Jiro Kanmuri -- Tabi no Owari ni（旅の終りに）

 

I'm not sure that's the right type of garb for a male enka singer, but hey, whatever works for him.

On New Year's Day, I related the story of the late enka singer Jiro Kanmuri（冠二郎）and his most popular hit, "Honoo"（炎）from 1992. He had begun his career in music in 1967 but really paid his dues with nothing successful coming in for him for the first decade or so. Then, Kanmuri finally hit the big time for the first time with his 17th single from November 1977, "Tabi no Owari ni" (At Journey's End) which was the theme song for a TV Asahi drama titled "Kaikyo Monogatari"（海峡物語...The Story of the Strait）, adapted from Hiroyuki Itsuki's（五木寛之）novel. The contemporary story involves a once-popular music director now down on his luck and how he is able to redeem himself through encounters with other people. It's too bad that I couldn't find any footage of the show on YouTube.

The music and arrangement were handled by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）, someone that I've usually associated with tokusatsu programs and cop shows. The feeling that I get with "Tabi no Owari ni" is, as I described the story of the show, someone on a difficult but necessary march back into the heroic light and I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been used as a theme song for a samurai drama instead. The lyrics were handled by Itsuki himself under a pseudonym and considering the dramatic showmanship that Kanmuri would later become famous for due to "Honoo", the singer sang this one straight and serious. That's because it was Itsuki's request that "Tabi no Owari ni" should be performed as if the singer were going through the toughest point in his life.

"Tabi no Owari ni" became a hit although I haven't been able to see how it did on Oricon probably because of its association with "Kaikyo Monogatari".