contract

We love a good mystery here at RocketNews24 but this recently discovered cryptic contract had us scratching our heads.

A Japanese net user recently shared a photo of a contract of some sort written in secret code on a piece of notebook paper. The document was discovered amongst a number of articles left behind by their grandfather, who passed away last year from a sudden heart attack. Unable to solve the secret message the poster put out a call to fellow netizens to see if anyone could help decipher the code.

The date of the contract when converted to the Gregorian calendar translates to March 4, 1966, and includes a line which stated that “even in the afterlife, the song will continue“. There was initial confusion around the scribbled writing, as some people mistakenly believed it said “curse” instead of “song”. The contract then consisted of a series of numbers between the two parties. Perhaps it was a secret will or a love letter of a secret clue to future fortune?

Responding to the appeal for help, netizens weighed in with their opinions and theories. It was thought that the numbers should be read in pairs and that they somehow corresponded to the Japanese alphabet. Given the clue of “song”, many believed that the message consisted of lyrics and offered up a range of suggestions of musical scores and songs – including the Japanese national anthem.

The original poster then added that their grandfather was probably a student at the time of writing of the contract, based on the year he was born. Apparently he had been a student at Sugamo Junior High School – something which net users began to think could be relevant…

Unbelievably the code was eventually deciphered by a sole respondent. They confirmed that the message was indeed a song and, sadly, not a juicy family secret waiting to be told.

code decipher

What was the song? None other than the school song of Sugamo Junior High School where the grandfather had attended school. We would love to say, “it was elementary, my dear” but I suppose it was one grade above in this case.

school song

Source and images: Hamster Sokuhou