Over the past several weeks, I've been watching the latest NHK morning serial drama "Anpan"（あんぱん） starring Mio Imada（今田美桜）. As with many an NHK asadora, "Anpan" starts off in the early Showa era as Imada portrays a countryside girl, Nobu, who eventually marries a quiet and kindhearted guy, Takashi. A fictionalized account of the famous manga author Takashi Yanase（やなせたかし）who creates the popular Japanese hero "Anpanman"（アンパンマン）, the drama thus far seems to focus on both Nobu and Takashi and it looks like from what I saw of the sneak preview for next week, "Anpan" is ready to head into the tumultuous war years.
As for Nobu, she is also kind, headstrong and optimistic...and is more than willing to punch anyone into the next century on a wave of rage if she sees something that simply isn't right.
If Nobu had been even more of a tomboy, I would have thought this 40th single by veteran enka singer Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）would have been perfect. "Horechattan da yo" (I've Gosh Darn Fallen in Love) was released in July 1969. Usually my impression of Japanese love songs is that a female singer vocalizes the songwriter's words into something very light and airy. Not this song. When I first heard "Horechattan da yo", my butt flew off the chair by a couple of centimetres when Miyako's bullhorn declaration cleared my ears. This truly felt like words from a farm girl who doesn't mind getting her hands and feet dirty for the family trade but finally experiences those first pangs of love for a guy in her school. Maybe there will be a Cinderella angle here. Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）was the lyricist here while Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）took care of the melody and arrangement which are suitably sweet, languid and enka to fit the rural environment.
I have always thought that Kayokyoku tunes are supposed to be much more story-driven than emotional, and Enka is supposed to be more emotionally driven, but a lot of times there seem to be a bit of overlap between the two genre (I am sure we have Misora and Mamoe to thank for that), however「惚れちゃったんだヨ」more than satisfies my naive assumptions concerning what Enka.
ReplyDeleteHi, Brian. Yeah, I think there's been this argument on whether kayo kyoku and enka are separate or whether they intertwine in spots depending on the song. It's kinda like country music and pop although thanks to people like Taylor Swift and Shania Twain, those two genres have at least gotten closer to each other as well.
DeleteThat explanation makes a lot of sense to me! I think a number of Misora Hibari seem to sometimes blur the lines between Kayo Kyoku and Enka.
DeleteI guess that would make Misora Japan's crossover master since she delved into kayo kyoku, enka, jazz and even Group Sounds.
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