Sachiko Kobayashi -- Futatabino （ふたたびの）

It's been some months since I've written about this kayo legend so I'm happy I'm able to talk about her again.

This is one of those songs by Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）that I let slip through my memories perhaps because a later hit "Moshikashite"（もしかして）pretty much embedded itself in my head as her trademark song from the 1980s. Still, now that I've become reacquainted with "Futatabino" (The Second Time), I do remember that it was popping up on those music programs via rental video tapes from Nippon Video.

Appreciating it again after so long, I've found Kobayashi's 36th single from January 1983 to be another one of those kayo that might straddle the line between enka and Mood Kayo. Certainly looking at her appearance in the above video, I can envisage "Futatabino" to be a tune that can bring up images of being in a swanky nightclub in Tokyo and in fact, the lyrics by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, talk of a lady walking through the side streets of an entertainment district bumping into an old flame again and wondering whether the embers of love can be rekindled.

It's pretty interesting how much more conservatively dressed Kobayashi was back in the day. To be honest, I kinda prefer that way instead of the more glamourous threads she's been wearing in recent years.

Anyways, there is also something about that melody by TAI that hints at enka so you can imagine why I'm slightly stuck to definitively categorize "Futatabino" one way or another. I was surprised to find out that it was Kisugi who came up with the lyrics since I'd always thought her to be purely providing for regular pop singers.

There is no mention on J-Wiki about how the song did on the charts but it did get her another opportunity to appear on the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen. I'm pretty sure at that time, Kobayashi had yet to begin that custom of enswathing herself in yards of epic fabric on the level of an Eiko Ishioka（石岡瑛子）creation.

The late Teresa Teng（テレサ・テン）had also released her version of "Futatabino" later in October of that year but unfortunately I couldn't find her take on YouTube. (But now I have!)