What does Memorial address mean?
 

So I looked throughout the Enquiries forum (at least I think I did). Is it just me, or am I the only who doesn't exactly know the meaning behind the term "Memorial address"? I love the album, I love the song, but I just don't get the meaning those two words. Is it just a term Ayu coined, the way she did with LOVEppears? Or do they actually mean something? 0_o

I know the song has something to do with her being in denial about a person's death, but what does that have anything to do with the title?

Am I asking a silly question? :thud

oh i've always thought of it as a song with just a weird name

well memorial address...an address that's memorial, ayu is addressing a memory?

It's speculated that the song is dedicated to her father, much like teddy bear was.

An "address," in terms of speaking, is a speech. Like the Gettysburg Address. And Memorial is like in memory of someone or something, so it's a Memorial Address to her father, most likely.

I don't think Memorial address was meant to mean "speech"..

It seems more like she is addressing the grief face to face... etc. Like "I wish I could've heard that the time we spent together was worth it even if it was a lie.. etc." And memorial could be taken to mean its adjective form.. like in commemoration or w/e. So she's calling forth attention to her memories / commemorating them with the song.. or something.

I dunno, address is a lame word with a jillion meanings and Ayu is a confusing woman. lol.

i think it means

addressing a memorial

meaning

this is something important

i kinda feel like thats why it was a mini album
because she couldnt wait to make it a full album
had to release then, when the incident happened

THATS MY OPINION :D

the words "memorial address" together have a meaning..
I was taught that~~ o.o;;
The president of usa gives memorial address every sept. 11,
hitler gave a memorial address too in 1941~ (I am world history major~ LOL)
And I googled, and they give memorial addresses for almost everything.

I was taught it means you are giving an address to the people on an anniversery of some tragic or haunt event.
Or, you address the people after something bad happened..
Or, you are giving a speech in memory of someone, to speak with their presence.
So I'm pretty sure Memorial Address here refers to her speaking about the memory of those people who left her, etc.~

lol i always thought its the address in everyone's profile in the school's year book @_@

YEah, I was a little confused by the thread becuase it's an actualy expression you can look it up in a dictionary. ::rolleyes SO it's not like LOVEppears no it's not.. LOL Aren't there actual native english speakers on this board anyways?

I think that the album represents her memories,and the adress could be her house,the incident with her dad?

No, address has like 3 meanings. Without looking at the dictionary, it's the following:
a) a designation given to a location (home, work, school, etc), a noun
b) a speech given to an audience, a noun
c) to acknowledge someone/something, a verb

A memorial address is probably also known as a "farewell address", and is used a lot.. and is probably what Ayu was trying to get across. But it's possible that she was also trying to convey C as well. That possibility is like next to nil, but whatever. lol.

(Avoid thinking that she is talking about a location... the song does not even hint at that at all.)

I like your explanation the most as I was taught a similar thing (I'm British and American studies BA LOL). At first I was not really sure what the song was about but later as I found out that her dad died at that time, all became clear to me. It's pretty simple - a memorial "speech" to commemorate the person that left her...~sayonara ne~

i always saw Memorial address as the place of someone that has passed away. it's connected with a memorial plate if you know what i mean.

so basicly Ayu is remembering someone that passed away...

Likely, as I read the speculation said, her father. Lyrically, it makes sense for it to be about him anyway. And if you take the title into consideration, and the fact that she connected it to teddy bear at AT03-04...

Ayu is an interesting and smart woman ;)

Every time I have heard Memorial, it's always been in reference to someone's death.
As a side note, a Memorial Service is like a funeral... the only difference is you don't have the casket.
So it's saying she's mourning someone's death (by all indications, her father's death). And this song is the Memorial Address or the message given in honor of that person.
I think so many of Ayu's titles are very skillfully named... Even if the title isn't said in the song, she's good at choosing titles that really sum up the essence. :yes

I like the title, it has a deep meaning to me. Like something memorial, something you don't want and can't forget, and you can't go back^^

I thought that Memorial address meant like an address (something written) over a grave x_x.

I think that means a speech you make during a funeral in memory of someone

I think it's a speech that ayu tries to make for her dad...there was a rumour that ayu's dad died during the time when the memorial address album was made

remember one of the booklet pics, with a mirror and ayu wrote a date with lipsticks on the mirror? it was rumoured that that date is the date that ayu's dad died

remember the lyrics which says she was waken up by a phone call of bad news? it probalby means ayu got notified of her dad's death

a very interesting note is that there is no lyrics printed in the booklet for this song, and at the beginning of the song, a male voice said please listen, it's like an introduction of the speech, and the purpose of not having lyrics printed is like a speech at the funeral where you dun get a copy of the speech, and it makes you listen more carefully since u dun have the printed version of the speech

I thought it meant a speech addressing the memory of a deceased person.

Also a very interesting note is I don't think the lyrics to Memorial address have ever been truly published.

Well it was a bonus track on Memorial address and a hidden track on A BEST 2 -BLACK-.

Isn't it on AT 2003-2004's booklet though?

The word was not invented by ayu. Apparently it is something like a tribute speech in memorial of a dead person. Something like "message of condolence". I googled the sentence and it seems like there's a japanese word that translates into "memorial address"..it's something like " choushi" or "chouji". I wonder if it's a word commonly used in the military, in which funeral usually have honorable speeches about the deceased military, etc.

http://home.lorettotel.net/~dubluet2/projects.htm

http://www.questia.com/library/book/...rnegie-by-.jsp

Yea, they're in that booklet.

