Sachiko Nishida -- Onna no Iji（女の意地）

 

We were watching the final episode of the kayo music program, NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌...Songs of Japanese Spirit） which included up-and-coming teenage enka/kayo kyoku singer Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）. I've mentioned her once before in a Sites article about a couple of interesting shops in Asakusa earlier this month, and I'm going to have to write about at least one of her singles in the new year. But in any case, for a 17-year-old, she certainly took on a moody and pretty mature song on that episode. It reminded me of adolescent Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）recording "Shishuuki"（思秋期）back in 1977.

The original recording of "Onna no Iji" (Pride of a Woman) was done by Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）back in October 1965. Written and composed by Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）, it was the B-side to her "Akasaka no Yoru wa Fukete" （赤坂の夜は更けて）which is a bit more jazzy (ironically, I wrote about that one exactly nine years ago). "Onna no Iji" is a straight melancholy Mood Kayo and enka mix about the complicated emotions a woman is going through after a relationship goes sour, and it all probably takes place in a bar community in Shinjuku, Ginza or Akasaka. The same musical tropes of a Mood Kayo are there, but I have to say that the tenor saxophone in "Onna no Iji" really stands out.

According to the J-Wiki article on the single, "Onna no Iji" was one of Nishida's favourite songs and around the beginning of the 1970s, it got a second look as its own single. It then became a favourite of many listeners to the extent that "Onna no Iji" managed to sell about 400,000 records. At the end of 1970, Nishida was invited to the Kohaku Utagassen that year to sing it. Her tenth appearance on the NHK New Year's Eve special, it would also be her final appearance on the show after getting married.