Masamitsu Tayama -- Ai Suru Koto kara Hajimetemimasen ka（愛することから始めてみませんか）

 

It's a warm and sunny Sunday out there so perhaps something folksy and relaxing would be nice. I found this folk song by singer-songwriter Masamitsu Tayama（田山雅充）. His third single from October 1976, "Ai Suru Koto kara Hajimetemimasen ka" (Why Not Start by Being in Love?) is quite the warm-hearted tune with the strings and a psychedelic rock guitar that was used as the theme for the TBS drama "Shiroi Himitsu"（白い秘密...White Secret）, broadcast that same year. Tayama was the composer while Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）and Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）were the lyricist and arranger respectively.

The Tokyo-born Tayama had his first taste of show business when he had a role in the cast for the monster movie "Mothra" back in 1961 as a child. During high school, Tayama got into music as a vocalist and a drummer in a rock band. Some years later, he started writing songs, even a few enka ones, as an employee of lyricist Kazuya Senke's（千家和也）company.

As a singer, he joined up with the vocal group Akai Hana（赤い花）in 1974 as its main vocalist and then formed a duo known as Tayama to Yuuko（たやまと夕子）from which a single and an album were released. His solo debut began in 1976 with three singles coming out including this article's song. He would release a total of eight singles up to 1982 with three albums hitting the record store shelves in 1976 and 1977. Almost all of his singles were created from that triumvirate of Tayama, Nakasato and Funayama.

In 2015, Tayama moved out to a small area in Tokushima Prefecture, and recruiting some local amateur musicians, he began a series of live street performances on Sundays at the local historical site.