Song & Poetry

Toilet no Kamisama (God in the toilet) By: Kotaro Oshio (Kana Uemura) From my 3rd year in elementary school, I somehow began living with my grandma. Grandma's house was right next to my parents', but I began living with my grandma

I helped grandma everyday, and even played Go with her. But since I was never able to clean the toilet well, grandma said this to me:

"In the toilet, there is a beautiful goddess. If you clean the toilet beautifully everyday, you'll become just as beautiful as the goddess."

From that day on, I would always clean the toilet until it sparkled. I was working very hard because I really wanted to become beautiful.

When we went shopping, we would eat noodles with duck meat. When grandma failed to tape the new comedy movie I'd wanted to watch, I would cry and blame her for it.

"In the toilet, there is a beautiful goddess. If you clean the toilet beautifully everyday, you'll become just as beautiful as the goddess." As I grew a little older, I had a huge argument with grandma, and since I wasn't on good terms with my family, either, I felt like I didn't belong anywhere anymore.

On days off, instead of returning home, I would go out and have fun with my boyfriend. The Go games and the duck meat noodles also vanished from between the two of us.

Just why do people hurt others and gradually lose what's important to them? Although grandma had always been there for me, I left her and ran away from home alone.

2 years after I had lived in Tokyo, grandma was hospitalized. She had become extremely thin and frail. I went to visit her.

"Grandma, I'm home--!" I intentionally said it how I used to say it in the past. I was only able to talk to her briefly before she said, "Go home already" and forced my out of the room.

In the next morning, grandma had quietly fallen asleep. It was almost as if, almost as if she had been waiting for my return all this time. Although she had properly brought me up, I had yet to have the chance to repay her kindness. I wasn't the best granddaughter out there, but she was still waiting for my return.

"In the toilet, there is a beautiful goddess." Will these words once said by my grandma finally turn me into a beautiful person? "In the toilet, there is a beautiful goddess. If you clean the toilet beautifully everyday, you'll become just as beautiful as the goddess."

I have always dreamed of becoming a perfect bride. Today, too, I'll clean the toilet until it sparkles.

Grandma. Grandma. Thank you. Grandma, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

This song uses elements of poetry to explain the true story of Toilet no Kamisama (God in The Toilet).

First of all, there is simile in this song. And that is “If you clean the toilet beautifully every day, you will become just as beautiful as the goddess”. This song lyrics is the memory of the singer’s grandmother. What this lyric says the “If you clean the toilet beautifully every day, you will become just as beautiful as the goddess” that is legend in the person’s city. So, this shows the city where the person came from. Then, there is refrain and repetition in this song. That is “In the toilet, there is a beautiful goddess”. In her memory of grandmother that is what grandmother said to her. She was young. So, she legendthis legend. I think this legend makes her different. Because she is emphasizing. When the person was young, she couldn’t clean up the toilet very well. But after grandmother said about it she was trying to clean up the toilet as much as she can clean up. Finally, there is connotation. That is “extremely”. This word is showing how her grandmother changed between she moved to the other city and when she was in the city. And this word means really strong to showing about difference of her grandmother. And from this change she feels about grandmother.

This song uses many different kinds of elements such as refrain, simile, and connotation to demonstrate how the song is meaningful for us.