Ayano Tsuji – Kaze Ni Naru (The Cat Returns Theme)

Japanese singer, Ayano Tsuji (or Tsuji-Ayano as she seems to put it herself) has set herself up as the anti J-pop (the slick, fashionable pop music often sung in English) and playing the uke certainly sets her apart from the J-pop scene. Going against the grain didn’t do much for her career, but she did breakthrough when her song Kaze Ni Naru was used as the theme to the manga film The Cat Returns.

The version used in the film (and the one I’ve written up) is a more stripped down version. At least it is in comparison to the full version. The chords used in that version are, for the most part, the same. Just a few orchestral embellishments.

My Japanese isn’t quite good enough to provide a full chord sheet, so I’ve written up the chords (separated into bars).

The chords are straightforward. They’re simple enough for a five year old to play. The strumming is fairly constant through the song. In the intro, it’s just one strum per chord. For the rest of the song, she’s strums down, down, up, up, down, up. When you’re strumming a pattern like this, try to keep your hand moving in a steady down, up motion and miss the strings where there is no strum. This makes sure that the tempo is nice and even.

The only place this pattern won’t work is in the bars that contain both F and G chords. Here, strumming each chord down twice will see you through.

Buy The Cat Returns