New Album "Lumina" released on bandcamp

1st July 2026 "Lumina" released on bandcamp.

<Lumina - Artist’s liner notes>

My mother passed away this summer.

She was 94 years old. She lived for almost a century. She was born and raised in a small mountain village with a beautiful river running through its center.It was there that she met, fell in love with, and married my father. My father, born and raised in the hamlet next to my mother's, was a handsome, sharp-looking man.

Hand in hand, they moved from their small village to a city beside the Nagara River.

The Nagara River was downstream of the river that ran through their village, and by following the river upstream, they could return to their beloved mountain hometown.

The river was a constant presence in their lives.

They had two children, a girl and then a boy.

My father found work in the city, and life was going well. After a while, they bought a house.

It was a fine two-story home. All the timber for the building was from trees cut in their village and transported by truck. However, just two years after the construction was complete, my father fell seriously ill.

He was admitted to the university hospital and passed away a few months later. He was only 36 years old, so very young to leave the world behind.

My father's funeral was held in the newly built house, and his grave was erected near the riverside in the village where he was born and grew up.

There by that beautiful river, my father sank into eternal sleep.

My mother lived for roughly 60 years after that. She had been left to raise the girl and the boy on her own. Eventually, they would each in turn leave her side and move away from the town. But until then, they lived with her there by the Nagara River.

It was the boy, now a grown man, who dragged his mother away from the river and brought her to a town she had never known before, the town where he lived. He felt that his mother, having recently suffered a serious fracture, could no longer live on her own, so he half-forced her to move into a nursing home near him. She spent the next few years there, breathing her last, quiet and feeble breath at dawn this summer.

It had only been a few years that his mother had been away from the river; she had spent nearly her entire life close to its banks.

The boy and his mother had a very strong bond.

To the boy, the river was like his very self, just as it was for his mother.

In his dreams and his daydreams, the boy often encountered river spirits.

The spirit of the river that flowed through his parents’ village was like a large killer whale. The boy would dive into the river with the whale spirit and float away, splashed by the water and caught in the whale’s embrace.

The man who had once been that boy was always aware of the loneliness and helplessness his mother felt living far away from the river, and dreamed that one day he would be able to take her back to her hometown.

But he knew very well that his wish would never come true, and that even if he was able to return with her, it would be only after she had died.

A few days before my mother’s passing, I spoke to her in the voice of the boy that I had been. "Let's go back to the river together."

She nodded slightly.

"Let's go bathe in the river that runs through the village."

She nodded again. It was the last time my mother responded to my words. A few days later, she was released from her body, her soul soaring high into the summer sky.

The boy I had been both hoped and believed that my father’s soul met my mother's soul in his embrace.

That my mother's soul was finally reunited with my father's after some 60 years apart, and that they returned together to their hometown. Hand in hand, just as they had been when, young, they first left their village and moved to the city.

They left so full of hope, and now, so many years later, they were finally returning to their beloved home.

Hand in hand.

As the boy I once was, I pray and make a wish.A wish that the river that flows through the village will embrace their two souls. That they may dive into the purifying water and swim, flow along with the river, and soar into the sky, playing like innocent children as they glide above the mountains of their hometown. That from this day forward they will never be apart, gently holding hands until one day their two souls become one.

Thank you, Mom, for all those years. It must have been hard for you being alone for so long.

You can finally be with Dad. You can return with him to the riverside.

Thank you, Mom.

I'll see you again.

Kazuya

この夏、母が他界した。 94歳の最期だった。およそ1世紀にわたる生涯だった。母は山中の小さな山村で生まれ育った。とても美しい川が村の中心を流れる村だった。 母はそこで父と出会い、恋に落ち、結婚した。母の集落の隣の集落で生まれ育った父は精悍な顔をしたハンサムな男だった。 二人は手に手をとってその小さな村から街へ移住した。長良川という川のほとりだっ た。 長良川は村を流れる川の下流にあたり、その川を上流へ辿っていけば、二人は愛しい 故郷の山へと還ることができた。

