Yutaka Akiba & Arrow Knights -- Yuwaku （誘惑）

Ikebukuro

It's a cool Sunday night here. Most likely, most folks in Japan at this point in time would just be resting up after a hearty dinner and watching TV before heading back out into the rat race on Monday. So, they would probably not be too enthused about hitting the bars or karaoke boxes as may be the case on a Friday or Saturday night.

My family and I enjoyed a good round of tempura tonight. And yes, I kept things homebound as well, not that there is anything remotely resembling a friendly neighbourhood nomiya or karaoke box in my neck of the woods at all. Still for today's second entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I felt more in a Mood Kayo mood so I settled on searching for something appropriate.

Well, I came across a tune by Yutaka Akiba & Arrow Knights（秋庭豊とアローナイツ）. Now, Noelle has already written on this Mood Kayo group in some good detail so you can check out her write-up on "Nakanoshima Blues"（中の島ブルース）which the Arrow Knights debuted with in 1973. However, my contribution concerning the Hokkaido-based band is one of their later songs, "Yuwaku" (Temptation) which was actually released in 1990.

Although enka has been coming out steadily up to the present day, I think its cousin genre of Mood Kayo hasn't been quite as prevalent so I was initially surprised to hear this example of the old stuff being released at the beginning of the final decade of the last century. But "Yuwaku" has got that classic sound (with a bit of modern arrangement) for enjoying a glass at some swanky bar or club in Ginza or Akasaka. And I do like whoever is handling the electric guitar.

I had to do some research to find out how to read the lyricist's name but it is Akira Saketani（酒谷明良）, and he does a marvelous job in setting up the Mood of two ships passing in the night and tripping the light fantastic. Composer Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）, as I intimated above, brings back those sweeping sounds to accompany those clinking ice cubes and the smell of cigarette smoke.

The release of the song must have come with some sorrow since the original leader, Yutaka Akiba passed away at the age of 44 during the summer of 1990. Along with that point, I can further add to Noelle's information on the Arrow Knights by saying that most of the members came from the city of Utashinai in Hokkaido Prefecture, which is currently the smallest city in terms of population in the nation. Also, the group formed while they were working as coal miners!