Fuyumi Sakamoto -- Rashomon（羅生門）

 

Frankly speaking, I can count the number of Akira Kurosawa（黒澤明）movies that I've seen on one hand. I've heard about a lot of them but I've only watched "The Seven Samurai" and his final work "Madadayo" in 1993. I've also seen clips from "Ran" and "Ikiru", but that's about it. I have yet to see "Rashomon" but its storytelling device has become so influential that I've seen it being used in TV shows ranging from "Happy Days" to "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

You can imagine my surprise then when on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, enka veteran Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）appeared on the stage to sing a song titled "Rashomon". I wondered whether Sakamoto had been intending to pay tribute to the Kurosawa classic. 

Written by Souko Niimoto（新本創子）, composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）and arranged by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）, this was actually released as Sakamoto's 33rd single from June 2006. "Rashomon" launches with an intro that I thought was going to make this a classical/enka fusion thereby having this land into the genre of New Adult Music but then as the song goes on, the compass takes things into full enka. However one listens to it though, it is dramatic right down to Sakamoto's kobushi. As for the music video, I thought that this was more "Kill Bill" than "Rashomon" the movie. The song peaked at No. 29 on Oricon.

Plus-Tech Squeeze Box -- Kitchen Shock

 

For the purposes of this song, I had been searching for any bloopers from any of the famous cooking shows on Japanese television. I distinctly remember that there was one such program with former aidoru hosts Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）and Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）getting themselves into a pickle in the kitchen one time, but alas, I couldn't find it on YouTube. However, I can settle for the above video of a lady cheerfully admitting to carbonizing her gratin. Well, at least, it has one thing going for it...it sounds delightfully crispy.

A YouTube commenter noted that "Kitchen Shock" by the technopop unit Plus-Tech Squeeze Box has an intro that sounds as if it should have been made into a theme song for a cooking show on Japanese TV...perhaps a comedic one. But instead, this happy-go-lucky number of techno-Shibuya-kei skippiness was placed onto a December 2004 compilation titled "Contemode V.A. 2". "Kitchen Shock" itself doesn't appear on any of the unit's own albums.

The video below is from YouTuber Orange Glider who gives his take on what makes Plus-Tech Squeeze Box tick. Enjoy!

Wataru Takada -- Jitensha ni Notte（自転車にのって）

Norbert Nagel via Wikimedia Commons

 

The weather is improving so bicycles are coming out once again here in Toronto after a long winter. I'm sure the same thing is happening in Japan depending on the area.

But over there, I've heard that a rash of new bicycle regulations have come into force which could earn those unaware the dreaded blue ticket and fines. And according to NHK, there are probably many who are in the dark about how intricate some of those new laws are.

Coincidentally, on one of the NHK music shows, I recently heard a pretty rustic song called "Jitensha ni Notte" (Getting on the Bicycle). It was something that I hadn't listened to before so I looked into it. This was the May 1971 5th single by folk singer-songwriter Wataru Takada（高田渡）and it sounds like something that reflected a typical ride through a friendly town neighbourhood. It's short, sweet and the melody line during the singing of the verses reminds me of the old kids' song "I've Been Working on the Railroad".

Takada was born in Gifu Prefecture in 1949 in a family that had been rich due to their lumber merchant grandfather, but their fortune was wiped out because of a massive earthquake and stock market failures. After the death of his mother, Takada's father ended up taking him and his brothers to Tokyo with no particular destination in mind and they all lived in poverty in the Fukagawa district. In the 1960s, he would pick up the ukulele and start getting into folk music. His career would begin in earnest in 1968 and several singles and albums would be released. He passed away in April 2005 at the age of 56 from heart failure.

Nobuko Sendou -- Hiromi: Kiken na Yokan（Hiromi -危険な予感-）

 

Just for fun, I punched into the Bing Image Creator, "A dangerous premonition in the style of Picasso". The above is what I got and well, ugh! Maybe it's a good thing that this not be seen past midnight in a dark room. But feel free to psychoanalyze it all you want.

