Noriko Sakai – Honki wo dashite (ホンキをだして)

Kayokyoku champion composer meets the most popular teen idol of 1980’s

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Kyohei Tsutsumi (筒美京平, real name Eikichi Watanabe) is in a class of his own. Born in 1940, he has achieved high chart positions with his compositions during 5 decades. Tsutsumi songs have been performed by enka singers and rock bands (KinKi Kids) alike. Alone Judy Ongg’s Miserarete sold over 2 million copies in 1979. The total sales of his songs is astronomical 76 million, including 39 number 1 hits. If there ever has been a king of kayokyoku, it’s him. 

A teenage idol fits very well in this company. 15-year-old Noriko Sakai (酒井 法子) auditioned in April 1986 for Momoco Club and was chosen as the host of the show. “When producer Masahisa Aizawa of Sun Music turned the unknown Noriko Sakai into a household name in the 1980s, he did so not with her singing voice, but by molding her into Japan’s little sister, making her famous for using a soon-to-be-widely-imitated childlike handwriting and an infantile speech style known as noripiigo, Nori-P language that changed Japanese popular culture.” (Mark D. West: Secrets, Sex and Spectacle, The Rules of Scandal in Japan and United States, University of Chicago Press, 2006.)

Yappii. It’s not very surprising that an idol is a product. The greatness of teenage Noriko Sakai was that she made us forget it. Her role allowed her to be silly, and she truly loved every second of it. Only very rarely, like in Yoruhit performance of No-re-na-i Teenage with her former classmates, the emotions of the moment were almost cracking the smiling and happy facade. As a 100% pro, in the end she didn’t allow her performance to become disturbed.

It was very profitable enterprise. Noriko Sakai won the rookie of the year award over her Momoco Club friend Rie Hatada and enka queen Fuyumi Sakamoto (but to be honest, Fuyumi was not so impressive during her first years.) In the end of 1980’s she had a chain of Nori-P stores that sold only Nori-P merchandise. One of the shops was located in a hut on Fujiyama, in the height of 3000 metres. It was the highest fan shop in the world. The performance of Honki wo dashite above is from the tv premiere on Kayo Bin Bin House, 25th December 1988.

Like many idols before, Noriko Sakai distanced herself from her idol image to become a popular actress. “Aoi usagi”, a signature tune for 1995 tv drama Hoshi no kinka became Sakai’s first million seller. Faithful to her role in drama she performed the song in Kouhaku Utagassen also in sign language.

In 2009 Noriko Sakai’s husband was arrested for possession of amphetamine. When she finally arrived in a police station, a drug test was in order. It was positive. In the chaotic athmosphere of those days every tv channel sent out their own investigative reporters. Hotel rooms where she was located were screened from floor to ceiling. Every detail was in headlines. Sakai accused that her husband had forced her to participate in drug use, and she promptly divorced. Sun Music directors were demoted. Trolls of Nicovideo had a field day and rewrote “Aoi usagi” as “Shiroi kusuri” (White Medicine), starring Miku Hatsune. In the animation she was put behind bars by Kagamine sisters.

But Honki wo dashite is a great song. A sort of old photograph forgotten in the upper shelf of a closet, bringing us back to time when idols were still fun. Kyohei Tsutsumi’s composition flows so naturally that one can only wonder why there are no more songs like this. Arrangement by Motoki Funayama (船山基紀 ) simply works. Hiromi Mori’s (森浩美) lyrics are optimistic, perhaps even cruelly optimistic. As W.C.Fields used to put it: “This piece of advice is so precious that I have never afforded to follow it.”