金子みすゞ (仙崎駅)

私と小鳥と鈴と

私が両手をひろげても
お空はちっとも飛べないが
飛べる小鳥は私のように
地面を速く走れない

私が体をゆすっても
きれいな音はでないけど
あの鳴る鈴は私のように
たくさんな唄は知らないよ

鈴と、小鳥と、それから私、
みんなちがって、みんないい

The following translation is taken from here with one change in the title:

Me, the Little Bird, and the Bell

No matter how I spread my arms
I can not fly at all,
But unlike me, a flying bird
Can not run fast on ground.

Though I rock my body back and forth
It makes no pretty sounds,
Yet unlike me, a ringing bell
Does not know many songs.

A bell, a bird, and also me,
All are different, all are good.

17 years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Senzaki Station (仙崎駅) of JR San'in Main Line Senzaki Branch Line JR山陰本線仙崎支線 located in Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture 山口県長門市. It was not to visit Kaneko Misuzu Memorial Museum 金子みすゞ 記念館 near Senzaki Station, but purely to visit a terminal station 終着駅 such as Jōhana Station 城端駅 in Toyama Prefecture, Makurazaki Station 枕崎駅 in Kagoshima Prefecture and Ōminato Station 大湊駅 in Aomori Prefecture.

I was aware of Kaneko Misuzu but not aware of the location of her memorial museum, which was opened in 2003.

Photos taken on 30th August 2008

[NOTE] The photo in the header of this article was taken at Nagato-shi station on 27th August 2011 during another trip to JR San'in Main Line.

The way back to Tōkyō
I took a local train from Nagato-shi to Shimonoseki, and then to Kokura in Fukuoka Prefecture. I then took Shinkansen bullet train to Hiroshima where I changed to "Blue Train" Fuji 富士 to Tōkyō.

JR Mine Line (JR美祢線)

In the middle of July, it was reported that 3 cities (Mine 美祢, San'yō-Onoda 山陽小野田, and Nagato 長門) in Yamaguchi Prefecture abandoned recovery of JR Mine Line damaged by the Severe Flooding of 2023. So JR West will go ahead and discontinue JR Mine Line, which used to be a very important line for transporting limestone, but nothing is eternal.

Last but not least, my thanks🙏 goes to…

Her passionate articles reawakened my dormant interest in Kaneko Misuzu (11th April 1903 - 10th March 1930)🙏
🔳