Hisaji or Hisamichi Soga -- Kenka Kaidou（喧嘩街道）

 

Commenter Robert keyed me in on this somewhat of a mystery singer a few days ago. There's not much information on this enka singer and as far as I know, she only released two singles back in the 1960s.

And to be honest, because of the dearth of information and the unusual name of either Hisaji Soga or Hisamichi Soga（曾我ひさ路）, I had initially assumed that AI finally cracked the enka barrier and come up with a manufactured singer. But for any Soga fans out there, my apologies...seeing the crumply 45" single liner sheet in the video and hearing the quality of her voice, I do believe that she is or was indeed a real enka singer.

As for that dearth of information, the only website that had any bread crumbs was "International Kayo Day" which shows that Soga had singles out in 1965 and 1966. For an up-and-comer, that's a pretty languid pace of release which further adds to the mystery. I couldn't even find out any basic data such as date of birth and place of birth. Soga has the face of a teenager (looks a little like a young Yuko Asano) but the crackling voice of a middle-aged veteran behind the microphone as I listen to her 1966 "Kenka Kaidou" (The Fighting Path). From what I could understand of the lyrics that are shown in the video, it sounds like the adventure of a masterless samurai always on guard against enemies lurking about in the forests and small towns.

The lyrics were by Keiji Shuto（周東敬二）with Junpei Koshi（越純平） handling the melody which was arranged by Michiyasu Tadano（只野通泰）.  Ahhh, I could get some information after all, thanks to the description underneath the video. Soga was born in 1948 in Chiba Prefecture (so she was indeed a teen when "Kenka Kaidou" came out) and was once a member of a group called Sakura Shimai（さくら姉妹...The Sakura Sisters） before making her solo debut in 1965 under Hisaji/Hisamichi Soga. However, she would change her stage name once more into something a little more unwieldy...Hiroko Ohzono（大園博子）.