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About Taro Oguchi.124 viewsThe song was written as a collaboration among boatmates, but Taro Oguchi (小口太郎) (1897-1924) is credited as being the main song writer. He was born in 1897 (Meiji 30) in Minato-mura village, now part of Okaya city on the shores of Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture.
He grew up in a loving and respected family and demonstrated an early talent for writing, music (violin and shakuhachi), and sports (judo, skiing, skating). Since he was the eldest son expected to take over the family home, there was opposition for him to go away for college. However, his father was persuaded to allow Taro to apply for college at the elite No. 3 High School (later to become Kyoto University). It was one of nine college-level schools in Japan, the No. 3 school being one of the most elite.
Contrary to family expectations, Taro passed the entrance exam, went school in Kyoto in 1914 and joined the rowing and speech clubs. In 1917, he wrote the famous song about Lake Biwa which first went public in 1918.
After the rowing trip in June 1917, school started in September and they had the usual student welcoming event where the school clubs would try to recruit new members. The music club gave a performance and boatmate Taniguchi (who suggested the Water Lilies melody for the song) also sang the Lake Biwa Rowing Song. He had such a beautiful voice that the boating club got several new members who were taken by the song. However, they quickly regretted joining the rowing club after being subjected to harsh training and practice.
The song itself was never considered to be a masterpiece by the boating members, even Oguchi himself. It was just a dormitory song written informally. For example, there's the famous error about calling Chomeiji the 10th Temple of the Saigoku Pilgrimage when it is actually the 31st temple. None of the rowing members ever told their family about the song either. Oguchi's parents found out that their son wrote the song only after he had passed away.
Oguchi also wanted to use a different melody for his words, a song called "Nara no Miyako" 寧良の都. It is obvious that this song melody was too long for his lyrics, but since he had musical composition talents, it looked easy to slightly modify the song to fit the lyrics perfectly. Alas, this was not to be as the song gained much love and fame while being based on the Water Lilies melody.
He graduated in 1919 and furthered his studies at Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo) in the science department. In 1921, he invented the wired and wireless multiplex telegraph and telephone system which was patented in eight countries. He was an extremely bright young man with a promising future.
In 1922, he entered the university's aeronautical research institute as a researcher. However, his life soon took a downturn from 1923 when he received a military conscription notice. A love interest for marriage also did not work out as desired. His physical health deteriorated and he died the following year in 1924 at age 26.
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