It seems so long ago and yet it's only been a few months since enka singer and actor Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）left this mortal coil at the age of 82. I guess that the music that he provided fans were so imbued with the feeling of a long-ago era that it might be easy to assume that Hashi was someone from a very long time ago.
I was just scrolling through the Top 10 Songs of 1961 and it was evident that Hashi had a lot of hits during that time, including one that came in at No. 9, "Okesa Utaeba" (Why Not Sing A Traditional Folk Song?). Hashi's 3rd single was released in October 1960 and it's definitely an enka tune when compared to some of his later and more muscular rock kayo tunes such as "Zekken No. 1 Start da"（ゼッケンNO.1スタートだ）. Written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it's got that jingly and jangly festival spirit in there although according to the J-Wiki article on "Okesa Utaeba", there was no choreography particularly planned for it in performances of the song unlike some of Hashi's other fare. I certainly thought that there was something min'yo about it.
With the mention of Niigata Prefecture in Saeki's lyrics and perhaps other places within the province, I assume that "Okesa Utaeba" can also be considered to be a go-touchi song or a regional tune as Hashi sings about the one that got away. Maybe the song is supposed to be a salve for that broken heart. Listeners could sympathize because "Okesa Utaeba" managed to sell about 200,000 records and break the Top 10 list in the pre-Oricon era as mentioned above.
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