Kazuko Mifune -- Tanin Bune（他人船）

 

Out of a sense of curiosity, I wanted to check out whether veteran enka singer Kazuko Mifune（三船和子）was related at all to the legendary actor Toshiro Mifune（三船敏郎）. Alas, this doesn't seem to be the case. In any case, I saw the Aichi Prefecture singer for the first time on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）last year and she tenderly related her time under the tutelage of the late songwriter Minoru Endo（遠藤実）. Not surprisingly, she said that though he could be very gregarious and jaunty, he could also be quite the fist-thumping and furiously dissatisfied teacher. That probably describes a lot of kayo kyoku creators and singers.

The first several singles of Mifune, who debuted in 1965, were indeed created by her master Endo and that includes "Tanin Bune" (A Ship of Strangers), her 4th single released in December that year. It was also the song that I heard on that episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta". A very bittersweet tune with a lot of kobushi, it relates the story of a woman about to say goodbye to a lover forever as he gets on that ship. She even says outright in the lyrics that she would rather be told by her soon-to-be erstwhile paramour to go die somewhere rather than endure the reality of parting as such sweet sorrow. The song would become a big hit for Mifune throughout 1966 and sell over 100,000 records. However, she only got onto the Kohaku Utagassen for the first and only time thus far in 1995 to sing a completely different song.