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Nirai Kanai (Cocco song)

Cocco song

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 11, 2023
Entity authorityQ11325041 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Nirai Kanai" (ニライカナイ) is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter Cocco, that was released as the lead single for her seventh original album, Emerald on June 9, 2010.

Writing

The song is a mid-tempo rock song, backed with Okinawan festival taiko drums. Nirai Kanai is a reference to the mythical utopia/origin of life in Ryukyuan religion. The song's lyrics reference this place, in the context of an Okinawan festival. The Dragon God of the sea is referenced, and the song also talks about how if good people exist in the world, bad people must also exist (in the lines "If there are praying people, there are also burning people" and "the rain also falls on criminals"). Other than "Nirai Kanai," several Okinawan phrases are in the lyrics: kana (愛; "love"), nuchi dou takara (命どう 宝; "treasure this life"), tiichi taachi (てぃーち たーち; "one, two") and a sentence in Okinawan: ayami wa tunganin nu uin fuyun (雨は罪人の上にも降る; "the rain also falls on criminals").

Cocco wrote the B-side, "Yagi no Sanpo," as a Christmas present to film director Ryūgo Nakamura, after he wrote her a letter expressing how much he enjoyed her music.

Promotion

"Nirai Kanai" was used as the ending theme song for the TV Tokyo music show Japan Countdown. "Yagi no Sanpo" was used as the theme song of then 14-year-old director Ryūgo Nakamura's debut feature-length film Yagi no Bōken.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Nirai Kanai (Cocco song)” as cocco song. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nirai, Kanai and Cocco.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2010-06-09. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Nirai, Kanai and Cocco providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Nirai Kanai (Cocco song)”, the useful work is to connect “cocco song” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 11, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q11325041. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nirai Kanai (Cocco song)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nirai Kanai (Cocco song) primary sources, Nirai Kanai (Cocco song) archive and Nirai research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nirai Kanai (Cocco song)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nirai Kanai (Cocco song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.