二人の人生には、いつも川があったのだ。 二人はそこで二人の子供をもうけた。上が女の子で、下が男の子だった。 父は街で仕事を見つけ、人生は順調で、しばらく経って二人は家を建てた。 二階建ての立派な家だった。建材の木材はすべて彼らの村から切り出し、トラックで 運んできた。しかし、家を建ててからわずか二年で父は重い病に倒れた。 大学病院に入院し、数ヶ月後に還らぬ人となった。

36歳の生涯だった。 とても若い死だった。 父の葬儀はまだ建てたばかりの家で執り行われた。そして、墓は生まれ育った故郷の川のほとりに作られた。

美しい川のほとりで、父は永遠の眠りについた。 それからおよそ60年余りを母は生きてきた。母には女の子と男の子が残され、その二人を育て上げた。やがて二人はそれぞれ母の元から巣立ち、街を離れた。それまでの間、母は二人を長良川のほとりで育てたのだ。

その母を川のほとりから引き離し、彼女がまったく知らない町に連れてきたのはすっ かり大人になった男の子だった。そこは彼が暮らす町だった。大きな骨折事故をし て、もう一人暮らしはできないと思い、半ば無理やり母にその町の施設に入居してもらった。それから数年を母はそこで過ごし、か弱く静かな最期の息をこの夏の明け方に吐いた。

母が川のほとりから離れたのは、このわずか数年だけのことだった。

母は彼女のほとんどの生涯を川とともに過ごしたのだ。

母と男の子はとても強い絆で結ばれていた。 男の子にとって、川は自分自身のようだった。ちょうど母にとってもそうであったように。

男の子は夢想や夢の中で、よく川の精霊たちに出会った。 村を流れる川の精霊は大きなシャチのようだった。男の子はそのシャチと一緒に川に 潜り、川に流れ、水にまかれ、抱きとめられた。 かつて男の子だった男は、母が川から離れて暮らすことの寂しさや寄るべなさをずっと想っていた。いつか村を流れる川へ連れて帰りたいとずっと思っていた。 だが、それが叶わないこともよくわかっていた。もし帰ることができるとすれば、そ れは母が最期を迎えた後になることもわかっていた。

母が亡くなる数日前、かつて男の子だった僕は母に呼びかけた。 「一緒に川に帰ろう」

母は小さく頷いた。

「村を流れる川で水浴びしよう」 母はもう一度頷いた。母が彼の言葉に反応したのは、これが最後だった。その数日 後、母は肉体から解放され、その魂は夏の空に舞い上がった。 かつて男の子だった僕は、母のその魂を父が抱きとめてくれたことを願い、そして信じている。 母の魂は父の魂と60年の歳月を隔ててようやく再会したのだと。そうして二人の魂は手に手をとって生まれ故郷の戻ったのだと。かつて二人がまだ若かった頃、手に手をとってその生まれ故郷を出て、街へ移住した時と同じように。 希望に満ちて故郷を後にし、そして長い歳月を経て、二人はようやく愛しい生まれ故 郷に帰ってきたのだ。手に手をとって。

かつて男の子だった僕は祈り、願う。 どうか村を流れる川が二人の魂を抱きとめてくれますように。二人の魂が川の水をくぐり、泳ぎ、流れ、そして空へ舞い上がり、故郷の山々を滑空して無垢な子供達のように遊ぶように。ずっといつまでも離れ離れになることなく、穏やかに手に手をとっ て、やがて二つの魂が一つになるまで。

お母さん、長い間ずっとありがとう。一人でずっと大変だったね。

ようやくお父さんと一緒になれるね。川のほとりに帰ることができるね。

ありがとう。お母さん。また会おうね。

All tracks composed by Kazuya Nagaya

Violin : Takeshi Shima

Viola : Kentaro Maki

Cello : Motonari Suzuki

Soprano Vocal : Oksana Stepanyuk

Koto : Yoriko

Buddhist Chanting : Kozen Fujii

Poetry Reading : Thomas Tibert, Elena Omura

Special thanks to : Hosen-in temple, Kyoto-STEAM, Masanori Nozawa (Medium Music), Ulf Ulven Remus

In Memory of my mother and father