My Personal Top 10 Kobukuro Songs: No. 10 — “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo”

【The History of Kobukuro】… Read it here!

No. 10: “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo”

For No. 10 in My Personal Top 10 Kobukuro Songs, I chose “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo,” released in 2014.　Its title roughly means “To All Who Are Now Coming into Bloom.”

The song became widely known as NHK’s broadcast theme for the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games. It has the power to encourage athletes stepping onto a great competitive stage, yet the lyrics do not speak only to those who reach the podium.

They also speak to people who cannot achieve the results they hoped for, people who are beginning to lose sight of their direction, and people who continue moving through another day despite everything. “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” calls on each of them to believe that their own season will come.

Unlike songs such as “Sakura,” “Tsubomi,” and “Akai Ito,” which explore a particular separation or loss in depth, this song delivers the same message to many people living under different circumstances. It shows that Kobukuro can create not only deeply personal songs, but also music capable of carrying meaning on a broad public stage.

Although the song is addressed to a vast audience, it still treats every listener as an individual. With that balance in mind, I would like to examine what makes this song so compelling.

A Free Interpretation

Even if you are still in winter, you will one day bloom in a color that belongs only to you.
The painful days and uncertain days you have lived through will become strength for the future.
So keep your smile, hold your head high, and spread your wings toward the sky.
You no longer have to blame yourself for your tears. You can rise again, as many times as necessary.

💡 You might also like: View the original Japanese lyrics (External site)

If the lyrics are available only in Japanese, you can use your browser’s translation feature or an AI translation tool to understand their general meaning.

First, Listen on YouTube

Common Credits
Kobukuro, "Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo"
Lyrics: Kentaro Kobuchi
Music: Kentaro Kobuchi
Arrangement: Kobukuro
Released: February 19, 2014
NHK Broadcast Theme for the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games

Official Music Video
Kobukuro, "Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo" Official Music Video
Official YouTube Channel: Kobukuro Official Channel
Two-Line Commentary
This grand Kobukuro anthem links the image of flowers blooming after winter with the strength and kindness of people pursuing their dreams. As the theme for the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games, it reached not only athletes facing competition, but also many people moving through hardship in their own lives.

Live Version
Kobukuro, "Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo" (Live)
From footage included in "KOBUKURO LIVE TOUR 2015 'Kiseki' FINAL at Nippon Gaishi Hall"
Officially distributed video
Two-Line Commentary
In the live version, the polished beauty of the studio recording gains the powerful energy of an entire venue. The two voices send strength directly toward people pursuing their dreams, while bringing the song's celebratory character into sharper focus.

A Song About Flowers and the Journey Toward Results

It Does Not Celebrate Only Those Already in Bloom

Judging from the title alone, “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” might seem like a song celebrating people who have already achieved success. Yet the lyrics also portray lives that remain in winter and people still searching for their own color.

A flower passes through a period before it appears above the ground. Human beings also experience times when effort produces no visible result and when it seems that everyone else has moved ahead. The experience accumulated during such periods does not simply disappear.

To me, the song’s image of winter represents not only hardship, but also a period in which a person loses sight of the direction ahead. What have I been aiming for? What strength do I possess? The song does not promise easy success to those who cannot answer such questions.

Even when no change can yet be seen, what is growing within has not necessarily been lost. Because the song recognizes that reality, its encouragement never sounds like empty optimism.

Connecting the Grand Stage with an Ordinary Day

At the Olympic and Paralympic Games, an athlete’s effort is ultimately expressed through records and rankings. Yet most of the days leading to that moment remain unseen by the audience.

Early-morning practice, fear of injury, frustration when results do not come, and conflict with those nearby all lie behind the cheers in the stadium. These long processes cannot be fully conveyed through competition footage alone.

“Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” looks beyond the moment of recognition and toward the days spent continuing on the road toward it. For that reason, even people whose lives have nothing to do with competitive sport can hear their own experiences in the song.

