I was looking at the calendar from Japan I got for my parents earlier tonight and discovered that August 11th was done up in red. And the reason for that is it's Mountain Day, yet another national holiday. Supposedly the inaugural Mountain Day was last year in 2016 which I hadn't been aware of. What I am aware of is that with the exception of June, every month in Japan now has at least one national holiday. I figure that since there is also an Ocean Day in July, perhaps the somewhat geographically appropriate choice for a national holiday in June would be heiya-no-hi（平野の日）or Plains Day. On the other hand, the government can simply designate the first day of summer as an official holiday. Whatever the future holds, Japan is a national holiday-crazy country.
"Yama" was released in March 1990. It was written by enka lyricist Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Kitajima himself under his regular songwriting pseudonym Joji Hara（原譲二）. The arrangement has that usual mighty Sabu-chan brio (I think I even heard an alp horn in the intro) although the lyrics don't refer to any particular mountains in Japan themselves. In fact, Hoshino's words were meant to convey a man's attempts to be better than his old master whose legend is as big as a mountain. Kinda like Anakin besting Obi-Wan but perhaps that's not a happy example.
Some trivia I picked up from the J-Wiki article on "Yama" is that the ballad was the latest in a series of one-kanji character titles for the singer, following songs such as "Kawa"（川...River）and "Kokoro"（魂...Soul）. As for this blog up to now, the only one-character title for a Kitajima song had been "Ohkami"（狼...Wolf） which I wrote up a little over a year ago.
"Yama" did moderately well by peaking at No. 39 on the Oricon weeklies. But this was the song that Kitajima sung not once but twice during his Kohaku Utagassen career. His first time was at the end of 1990 when the song was released and his second time was in 2001.
Just found this song yesterday and fall totally in love with it. I came here while searching for lyrics and translation but seems I walked upon a treasure chest of a blog. Will look into more the stuff you've written. Thanks for this one also!
ReplyDeleteHi there. Good to hear from Finland. Hope you enjoy reading some of the other entries such as Yutaka Ozaki.
DeleteOne thing I'm curious about is, since you are very knowledgeable with enka, how familiar are you with it's korean step child: trot-music?
ReplyDeleteI enjoy casual dose of enka every now and then but I find especially modern trot to be more cheerfully sentimental? (hope that's the right word) and hence its easier on the ear than enka.
Would be interesting to hear your thoughts.
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. I did hear of the term "trot music" and when I read your message, I decided to take a look for the songs on YouTube. I found this video:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7KFhd8tqTg
I'd probably say that the genre is a mix of the more upbeat kayo (traditional pop) and the music that the aidoru groups perform. Especially with the dancing, I've gotten quite a lot of DA PUMP vibes. Enka is quite a different animal, thematically speaking, since along with good cheer, the genre also includes heartbreak and determination to achieve a goal with emotions very much on the sleeve. I noticed that one of the performers in the video, Kim Yongja, has also been a part of the Japanese pop world.
Nice you took a little look. That video surely is very idol heavy but some songs from my personal trot playlist were also there. I'll try and dig up for you some older more classic type of songs, if you happen to wanna check out.
ReplyDeleteYou found a familiar face too. My friend got me into kpop around 2019 and it seems to be very common for koreans to go and take their share also from Japan alone the rest of the world. I don't know how common is it nowadays other way around?
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. KPop has definitely made its way around the world and even Toronto has its KPop fandom and clubs. My niece even had her KPop phase for a short while. I think over the past decades, there has been pop cultural cross-pollination among the nations which isn't a bad thing.
DeleteHi again, I made a short trot playlist for you like I threatened. Here's a link if you fancy some slightly older trot.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6aoeBsKK-rER6QuwA-I6dOXGnNcSC1Bw
Kpop has surely made an impact on the world music scene as a whole. And like you said has cross-pollinated finally even with the west. I think it's great and about time that european looking, english speaking music has a new rival to compete with. It got me thinking how it's kinda bizarre that only basically american and british with their buddies, are dominating whole world's music scene even in modern times when we have instant translations etc available. Of course it goes also with pop culture as whole and that has lead in so much tradition and local culture to go near death.
