Mirei Kitahara -- Ishikari Banka （石狩挽歌）

On that episode of "Itsuki Sensei no Utau! SHOW Gakko"（五木先生の 歌う！SHOW学校.）which featured Hokkaido kayo such as "Souran Wataridori"（ソーラン渡り鳥）, I also got re-acquainted with another tune that sparked my memory engrams due to the onomatopoeic lyric "Onbororo, onborobororo..."（オンボロロ、オンボロボロロー）. However, I couldn't just pay tribute to this song by simply calling it the "Onbororo" tune.

It is, in fact, titled "Ishikari Banka" (Ishikari Elegy). The song has been covered by a number of enka singers over the decades but ultimately, the most famous version is the first one as sung by Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）when it was released in June 1975. J-Wiki mentions it became a huge hit for her and arguably the most famous tune by the singer but I couldn't find out how it did on Oricon. She is also famous for an even darker ballad.

I would probably have to listen to a number of interviews about why "Ishikari Banka" has been so popular with the kayo artists. However, I can speculate that it could be the power of the arrangement (pride mixed in with tragedy) including the trumpet intro and the personal story permeating the lyrics that have probably attracted so many to sing it.

Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）was the composer behind "Ishikari Banka" but the lyrics belong to longtime lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）. And Nakanishi based the words on his seemingly cursed ne'er-do-well older brother who just couldn't get his life together. One incident involved his brother managing to get a huge catch of herring one time but instead of getting his money in Hokkaido, he decided to roll the dice and move it down to the main island of Honshu where he could potentially get even more money. Instead, his bountiful haul ended up rotting on the way and he was left owing a ton of money. It's from here that Nakanishi came up with the song although his lyrics state that the poor fisherman here lost his catch due to a torn net.

As for the "Onbororo, onborobororo...", I'm not completely certain what it is referring to, although I think it is the audio equivalent of that crushing feeling of disappointment.  In any case, the song generates that power from the synergy of two enka sources, the manly-man out-on-the-sea music and the overall woe-is-me theme.

Mentioning above all those singers who have covered "Ishikari Banka" since the Kitahara original, Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）is one of them above. And then there is Kouhei Fukuda（福田こうへい）below. But looking at the list of videos on YouTube, there are quite a few covers available so you can choose which one you really like.