulations on social media. Yorusagi, previously reported as hailing from the city's northern district, said their name recognition at home has grown further since the drift species that inspired their name was formally designated, as previously reported. "Getting designated made our name into a slightly more serious topic than we'd like," one member said. "It's nice to be booked today for actual music, for once."

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the 13th. The festival will use the same park as Monday's ceremony, though with a different stage layout built as an outdoor venue for the occasion. A Shiosai Records representative said, "It's been just over two weeks since Arrival Remembrance Day. While the city still carries that feeling, we wanted to give people another chance to gather, this time somewhere lighter." Contingency plans for bad weather are expected to be announced in the coming days.