I wished every country could, perhaps not so much in a factory-built style, replicate kpops success so we'd have much more multicultural and -traditional music in radios etc around the world. Music is still the language that everyone understands, and with the help of as much translation and content to go around each country and their styles, so much culture could be shared and saved.
And now Kpop has done its part and introduced its country to the world.
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. Thanks for the playlist. That first song, "Terminal Mapo" really has an enka feeling to it. KPop has made its mark and it won't be going away. It's good to have different types of music to attract fans from outside of their native countries. Although Japanese City Pop hasn't become this huge global phenomenon that KPop has become, it has earned its niche among the world music genres such as Portuguese fado and the bossa nova of Brazil.
DeleteI really like city pop too, it's such a vibe. I haven't heard people play or talk about it much in real life. Couple of times few guys did know about it, both jdm and "general fans" of Japan. But it has quite a following on the internet and youtube. I personally enjoy the classic ~80's era stuff the most (cause 80's are the best, even though I haven't lived through them hah ha). Newer stuff is also ok.
ReplyDeleteI (excuse my language) fucking love that I can talk about all this music with someone who is genuinely intrested and knows so much. Usually I'm talking about all these stuff to my couple of friends, and somethings they really like some songs, but mostly aren't interested that much.
If you tell me that you listen to mongolian stuff I'm gonna lose my mind XD
Just a little more about trot:
ReplyDeleteWe have this music genre in Finland what we call "iskelmä", basicly the popular music before there was pure "pop" music, like many countries had. And even the sub genre of "syntikka-iskelmä", basicly just synth-iskelmä is very similar to "modern classic" trot songs. As old iskelmä is close to older trot. I think it has contriputed to my liking of trot.
When it comes to singing trot has those well, growling is the wrong word, type of vocals with more dynamic use of vocal range. I think it's due to those traditional style roots of enka and maybe even trad. korean singing. But regardless, those make the genre even better!
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. Unlike KPop, City Pop doesn't have quite the same mainstream worldwide reach. It seems to be loved by the folks who like their groove and American soft rock from the 70s and 80s (which is right up my alley) but that's fine with me. I kinda feel like City Pop fans like myself have joined a very friendly club. There are also people within Japan who have been scratching their heads about why foreigners have gone crazy for Japanese songs that are 30 years old.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's great that you've been able to come across the blog so that you can speak with people who have this interest in various aspects of Japanese pop music. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to listen to Mongolian music so your mind can remain intact. :) For me, aside from the Japanese stuff, I've been a big fan of pop music of the 1970s and 1980s from Canada, the US and the UK. As well, I enjoy some of the Latin genres such as bossa nova, rumba and salsa. And I also like most types of jazz.
Seeing your genre of iskelma, I checked it out on YouTube and Wikipedia. When I entered the term into the latter site, I was transferred to the article for Schlager music and its definition rather fits similar meanings for trot music in South Korea and enka in Japan: that of sentimental ballads. I've actually listened to Lauri Tähkä's "Palavaa vettä" which strikes me as being rather country-folk. If I were to think of something similar from Canada or the United States to compared with iskelmä or trot, it would probably be country-folk. I also got some 80s AOR vibes from Tommi Läntinen's "Via Dolorosa".
If you're delving further into enka music, it'll be interesting for you to compare the old stuff from the 60s and the 70s to the newer songs from the last twenty years. Since we're commenting under Saburo Kitajima, you can try his jaunty "Hakodate no Hito" from 1965:
https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2012/11/saburo-kitajima-hakodate-no-hito.html
As well, the more recent enka has adopted some Latin rhythms and even a bit of rock guitar. For example, there is Keisuke Yamauchi's "Spotlight".
https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2016/04/keisuke-yamauchi-spotlight.html
You surely have quite a nice wide frame of music you like. It sometimes feels that people only listen to extremely narrow alley of music. My "musical journey" started when I in early teens found Michael Jackson and his music, it got me into other 80's and surrounding decades of music (which I had heard but didn't know names or when it was made). Like the saying everything's connected, I found myself looking up names etc mentioned and suddenly other familiar faces came up. I usually enjoy pop, rock, folk/traditional, classic from all around the world, since I've always had this interest in other countries/culture/languages. Japan being my biggest love outside my home country. How I found Japan is basically a story of cartoon, anime, manga and it took up from there to language (which is still waiting to be learned), history, tradition, sumo been following for about 8 years now) and finally the music. Korean stuff came with my friend finally managing to break the wall of prejudice. Mongolia came into picture when I found throat singing and around the same time sumo and its connection to Mongolia through wrestlers.
