Shan Rauf

Ikiume no Uta (Song of Being Buried Alive)

生き埋めの唄

宮崎名緒子 (Naoki Miyazaki)

Original
English

Verse 1

kowabatta te wo nigiru
furueru mabuta ni fureru
nagai yume no owari nara
daremo ga shitteiru

Verse 2

koko yori saki ga kowai
makkura na iwa no sukima
oyogu you ni hidarite wo nandomo ugokashita

Chorus 1

"konbanwa!" "konbanwa!"
"itsumo no are hitotsu!"
yuuhan no kaimono de
hashagu kimi ga suki suki suki suki suki

Verse 3

koko yori saki ga kowai
sukoshi dake kokyuu ga tsurai
nagai yume ga eien ni tsuzuiteku
sonna ki ga suru yo

Chorus 2

"konbanwa!" "konbanwa!"
"itsumo no are hitotsu!"
"konbanwa!" "konbanwa!"
reshiito wa irimasen

Verse 4

kowabatta te wo nigiru
hieta hoho nukumeru
daidai ni somerareta osanai kimi ga suki

Outro

konbanwa. konbanwa.
dareka soko ni itara
konbanwa

Verse 1

I hold your stiffened hands
I touch your trembling eyelids
If this were the end of a long dream
Everyone would already know

Verse 2

What lies ahead frightens me
A pitch-dark gap between the boulders
I moved the left hand again and again, as if swimming

Chorus 1

"Good evening!" "Good evening!"
"I’ll have one of the usual!"
While shopping for dinner
I like the you who’s so lively and excited—like like like like

Verse 3

What lies ahead frightens me
Breathing is a little hard
The long dream keeps going on forever
That's how it feels

Chorus 2

"Good evening!" "Good evening!"
"I’ll have one of the usual!"
"Good evening!" "Good evening!"
I don't need a receipt

Verse 4

I hold your stiffened hands
I warm your cold cheeks
I like the childlike you, dyed orange

Outro

Good evening. Good evening.
If somebody's there
Good evening

Date published: Oct 10, 2026

Context

Naoko first released a SoundCloud demo of this song on September 3rd, 2013 under the name 「すきま」, a word also referenced in the song lyrics meaning "gap" or "crevice".

The demo version of the song has minor wording differences like "wakai kimi" (young/youthful you) instead of "osanai kimi" (childlike/innocent you), and "suki" (To like) repeated only twice instead of five times.

She then performed the song live for some years under that same 「すきま」 song title (1, 2), expressing that she eventually wanted to make an official/proper recorded version of the song.

She even uploaded a live version of 「すきま」 to YouTube on July 18th, 2017:

Sukima by Naoko Miyazaki (ミヤザキナオコ「すきま」)

From at least around January 30th, 2018 onward, she started doing live performances of the song 「生き埋めの唄」, so she probably changed the song title at some point around that time (another tweet suggests that the earliest performance was ~2017, but it looks like a typo for 2018). It looks like her latest performance of the song was around December 14th, 2020.

Shortly after giving birth to her first daughter around September 2021, she expressed that she doesn't want to sing songs like 「生き埋めの唄」, where where unfortunate things happen to children, until the year 2041 when her daughter becomes an adult. That explains why there have been barely any mentions of live performances of the song since then (I only found one example from January 12th, 2026).

In February 2026, she shared that she created an official recorded version of the song before her daughter's birth (~September 2021), and that she later re-recorded the "end part" of that version and planned to release the song for the first time (i.e. it sounds like she sat on the official recorded version for a while without publicly releasing it). That official recorded version was released on streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music on March 3rd, 2026; that's the version whose lyrics are viewable and playable in this post.

Here's how Naoko's duo partner from Japone (music group) has described the song:

Miyazaki Naoko's dream song. Memories of being buried alive, flashbacks. It feels so real and authentic. Maternal warmth, and terribly sad. (July 20th, 2017)

Here's how Naoko Miyazaki has described the song:

It's an incredibly joyful thing to know that you enjoy "Sukima", which I always thought of as a modest song, but one that's very dear to me personally. (Oct 6, 2014)

A song born from a dream in which I became a mother who was buried alive together with her son. Since I was unmarried and had never given birth, it was pure imagination—but somehow, it felt like I really had memories with him. (July 18th, 2017)

A song I've cherished since long ago. It was a song made as a requiem, but now I'm singing it with the feeling of "No victims, everyone gets saved." (March 3rd, 2026)

For context, a requiem is a musical composition written to honor, remember, and pray for the dead. This maybe helps clarify the name change to 「生き埋めの唄」 (Song of Being Buried Alive), since that title arguably relates to themes of survival and rescue.

On the surface (looking only at the lyrics), the song never explicitly specifies who is speaking at any given moment. It does seem like the song involves two people, where at least one person is trapped in a "pitch-dark gap between boulders", but for example, lines like "konbanwa" and "itsumo no are hitotsu" are ambiguous about which of the two is speaking.

However, two things help clarify this:

  1. Naoko's commentary explains that the song was initially written as a requiem, related to a dream she had of being a mother buried alive with her son. The song's cover art also seems to depict a child buried alive.
  2. If you listen closely, parts of the song seem to be sung by different "voices". The first "konbanwa" repetitions sound like a young child (maybe overlapped with an adult voice), and then shortly after, "yuuhan no kaimono de" sounds like an adult. The original Soundcloud demo also has overlapping voices during the "konbanwa". In the live performance of the older version of the song (when it was called 「すきま」), Naoko clearly changes her usual singing voice and sings the "konbanwa" part in a childlike voice.

Aside: For a while, I was convinced that the phrase towards the end ("kowabatta te") was actually saying "ne ga batta te" ("I hold your hands that have taken root"; the image of something buried/trapped underground taking root felt reasonable), especially because Naoko mentioned that she re-recorded the end part of the song. However, after slowly listening to that line many times slowly (and after considering that the Soundcloud and live versions are clearly saying "こわばった"), I'm now convinced that the lyric is repeating the song's first line.

Anyway, it was nice to learn more about this song's backstory. I've been doing this kind of thing more often (e.g. see my writing on 夏がくれば by kyooo); I'm often moved by things like this, where a nice song is created somewhere all the way across the Pacific Ocean, way back when I was just starting middle school (~September 2013), and I only now come across it and appreciate it. I enjoy learning more about the backstories/biographies of arists and their art these days.

I first heard this song in an Instagram story from Mazu Sircle promoting his upcoming short film 「大地の子」 (releasing November 21st, 2026). Thanks for the recommendation!

If you're interested in more from Naoko Miyazaki:

Sources

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