Muneyuki Sato/Dark Ducks -- Aoba-jo Koi Uta （青葉城恋唄）

Singer-actor-TV personality Muneyuki Sato（さとう宗幸） first came to my attention in the early 80s as his songs got fairly frequent airplay on "Sounds of Japan". However, the one song that will always come to mind to me and just about everyone who listens to kayo kyoku is his debut, "Aoba-jo Koi Uta". The literal translation for the title is "Aoba Castle Love Song", but I rather like how one page on www.drillspin.com translated it: "A Love Song to Sendai".

Sato was born in 1949 in Gifu Prefecture and had an early career as a semi-professional folk singer, releasing one album that he produced himself in 1976 titled "Bara Iro no Jinsei"（バラ色の人生...Rose-Coloured Life）. A year later, he started a stint as a DJ on "FM Request Hour" for the NHK affiliate radio station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. In June 1977, during one episode of the show, a listener by the name of Senichi Hoshima（星間船一） provided a poem about lost love in Sendai for which Sato added a melody. Thus "Aoba-jo Koi Uta" was born. Aoba Castle, by the way, is the alternate name for Sendai Castle.

(Unfortunately the Dark Ducks video
got taken down but you can enjoy Chieko Baisho's version.

Uh, actually, I did find one by DD below.)

The song was released in May the following year. However, at around the same time, word about the existence of this song reached the powers-that-be managing a vocal group by the name of Dark Ducks which was formed in 1951. There was a bit of a race between Sato and Dark Ducks to find out whose version would win out (if it was actually successful). The Dark Ducks version came out a month after Sato's debut, with the conventional feeling that the vocal group had the edge since they were a famed veteran team compared to Sato who was basically an unknown. Then, just 11 days following the release of "Aoba-jo Koi Uta" by Dark Ducks, the Miyagi Earthquake struck the Tohoku area creating widespread damage to homes and the surrounding environment. In order to boost spirits in his adopted prefecture, Sato did a live performance of the song; a month later, sales for his version started soaring to ultimately reach 1.1 million records. Meanwhile, the version by the Ducks sold a relatively smaller 300,000 copies. Below is their performance of the song on "Yoru no Hit Studio".

The Ducks' version is perfectly fine, but there is just something about Sato's rendition of "Aoba-jo Koi Uta" that will always have me imagining bright green woods and fresh clean air whenever I hear it. And although the lyrics mention about the yearly Sendai Tanabata Festival and the covered shopping arcades, it will always be a countryside song to me. According to J-Wiki, it was labeled indeed as such a song during the 1970s, a time that was famous for having the catchphrase, "Chiho no Jidai"（地方の時代...The Countryside Era）. By the way, according to the video outline above, the Dark Ducks' version is the 4th one after Sato, Kaori Mizumori and Yuzo Kayama.

The song peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 31st-ranked song of 1978. It also won Sato the Newcomers' Prize at the Japan Record Awards, and an invitation to that year's Kohaku Utagassen. And finally, it hit further immortality by becoming the departure song at several tracks at JR Sendai Station. Not surprisingly, whenever Sato appears anywhere on television, everyone knows it will most likely be to perform that song.

Of course, the song has been covered by many other singers such as Masako Mori（森昌子）and Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）.