ReplyDeleteNext more about iskelmä. Traditional iskelmä in it's core is based on tango, waltz etc dance music. And classic dance stages for public is where it's mostly nowadays performed. But I'd say since late 70's it has become extremely wide genre with a lot of overlapping with other genres, having lot of grey ares when you can't say if it's "purely" pop, rock or iskelmä. Songs are indeed mostly ballads about love, usually lost one in way or another. Most common being told from perspective of older person being sentimental of (usually his) love of younger years. But political and rally type of songs are another topic. A lot of translated songs also in 1900's.
Funny how you just happened to find Lauri Tähkä as an example, I have listened to his music basically my whole life since mom also loves him. He started as more of a "light rock" singer, with his band they sang first rock covers of traditional folk songs (especially local "Pohjanmaa" region), then their own kinda iskelmä/rock/folk, when Lauri went solo he has moved even more to iskelmä and pop. "Palavaa vettä" is good example of modern iskelmä. Tommi is in my books more of a rock singer but there's a good chance that iskelmä is also his genre. "Via Dolorosa" is really famous song in Finland. I'll try and gather you and extreme compressed summary of famous iskelmä songs from different times.
I sure have dove into enka more now that I found couple of artists from which kinda bounce off from. I love Sabu-chans "Hakodate"! Hits the spot right on. I looked up Keisuke too, saved it to my playlist. The few modern enka I've heard, or atleast younger singers seem to take more soft approach, not so powerful/emotional. But I still enjoy them.
One older, well younger if you compere to Sabu-chan I've took a liking is Ikuzo Yoshi, you can propably guess the song that I fist heard from him: "Ora Tokyo Sa Ikuda". That's the greatest japanese song I've found for a long time if not the best, fucking love it! I listened the crap out of it last summer while driving my summer car, Suzuki Carry. Even period correct song hah hah. Sabu and Yoshi both also great matsuri songs. Same goes with Fujii Kaze, pop singer but regardless.
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. I think a lot of people discovered Japanese pop music through anime since quite a few singers/bands had tie-ups with the show's producers to create theme songs. For me, it was because I grew up with the music, although some of the earliest anime also had their amazing themes. Michael Jackson during his "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" period recorded some of my favourite R&B tunes. Generally, I enjoyed the soul and Quiet Storm music of the late 70s and early 80s.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point about traditional iskelmä because dances like the tango and waltz were the roots for Mood Kayo which was another genre of Japanese music that had its heyday in the 50s and 60s. Often but not always, Mood Kayo was led by male vocal groups with a lead singer and the rest of the guys singing backup vocals. The Cool Five is one of the biggest examples of the genre.
Although enka as it has been known began sometime in the 1950s, there was another type of enka as far back as the late 19th century which focused more on political themes rather than the usual themes of love and pride that inhabit the typical modern enka tune.
Ikuzo Yoshi is someone that I've known for decades because of his "Yukiguni". It's a popular song that I've used in karaoke because it's not that difficult to sing. It's a pity that neither he nor Sabu-chan appear on the annual New Year's Eve special, the Kohaku Utagassen anymore since especially the latter person could rouse up the audience with his matsuri songs. There hasn't been that sort of enka singer on the show for a few years now since Sabu-chan retired.
Japanese music never found its way into Finland, only song being what we in the west know as "Sukiyaki", the surely is kinda funny knowing the true meaning and the story behind it. Traditional folk songs like "Sakura, sakura" and of course "Kimigayo" can be found in song books. J-rock had its little craze among japan fans in early 2000's, but didn't catch on.
ReplyDeleteI did an iskelmä playlist, though unlike I promised its not short. But you can do whatever you want with it. :)
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6aoeBsKK-rECrms_qsdN-5jDV9eJEVNR
I'll make sure to check out The Cool Five and mood kayo. About the really old enka which focused more on the politics, do they still perform these songs? Or have they at least been recorded in the 20th century?