Fortunately, the song that has that very title "Hiromi: Kiken na Yokan" (Hiromi: A Dangerous Premonition) sounds a lot more benign...almost to an aidoru level. This was recorded by actress-singer Nobuko Sendou（仙道敦子）as her 2nd single in October 1984, and though I haven't bothered to dig deep into Yuko Murakami's（村上悠子）lyrics, the melody composed and arranged by Ken Sato（佐藤健）is brisk and pleasant if somewhat urgent. I don't know who this Hiromi is, but she might need some help from the Equalizer.

The first time I posted a Nobuko Sendou article, it was back in late 2024 for her 1987 "Umi no Mieru Mado"（海の見える窓） and I compared her singing style to Miki Imai's（今井美樹）vocals. Imai herself was also coming up the ranks as an actress and singer, so to speak, at around the same time. Even with this early sophomore single, I can still make the comparison between Sendou and Imai since I think "Kiken na Yokan" could have also been sung by the latter lady early in her own career.

Something Merely Whimsical for a Friday: NHK's Song Picks for Corporate Entrance Ceremonies by Decade

 

The above video shows a variety of entrance ceremonies for the new recruits at various companies throughout Japan, including All Nippon Airways at 1:55. Yes, it is April and so the corporate entities are throwing out the red carpet and all of the rigamarole to welcome the fresh newbies

I was watching the NHK morning news earlier tonight and there was a feature on the ceremonies, and the reporters did an interesting thing by showing the evolution of the corporate entrance ceremony throughout the decades from the 1960s to the 1990s, and for each decade, they put up a representative pop song. Just out of my sense of whimsy, I'm going to put these up here, too.

(1960s) Yukio Hashi and Sayuri Yoshinaga -- Itsudemo Yume wo（いつでも夢を）

(1970s) Koichi Morita and The Top Gallants -- Seishun Jidai （青春時代）

(1980s) Akina Nakamori -- Shojo A （少女Ａ）

(1990s) KAN -- Ai wa Katsu (愛は勝つ）

Now, the above were selected by NHK so they wouldn't come under Author's Picks. That label is for us KKP writers. However, I am throwing in my lone choice for an inspiring song to help encourage the new workers.

(1990s) Daiji Man Brothers Band -- Sore ga Daiji （それが大事）

Ado -- All-Night Radio（オールナイトレディオ）

 

A few nights ago, I was wondering about all-night radio after having taken another look back at my article on my fantasy radio show. I then punched in "All-Night Radio" into the YouTube search engine. I'd been expecting at least a few excerpts on how the DJs sounded back then on their midnight-6 am shows, but I got nothing. Instead, though, I did get a lot of videos featuring singer-songwriter Ado and something "All-Night Radio".

Well, this was interesting, I thought. Up to now, I've always seen her as the enigmatic rock chanteuse who can soar up and down the vocal range like an express elevator powered by a ramjet. But with "All-Night Radio", which was released as her October 2023 single, it actually sounded like a very perky and upbeat pop tune that was ready-made for radio. In fact, it came across as a disco-inflected Neo-City Pop song that could have a lot of nightcrawlers cheerfully turning up that dial. Mind you, it may be a little too upbeat for the beginning or middle of a 6-hour all-night broadcast. Perhaps this could be the song to finish it off just when the sun peeks over the horizon in the morning.

Created by Mitchie M., "All-Night Radio" was used as the theme song for some sort of stage play on the Nippon Broadcasting System radio station, and its lyrics happen to be about getting ready for that radio show. There's even a shoutout to Mood Kayo and Frank Nagai（フランク永井）. The song reached No. 12 on Oricon.

Rie Ida & 42nd Street -- Koi no Arashi（恋の嵐）

 

Looking over the file for Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street, I was somewhat shocked to see that all of the six songs that I've featured on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" have been from 1980 such as "Star"（スター）. I'm not sure if I'd had some sort of fixation on that year.

Allow me to expand on her discography, temporally speaking, by going back to their 1977 debut album "Street Talk". The track that starts it off is the wistful "Koi no Arashi" (Love Storm). Written by Hikari or Kou Kurashiki（倉敷光）and composed by Yoshihiro Yonekura（米倉良広）, it's a pleasant slow simmer of disco and soul which certainly doesn't come across as something that Ida was trepidatious about. Her breathy vocals, the silvery strings and the sax solo give a good sign about the next few years in 42nd Street's career. I will always appreciate a song which brings images of enjoying a beer at the top of a New York brownstone at the end of a day.