As I mentioned in the previous article, "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back after several weeks of hiatus due to the Holidays. One of the guests was enka singer Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）who, back on New Year's Eve, managed to pull off another Guinness world record of sustained kendama catches (there are actually other snakes of people doing this sort of thing?!) on the Kohaku Utagassen.
It seems as if Miyama is taking after another famous enka legend by the name of Hiroshi (Itsuki) and becoming quite the Renaissance man or Swiss Army knife. He not only sings but loves kendama, breeds Rhinoceros beetles and handles the drums with aplomb, and those are the things that I remember; there were a few other hobbies that popped up on the screen but I forgot what they were.
Anyways, Miyama was on the drum set last night as he performed his latest single which was released only a couple of weeks ago and which makes the song the second one to be listed under the 2026 label here on KKP after this particular tune. "Hana to Samurai" (The Flower and the Samurai) is an enka song with a bit of a jazzy/rock n' roll twist so I guess I can also place this under the category of New Adult Music as well. Written by Haku Ide（いではく）and composed by Koji Tokuhisa（徳久広司）, it's all about remembering and engaging in all of those Japanese ideals such as being faithful to duty and family. I gather that it's the added genre panache that kinda softens the doctrinaire in "Hana to Samurai".
One additional thing that I discovered in Miyama's Wikipedia page is that his vocals have been called the Vitamin Voice because fans have claimed that his golden tones have provided a sense of security and vitality. So, he's the tonic that rejuvenates...something that will always be welcome in enka.
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