Why M ?

[maikaru]

Hyde Faith Album really meant to be about Christianity.. not the use of a fad,
Cause he went to Europe, and felt moved by the Christian Churches, etc.

Most people in Japan do not follow religion..
Like, people say, oh Shinto and Buddhism is the state religions..
Yeah, but no one follows it.
The only times people follows religion is in birth, death, and new years.
In fact, it is only out of duty for the rituals involved, not deeper meanings of Gods or spirits.
Some people say to the Japanese lifestyle like this:

Shinto in Birth, Christian in Marriage, and Buddhism in death.

The reason why many people are not Christian in Japan is a really simple one:
In Christianity you could only be Christian, and could not be Buddhist or Shintoist.
You could only have faith in one God, but the faiths of Shinto believes in spirits and things.
And Buddhism believes in nothing.. like, not that they dont believe anything, they believe there is nothing.. that its a dream.
So It's hard.
But Christian marriages are super popular, especially going to the church and getting married in such ideal place.

It's a bit wrong to label Japan as any religious group..
Its more take and choose whatever fits into your lifestyle,
And do the duties of our families, and the rituals that are important to them, etc.
That kind of thing.

Therefore, I think it's right to say Hamasaki could believe in higher powers.
The story of Mary, whoever whichever Mary you want, could have inspired her.
But yeah, since Catholicsm is the most popular form of Christianity in Japan, and the world,
I think its best to say she is praying to the mother Mary..
Her figure is a very noble figure, and something like a mystery..
I get a really inspiring feeling about her if I read something or know something..
I dont know that whole story of Mother Mary, but I'm really feel inspired by her...
So I think it's the same way with Hamasaki~ that's all. ^^)

[*Petit*]

Originally Posted by maikaru

Hyde Faith Album really meant to be about Christianity.. not the use of a fad,
Cause he went to Europe, and felt moved by the Christian Churches, etc.

It's a bit wrong to label Japan as any religious group..
Its more take and choose whatever fits into your lifestyle,And do the duties of our families, and the rituals that are important to them, etc.
That kind of thing.

That would be a great thing to adopt for the world. I*d love a catholic wedding!

[Uemarasan]

Just to clarify: the Virgin Mary isn't considered a saint in Catholicism. Her place in the religion is vastly different from that of saints.

Anyway, I always thought Ayu used M because it was part of her name A single = Ayu, H single = Hamasaki, and M because it appears in both her first name and surname. That and she's praying to Maria in the song.

[mmaibff]

Originally Posted by maikaru

Hyde Faith Album really meant to be about Christianity.. not the use of a fad,
Cause he went to Europe, and felt moved by the Christian Churches, etc.

I'm not saying that Faith was a fad. I'm just saying that some aspect of Christianity can be a fad to some people in Japan, just like how people in the US would wear gothic crosses and well not all of them are religious (but because the look nice). I was trying to answer the question in the first post that said

Originally Posted by prussian blue

i wonder, why the song M is named M?

maybe ayu afraid there'll be bad reputation since she used a name of religious?

I'm just trying to state that it would not cause a problem if it was religiously based, and I was giving reference to why it wouldn't cause any problems. But whether or not other artist have title songs that are Religiously based because they believed it them or as something the just find interesting. There have been other songs with religious reference and it hasn't cause them any huge trouble that I know of. So...

I didn't mean offend you or anyone by implying that HYDE Faith Album was a fad maybe I should use line breaks more? So that it doesn't seem like I'm implying those songs were a fad. I tend to get my thoughts mixed up, and ramble sometimes or rather I switch to a different topic without really giving any notice (does that make sense?). Sorry if I confused anyone.


But I suppose to clearly answer the first post. We may never really know why it was named M but her decision to name it M has noting to do with the reason that it could hurt her reputation if she named it Maria because...


1.It wouldn't matter because Maria can just be a name (if anything you can make up a reason why its named that way to avoid controversy)

2.They don't have anything against Christianity in Japan (there was a time when they did shun it but that was a long time ago I can't really remember when sorry), from what I seen religious isn't really as important as some of the traditions and honor. I think most Japanese practice and not many are purely any religion since most practice some from of Shinto because after time some of it is blended into traditions they practice.

3.Other artist have songs that are religiously based and titled.

I really hoped that cleared up what I said earlier...

Originally Posted by all.night.raver

Yep, I read that the original title was BLISS. It was listed as so on a few CD sites but then it was changed.

That's interesting I didn't know that, though I can't really imagine it being called Bliss, if it was between that and M well I'm glad she pick M it sounds much nicer and its kinda mysterious too if you know what I mean, after all we can only speculate what it means.