Ken Matsudaira -- MatsuKen Samba II （マツケンサンバ II）

Truly...only in Japan. Edo Era characters are dressed in day-glo kimono surrounding their burly leader who looks like what Liberace would've been as a shogun....and all singing and dancing to a samba beat. Such is the magic of MatsuKen Samba! Like many others, the emerging popularity of actor/singer Ken Matsudaira's（松平健） musical tour de force caught me off-guard during the 2000s. My interest in watching jidaigeki (Japanese historical dramas) had largely disappeared since watching those old "Mito Komon"episodes at the Toronto Buddhist Church decades ago, so I never caught Matsudaira's seminal role as the Abarenbo Shogun, but whenever I heard his name, I would automatically think, "Oh, that samurai actor". And when I think of samurai performances, I always envision stoic and serious on a Clint Eastwood level. So, you can imagine seeing that same actor prancing about on stage in a taking-it-home show tune.

Ken Matsudaira's acting career started in the early 1970s and his musical one launched in 1980. For the latter career, there were some tongue-in-cheek titles over the years such as "MatsuKen Ondo"(1984) and "MatsuKen Mambo"(1987). But it looks like his dalliance with his nickname tunes started reaching a critical mass with the "MatsuKen Samba I" in 1992, followed by the sequel, "MatsuKen Samba II"(written by Kyoko Yoshimine[吉峰暁子] and composed by Akira Miyagawa[宮川彬良]) in 1994. Then came a revisitation to that latter song via "MatsuKen Samba II...2004 Version" a decade later. All these songs were traditionally sung at the end of his concerts, so initially it seemed as if only middle-aged ladies were the recipients, but the sight of the usually cool-as-a-kyuri actor letting go of his inner showman was too much for the mass media to ignore, and so, Matsudaira and his band of merry dancers took it on the road via many TV programs. And thus, a legend was born.

The above video has Matsudaira performing the first two versions and "MatsuKen Samba III" which came out in 2005. If I'm not mistaken, he also performed No. 2 on one of the recent Kohaku Utagassen....I mean, something as grand as the Kohaku had to have him perform it!

And speaking of "Abarenbo Shogun"（暴れん坊将軍...The Unfettered Shogun), you can take a look at the opening credits.