Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Monday, June 21, 2021

Hako Yamasaki -- Bōkyō(望郷)

 

The first full day of summer 2021 has arrived and I'm feeling it. Following lunch and working in my fan-assisted room, I'm still sensing that drowsiness threatening to envelop me until dinner. Can't let that happen. Must...work...on...blog!


So far, my impression of folk singer-songwriter Hako Yamasaki(山崎ハコ)has included adjectives such as melancholy and tenderhearted. From her debut album in October 1975, "Tobimasu"(飛・び・ま・す...Fly), the first track is "Bōkyō" (Nostalgia), which has Yamasaki singing about a woman residing in Yokohama reminiscing about her old days in her hometown and wondering about returning even though her original home is no longer there. It's a very wistful way of expressing "You can no longer go back home again."

In a way, I've been cursed and blessed with that feeling of bōkyō since I've had two homes: one in Toronto, one in Ichikawa. No matter where I have been, I will always have longing memories of being back in the other city. However with this pandemic perhaps slowly going away, I'm glad that I was here in Toronto with the family.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.