Isao Hayashi -- Tokyo Serenade (東京セレナーデ)

I've finished my Master's Thesis on Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎) and did my defense just a few days ago, so I wanted to do a brain-off entry containing nothing but my fan ramblings to wind down. It is with that preface that I bring to you this unhinged article. Enjoy.

I've joked with friends that Isao Hayashi is my "Contract Husbando". By that I mean that he has a place in my current "Favourite Fellows" group simply by way of being a member of his posthumous fan club instead of meeting my baseline criteria (first). Just to be clear, I like Hayashi, but it never naturally got to favourite territory. Hayashi doesn't have to be part of the group, but it was odd to be part of a fan club and not be a fan (this is just a principle of mine). As one who didn't use to join fan clubs, these singer-specific communities were initially reserved for those I greatly loved. But since, by an unexpected turn of events, Hayashi was able to skip my natural husbando path progression, we had to work backwards to achieve similar results. The first course of action was the nickname: Hayashi Sensei, but written in the extra casual way and in all katakana (ハヤシセンセ). It just felt right, for some reason. "Isa-chan", as suggested by my oshikatsu enabler friend Ms. C, was immediately vetoed. No. 

Next, the music. One of my kayo friends graciously lent me the chunky 6-disc Hayashi Isao Daizenshu (林伊佐緒大全集) from 1995 which allowed me to explore what Hayashi Sensei really had on offer (outside of jazz min'yo) as I laboured through my thesis. Honestly, things were looking a little bleak at first. I wasn't vibing with much of what I was hearing. Eventually, a song had my ears pricking up and had me going, "Oh, this ain't bad!" It was a bright jazzy tune with a 1930s modern Tokyo atmosphere. "Hayashi wrote this, right? As expected of the jazz singer-songwriter!" I thought as I opened the lyric booklet.

Hanasaku Tokyo (花咲く東京) - Composer: Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴)

Well, now*. I wasn't even deliberately looking for his works.

I enjoyed "Hanasaku Tokyo", but I could only hear Mr. Nakano - it sounded like a song he would sing. Nakano and Hayashi are, to me, very similar (jazz singer-songwriters from prewar Japan who happened to be in postwar King Records making songs for Hachi) but also very different (voice, musical style, vibe, physical appearance). I mentioned this to Ms. C recently and she raised an apt allegory: When you put black and white together, it makes the black blacker, the white whiter. Mr. Nakano is second to Hachi in my books currently, so having Nakano in the Hayashi discovery journey only reminded me that I preferred him out of the two. That wouldn't do. I wanted something where I could hear and feel Hayashi Sensei... Please do not take this out of context.

It took a few more CDs and going through some decent numbers, but the moment that light tango-flavoured melody hit my ears, I knew immediately that we had a breakthrough. This song was "Tokyo Serenade". Hayashi took care of the music and arrangement, while his frequent collaborator Juzaburo Tojo (東条寿三郎) was in charge of the words. While I haven't yet found any concrete date of release, tracing it from the record label number (C1662), it was likely originally released around October 1958.

Looking at Tojo's lyrics, the lonely image of our main character gazing at the yellow moon and the streets of Tokyo from his abode comes to mind. He is trying to forget the one who got away, but he cannot seem to forget them on this chilly autumn night. Hayashi Sensei's jaunty upbeat melody seems to betray the longing our protagonist feels at first, but the strings do convey a sense forlornness. Perhaps he's trying to cheer himself up by moon gazing, but he just can't chase away those grey clouds over his head. 

If I were to be completely honest, "Tokyo Serenade" sounded a little bit like a combination of Michiya Mihashi's (三橋美智也) "Osaraba Tokyo" (おさらば東京) (incidentally one of my all-time favourite Nakano compositions) and Akira Matsudaira's (松平晃) "Wakaki Hi no Haru" (若き日の春). Despite the reminders of the formidable combo that is Mr. Nakano and Akira-san, "Tokyo Serenade" still felt Hayashi. I could envision him singing it to me. I want to see him sing it. I reckon that it was at that point when I felt that Hayashi's place on my list became less precarious. I really like his cha-cha-themed "Ai no Katami" (愛のかたみ) as well, which unfortunately, is not available online. That said, I'd say that I still have a ways to go in taking out the "Contract" in "Contract Husbando" for Hayashi Sensei. But y'know, I think we're getting there. 

P.S. One thing I noticed about Hayashi Sensei's works is that he has a lot of tango-inspired kayo. Or, at least, the many of the songs in Daizenshu past 1955 were of that sort. My impression (could be completely wrong) is that tango-flavoured kayo began to fade come the late 50s, making way for mambo and later cha-cha. Maybe Hayashi just liked tango. 

*Nakano did compose some songs for Hayashi in the early to mid-1950s. Hayashi was likely on a singer contract in addition to being a contract composer at King Records, i.e. he would have had songs made for him by other contract composers in the company, like Nakano. Hence, the Nakano-Hayashi combo was nothing out of the ordinary by pre-1960s Japanese record industry standards. I just found it unbelievably hilarious that, by pure coincidence, the first non-jazz-min'yo Hayashi song I took an interest in was connected to Nakano, who I was trying to set aside for Hayashi's sake.

This was a wild article to write.