I am also concerned little about old masters of their craft retiring or dying before we have "a true successor" who can fill the spot. Iskelmä suffers from this too, or has suffered for a long time, old timers had the deeper soul in their voice which is needed to "convey" of a great classic. Older iskelmä is a dying genre, new stuff that has the same feel is probably not even made, and the older the song less known it is to younger folks, let's say 70's and older (depending of the singer and the song). Enka must be facing similar troubles, but younger artist seem to still exist in numbers. While searching for Sabu-chan singing "Yama" live I came across his disciple Yutaka Ooe. And of course his "brother". In a clip I found I was actually pleasantly surprised how well he sang it, he kinda had that old school feel. Maybe with little more maturing his voice could get even better.
Morning, LornanAutoalanBlogi. Thank you very much for the iskelmä playlist. I was quite stunned by the first entry, Tapio Rautavaara's "Juokse sinä humma" from 1953 since his singing and the arrangement are remarkably similar to some of the kayo kyoku that was around at that time. In fact, listening to the first few bars, I had thought that Rautavaara was singing in Japanese!
ReplyDeleteThe political themes in the enka from the late 19th century never got transferred to the modern enka from the 1950s onwards. Modern enka is more emotional and traditional. I'm not sure whether any of that original enka ever got recorded onto wax.
My friend and I were talking about Japanese music last night, and our conclusion was that enka and Mood Kayo would continue for at least a few more decades if not longer due to the increased sentimentality among all generations of Japanese and the observation that there are at least some young people who are even willing to become enka singers themselves. One veteran enka singer, Yukio Hashi, announced his impending retirement for later this year and made a surprise announcement stating that he is looking for his successor to continue singing his songs.
Sabu-chan has groomed a number of disciples and they do sound fairly similar to their master including Yutaka Ooe, so even when Kitajima eventually leaves this mortal coil, there will be several singers to keep his style alive for many years to come.
Nice to hear that "Tapsa" made good impression right away. It's and old sleigh folk song about a man rushing his horse to run cause sky is dark, shadows are covering the road, wind is sighing in the forest and the way to home is long. He also sings how the girl didn't come with him cause he's a wild/fierce boy, the horse is his only treasure and one of a kind, his bread (livehood) is in so small pieces around the land etc. Finally he can see the country road "corner" where his small cabin and cherry tree are, and finally asks his horse to stop.
ReplyDeleteTapsa himself was an olympic medalist in the spear throwing in
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. I take it that Tapsa is an athlete specializing in the javelin. I'm sorry to hear that the older iskelmä may be fading away. By chance, does Finland have any TV shows or specials featuring such music? The Japanese are pretty sentimental so the national broadcaster, NHK, has had a weekly program showing kayo kyoku and J-Pop for many years. Of course, New Year's Eve is famous for the Red-and-White Song Festival in which many singers and bands get together to perform for over 4 hours.
DeleteOh it seems my last comment got slightly cut before. What I meant to say was that Tapsa was olympic medalist actually twice if I recall right, at least one was gold I think in late 1950's. He also had some medals in archery in finnish competitions and was an actor in probably couple dozen films in black and white era. But that got overshadowed by his singing career. He died fairly young in his ~60's, something to do with falling at a public pool and hitting his head.
ReplyDeleteBut I can bridge into the iskelmä from that. In old movies from the golden years of finnish cinema (the black and white era basicly) often had old folk and iskelmä songs in there, and these old movies are prodcasted daily in the state channel Yle. Usually once a day, sometimes more often. Old people are really the only ones who watch them, I personally like them, simple age old plots but charming and they show the old Finland and traditions that have or are disappearing, many films being set in even older times than when they were filmed. Full of dialects and great characters based on real people, these type of people will mostly be gone in couple of decades, they just were built different.
But tv shows like the ones in Japan based solely on a genre and containing performances don't exist. But traditional early iskelmä tango songs are sung during competition "Tangomarkkinat" (literally tango marketplace). Men and women competing in singing usually the older songs, some newer of course also. Best in each category are crowned as tango king and queen for a year and whole deal is brodcasted. These winners usually get a push for their career from this, many younger artists kinda make name for themselves through this and become popular iskelmä artists. Very famous event all and all, many people go watch it every year live.
