Rumiko Koyanagi -- Seto no Hanayome （瀬戸の花嫁）

Man, listening to this song....just transports me back to my early childhood. When I visited Japan for the very first time 40 years ago, I recall seeing women wearing those dresses and sporting those hairstyles. "Seto no Hanayome"(The Bride of Seto), along with Rumiko Koyanagi's（小柳ルミ子） debut single, "Watashi no Jokamachi"（私の城下町） and Mari Amachi's（天地真理） "Hitori Janaino"（ひとりじゃないの）, which already have their own entries here, are the three earliest Japanese pop songs that I can remember clearly from my stereo days.

Although "Seto no Hanayome" is about the area surrounding the Seto Inland Sea between the main island of Honshu and the smaller island of Shikoku, whenever I hear it, memories of traveling on my first Bullet Train, walking through the Namba area of Osaka and seeing the different-coloured phones come flooding in. The lyrics, written by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, actually express a young bride's feelings about moving to that region from the title to start her new life as a married woman. Yamagami has written a number of songs, some of which are also represented in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" such as Agnes Chan's "Hinageshi no Hana", Yuki Saori's "Yoake no Scat" and GARO's "Gakusei Gai no Kissaten". The melody was provided by the just-as-prolific Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃） who composed and sang "Canada Kara no Tegami" as well as composing "Watashi no Jokamachi". The one part of the melody that will always strike a chord with me is the simulated gull cries, followed by Koyanagi's optimistically plaintive delivery.

Some people may have thought that the song referred to a particular point in the Seto Inland Sea region, namely some island near Kagawa Prefecture. However, in actual fact, lyricist Yamagami had never visited there, so the song could refer to any point....a testament to his writing abilities, no doubt. In any case, "Seto no Hanayome", released in April 1972, was another great hit for Koyanagi; her next big hit after "Watashi no Jokamachi". It won a Japan Music Award, and entered the Oricon rankings at No. 7 before soon hitting the top spot, and ended up becoming the 2nd-ranked song of the year.　Needless to say, Koyanagi performed the song at the 1972 Kohaku Utagassen.