Gosanke: Ganso Gosanke（元祖御三家） ~ Yukio Hashi, Kazuo Funaki & Teruhiko Saigo

 

Well, I'm putting up a new Label on the side here. Recently, I wrote about the technopop band P-Model and in looking up information on them, I found out that they have been included with two other similar groups, Hikashu and The Plastics to form a Techno Gosanke（テクノ御三家）. Over the years, I've referred to that term gosanke（御三家） a number of times. Therefore, I figured that it may actually be time to display on a weekly basis the various trios in the music world, especially on finding a page at "idol.ne.jp" that has a fairly long list. I can also think of a few other entries that weren't included on that list.

I recall explaining about the word at least once in the past few months, but I'll explain it here as well. Gosanke began its existence in terms of Japanese history. According to the J-Wiki description, it was first used to refer to the three sons of the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa（徳川家康）and their families. Those sons, Yoshinao（徳川義直）, Yorinobu（徳川頼宣） and Yorifusa（徳川頼房）, were given special status as such. They were The Big 3.

Hundreds of years later, the mass media and/or entertainment management companies in Japan picked up on the significance of gosanke, and have been using the term to describe certain celebrities and corporate figures among other people and things as influential and charismatic trios. The first time that this occurred was in the 1960s when it was first used for the young new stars of Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）and Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）. Because Saigo was the last of this Gosanke to make his debut, I've pegged this article with his debut year of 1964.

In the 1970s, another trio of male stars popped up (which I will show next week) which took on the name, so since that point, Hashi, Funaki and the late Saigo have been called the Ganso Gosanke or The Original Big 3. Welcome to KKP, Gosanke!

Yukio Hashi -- Muhyou （霧氷）

Kazuo Funaki -- Koukou Sannen-sei （高校三年生）

Teruhiko Saigo -- Hoshi no Flamenco (星のフラメンコ)