Fubuki Koshiji -- Ai no Sanka （愛の讃歌）

For a very long time, there was and has been a cultural bond between France and Japan. Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (a best bud of Ronald Reagan's when he was the US President) loved French culture, and apparently former French President Francois Mitterrand was a big fan of sumo. French restaurants of any size seem to populate a lot of street corners in Tokyo and even in my bedroom city of Ichikawa....along the side of any McDonalds or massage clinic. My students took me to one which was situated just metres away from a major highway overpass and a bowling alley. And the quality....and the prices....certainly fit the image of a fine French restaurant.

Chanson was and has made up a small part of the kayo kyoku world almost as far back as when Edith Piaf held audiences enthralled in France. And once in a while, on a TV retrospective, I would see and hear the late vivacious Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪） warble the sounds of "Ai no Sanka".

Born in 1924, the former Mihoko Konno（河野美保子） entered the world of the famed women's acting troupe, The Takarazuka Revue, to become a top star during the latter half of the war and the postwar years.. When she retired from the Revue, she shifted to the world of stage musicals, and around that time, Koshiji recorded a cover of Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour". As for exactly when the recording was made is of some conjecture. According to the Japanese site OKWave.jp, there were two possibilities, 1951 or 1953. The former year coincided with her departure from the Takarazuka, while the latter year was given on a BEST compilation. I flipped a coin....1951 won. Although Koshiji would continue down the path of chanson until her untimely death in 1980, I think "Ai no Sanka"pretty much cemented her title as The Queen of Chanson in Japan. Her release of the song, with Japanese lyrics by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子） (with the original composition by Margueritte Monnot and the original lyrics by Piaf herself), sold over 2 million copies.

Edith Piaf will always be the one and original behind her 1949 "Hymne A L'Amour", but I think Koshiji made "Ai no Sanka" her own.

February 8 2022: I have to admit that the 1961 Brenda Lee version of the song, titled "If You Love Me (Really Love Me)", that was used as the ending theme for Episode 4 of "Loki" really got to me.