On last week's extended "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode, enka singer and TV personality Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）appeared for the first time in a while. I'd wondered where he was all these months and I only found out right on the show that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's and made an announcement back last November. Up to this point, he'd been going through some grueling rehabilitation.
Aside from what he said on the program and that he accepted his friend Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子） assistance in being led to the stage and off, Mikawa didn't show his affliction too much at all which may be a good sign. He sang his classic "Sasori-za no Onna"（さそり座の女）and his vocals were just as fine as before. Then, he sang a song that I hadn't heard before called "Ikiru" which was his 101st single from May 2013.
And I ended up not hearing it. Jme and NHK made one of their not-so-smooth quick cuts which excised his performance of "Ikiru" (To Live). Why? Well, I quickly figured out that "Ikiru" was probably not a Japanese original. And as it turns out, it wasn't. But more on that later. Listening to it finally through the YouTube video above, it sounds like a chanson that has been given a pop arrangement thanks to Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）with new lyrics by Michikazu Yatabe（矢田部道一）.
"Ikiru" actually came from French singer-songwriter Alice Dona's 1981 song "Ma dernière volonté" (My Last Wish) which was written by Sylvain Lebel and composed by Dona.
Maybe Mikawa's appearances on TV or on stage will no longer be as frequent. But I hope that he will be able to get a good handle on his illness and that he will continue to have more years of peace and relative good health.
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