Two Voices Give Encouragement a Three-Dimensional Form

Kentaro Kobuchi Brings the Words Closer

Kentaro Kobuchi’s singing conveys a careful refusal to treat words of encouragement lightly. Rather than trying to move the listener through forceful language, he places each phrase with care, allowing people to look forward even while carrying uncertainty and tears.

An anthem of encouragement can sometimes press its own righteousness too strongly. For someone who has already exhausted every reserve of strength, even the word “Keep going” can become another burden.

This song does not reject the self who is crying or the self who has stopped. Kobuchi’s voice first recognizes the road the listener has already traveled, then quietly directs the gaze toward what may come next.

Shunsuke Kuroda Drives the Melody Forward

When Shunsuke Kuroda’s voice enters, the scale of the song expands dramatically. In the lower register, he preserves the weight of the words; in the higher register, he drives the melody forward with force. Because the core of his voice does not thin as he rises, the song’s mounting excitement feels entirely natural.

Kuroda does not sound like someone issuing commands from above. His singing carries the voice of a person who can imagine hardship and still chooses to face forward alongside the listener. That is why his tremendous volume never leaves the listener behind.

Different Voices Moving in the Same Direction

Kobuchi is not responsible only for gentleness, nor is Kuroda responsible only for power. Kobuchi’s voice also contains a sharpness that urges movement, while Kuroda’s voice can display a softness that protects someone who has been hurt.

Kuroda’s voice carries the melody boldly forward, while Kobuchi’s voice brings out the finer contours of the words. Kobukuro’s strength lies not in smoothing away the difference between their timbres, but in allowing each voice to retain its identity while moving toward the same destination.

One voice refuses to lose sight of present pain.
The other reveals the landscape beyond it.
When both functions meet, the song’s encouragement becomes strong enough to bear the weight of reality.

A Gradual Arrangement Supporting the Song’s Grandeur

From a Quiet Beginning Toward a Rising Climax

“Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” possesses the dignified breadth expected of a theme song for a major international event. Even so, it does not try to astonish the listener by placing every dramatic sound at the beginning.

The song begins quietly and accumulates its words before gradually widening its range and resonance. The final surge does not arrive without preparation; it emerges as the destination of everything built from the opening onward.

The rhythm maintains a steady sense of movement, while the strings broaden the landscape. The instruments do more than decorate the vocals: they guide the entire song toward the point where the two voices can make their strongest impact.

Brightness That Does Not Emphasize Hope Alone

One of the song’s finest qualities is its ability to portray hope without making suffering disappear. If brightness alone were emphasized, people living through pain would be left outside the song.

On the other hand, if the song portrayed nothing but suffering, it could not generate the strength to continue. “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” acknowledges both realities, allowing listeners to stop when necessary and leaving the time to move again in their own hands.

The song does not place tears in opposition to progress; it presents them as part of the process of recovery. Because of that understanding, its brightness never sounds like an escape from reality.

Why I Placed It at No. 10

This song combines a clear message capable of reaching many people with a grand development designed around the contrast between the two voices.
At the same time, I feel Kobukuro’s appeal most strongly in songs that portray one person’s separation or regret and allow listeners to connect those emotions with memories of their own.

“Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo,” however, has a different kind of appeal. Rather than entering one particular memory, it is broad enough for many people to place their own circumstances within it.

The contrast between the two voices, the emotional temperature of the words, the skill required to sustain such a grand musical arc, and the ability to carry a message to many people are all clearly present in this single song. That is why I chose it for No. 10.

In Closing

“Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” is concerned less with the result itself than with the road leading toward it.

A person’s value does not exist only in the moment of full bloom. The days of uncertainty, stillness, and tears cannot be separated from the path that person has traveled.

The song does not ask anyone to prove their worth by outshining someone else. It asks each person to preserve what makes them themselves and to continue at a pace that belongs to them.

The song reaches beyond its original role as the theme for an international sporting event and speaks to people who are simply trying to hold their ground in everyday life. That breadth has allowed “Ima, Sakihokoru Hana-tachi yo” to remain an anthem worth hearing long after the Sochi Games ended.

My Personal Top 10 Kobukuro Songs begins with this large-hearted and deeply humane call.