^ Well, I think, even though the phrase officially means something to commemorate someone's death, I think it's a figure of speech. As in, Ayu isn't actually addressing someone who's dead, but rather, someone who's perhaps died in her memory.

I'd always thought that Memorial address at a second meaning of "an address within your memory", as in, something that's lived in your mind-- something that you remember that always had a place in your memory.

Then combining the two meanings it would be like Ayu is making a farewell to that memory.

no i don't think she has actually seen or met him all these years since he left..but somehow somewhere she knows of his existance...like where he is living and has a vauge idea of his being..that's how the lyrics convey at least..than when he passed away..someone somehow pass that info to her

I recently started wondering about this too. I used to think it was just a creative title without too much meaning, but the other day I read this in an article about the personalization of funerals in Japan:

Do you think we can find a good definition? If we can find one, maybe we can put it in a FAQ. I think many people wonder about this.

I'm pretty sure memorial address is just a fancy way to say eulogy.

Based on the lyrical content, I'd bet the song exists in the way it did because her father died before Ayu could get answers as to how the man felt about her and everything, why he left, ect.

yes, but "eulogy" really isn't the right word because it's too specific.

It's exactly what the title is, "Memorial Address." I personally wouldn't know any other way to explain it.

Wait, how is that a bad thing? o_o; A memorial address, to me, means a speech you give about someone who has passed on -- you're speaking "in memoriam." Eulogies are given at funerals with the same purpose: you speak of your memories about the deceased. Idk that's just how I saw it *shrug*.

its not bad, i just think that if you say "Eulogy" it would imply that ayu wrote this for her father's funeral that she never went to (im guessing) in his memory.

I don't really think it was for that, although they would both probably sound very similar, if not the same.

I'm just saying I think she chose the right words and it's not really ambiguous or anything.

Ohhhh, okay. Sorry about that. Late nights make me susceptible to confusion, heh.

I have investigated a lot for this song since it means a lot for me. And well, is all what you all are saying. it's a commemoration addressed to her father. More or less we have the meaning of this...

And yea, her father is dead... tha last song refeared to her father is MA and it's obvious that he is dead: "Sayonara You have gone to the place where we can never meet again. I can't accept the coldness of the eternal parting" Only is imposible to contact with someone if is dead...

And as someone said here (sorry i don't remeber your name :p) in MA booklet we can see a date written with lipstick in a mirror, is 30th of June. Then if we go back to July 1st lyrics....

"Nagaku nagai sagashi mono wo mitsuketa kibun sa. I feel I have found out what I have been looking for so long"

After so much years she have known sth about her father.

"Ashita ga moshimo Ame datta toshite mo kimi ni ai ni yukou soshite kono uta wo kimi ni ageru. Even if it rains tomorrow I will go to see you And give this song to you"

She is "talking" from 30/06, so "tomorrow" is July 1st, She is making this song for him.

"Ashita haretara Ano umi e yukou kinou nagashita namida no itami wa yasashisa e to. If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to that sea. The pain with the tears shed yesterday are changing into tenderness."

In the documentary in 2004 "light&Shadows" they went to Fukuoka, and when they were next to the pier, Ayu said that: "I came and sat here fishing with someone. Since I was so little, I don't remember perfectly and I never asked anyone if this is true, but I think it was my dad who I came herd with. I think it was my dad. There was all this fishing stuff in the house and we never got rid of it, maybe he forgot about it." (I take it from the subtitles of the documentary)

So I'm sure this sea she is mentioning in July 1st is that sea where she remember she went with her father. So she wanted to go to Fukuoka on July 1st, to the only place she remember sth about her father to "give" him this song.

So for that reason, if i'm not wrong (and i think not), she knew her father was dead the 30th of June 2002... one month after H was released... This is what i think... XDDD maybe i'm wrong, maybe no...

I don't think her father died in 2003 just before the mini-album and because of that she wrote MA... maybe MA was written in the 1st anniversary of her father's dead, maybe was written during 2002 and until 2003 she didn't decided to record it and because of that is a bonus track...

idk...

what do you think? :)

^She doesn't even know where's her father,how could she guess he was dead?

^in memorial adress she talk about a call in the morning... maybe she knew it from a familiar of her father.. maybe he had a new woman... or maybe a brother or sister...

bah, sure we can't know how she knew that... but I think is pretty sure she talks about her father and what she is saying is that he is gone...

Is the conclusion a came to when I was searching the meaning of MA lyrics...


bye!

When i first saw the title, i thought it was about a nostalgic childhood home or something... But then i felt the lyrics of the song made it quite clear what it was.

Memorial: As in a dead person's ceremony
Address: A speech or eulogy

So it's like a speech at a funeral or something.

this is pretty sad!

I thought she didn't know who was her father?

or maybe she just never met him??

I don't think she personally have contact with him...probably she never actually met him since he left..but somehow she knows of his existence (e.g. she hired someone to investigate for her, or an old relative came forward with the news of her dad's whereabout and how he did etc etc)...there's rumour that she learned of her dad's death through whatever channel/means...afterall or u are so rich and famous you get ppl come up to you and tell u things...but she never actually confirmed that..so we can't say for sure

LOL
I was thinking the exactly same thing!

I fully agree





I also heard that she doesn't like the song "poker face", because in the recording day her grandma died??

is that true?

LOL

Yup she recorded Poker Face on the day her grandma died....she said later that after she recorded the song and left the studio, she went to sit in the park by herself thinking of her grandma's death

I think of it like this... another word for a funeral is a "memorial" and this song is about her dad who died... so you could think of it as something like a eulogy or something you would say at somebody's funeral.