Iskelmä songs usually pop up in general song competitions and singing events. But of course when older people die the less you hear the really old songs. Generally old iskelmä is regularly performed only in the dance halls by the genres singers and bands during summer time. These artist tour from dance hall to dance hall and of course the regular clubs and concert places. Dance hall goers are a species on their own, usually the same people every time. On days gone by everyone usually went cause it was the place to see and meet people, often in a romantic way. The halls were disappearing for long time but now the younger folk have gotten slowly and little by little at it. So it'll live on for while at least. These places or venues often hold other concerts etc to get the needed cash. I for example went to see Lauri Tähkäs concert to such place and they had an new up and coming old time orchestra consisting of really young boys as a "opening act". They had a gig outside first during early evening and after that was the main event inside. The band outside was called "KOMIAT" (literally the handsome ones), they are the rare ones nowadays, but really welcomed by the public. Hopefully others will follow too.
Here's a link to their album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mQEyc8HcISZV2UvI0mgQ3Pau7LVQAPprY
I think all the songs are old classics. I'm not sure do they also do original stuff. One thing I would like to mention is that their accordion player has won "Kultainen harmonikka" (The golden accordion) competition award. In my understanding the biggest and most famous and much respected accordion contest in Finland. Accordion is usually part of old traditional and newer iskelmä and a very dear instrument for Finns, even though being fairly "new thing" in Finland and finnish music when looking history. It can even be symbol of finnish summer time when it's most often heard in events etc. playing folk songs and iskelmä.
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. I'm sorry about Tapsa's fate. Several years ago, one of Japan's most influential musicians died after choking on a fish bone and he wasn't all that old.
DeleteIt would be a pity if iskelmä were to disappear completely since there is much to recommend about it. Listening to KOMIAT's music (as I am right now), I'm actually reminded of some of the male teenage idol music that was being recorded in the 1980s. It wasn't all that frequent, but some ambitious songwriters would include jazz or Latin into some of the songs.
KOMIAT's accordion player wields his instrument like a rock guitarist. He really does swing with it. In fact, I'm also reminded of the southeastern United States genre known as zydeco. Would the accordion be considered an essential instrument in iskelmä like the koto or shamisen is in enka? Listening to "Laulava sydän", there is almost a rockabilly lilt to this one.
Thanks very much for the playlist.
I would consider accordion an essential for especially for older more traditional iskelmä. It is not as common as we look newer and newer stuff, I don't know for sure but one reason might be that synths kinda started replacing it in the 80's and forward.
DeleteYou mentioned that "Laulava sydän" reminded you little of rockabilly. Under the iskelmä umbrella there is this genre what we call rautalanka (lit. steel wire) music, I find it quite similar to early rock'n'roll, usually more softer in tone with this very recognizable guitar sound . I don't know how its called outside of Finland, but it seemed to linger here a lot longer than other places. Probably because it's really close and easily blended with iskelmä tunes.
Most famous example of such band would be Agents, local legends of the genre for decades. Especially the lead guitarist Esa Pulliainen is extremely skilled, respected and admired guitar player in Finland. They have been touring and playing with many different artists as their vocals. Most famous being Rauli Badding (Somerjoki) who died quite young but had a heck of a voice and was known for his at best average looks, and another iskelmä legend Topi Sorsakoski whose voice is considered by many as the best there was. Others like Jorma Kääriäinen (famous american style rock and early style rockabilly/iskelmä singer) and more recently Ville Valo the front man of HIM and Maustetytöt (lit Spice girls) have been touring with them.
I'll link couple of examples of each soloist. I love recommending music I like and basically anything from my home country to the world. :)
Rauli
https://youtu.be/FJG76l345E4
https://youtu.be/l7OcZHf-7aI (here you can hear a lot more rock'n'roll sound from him)
Topi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IrTUI1owLg
Jorma
https://youtu.be/k64GogflJns
Ville
https://youtu.be/ZqH0FwoKVAg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=656IAIPFjiE
Maustetytöt
https://youtu.be/ZsFBSFC4rzQ
It's noteworthy that many of songs sang by others are old Rauli's and Topi's classics. The second song with Ville was if I recall right an old unreleased demo from Rauli, he found I think a dozen of these tapes not too many years ago.
Hello, LornanAutoalanBlogi. Bringing in new instruments to freshen up aging genres is nothing new. Jazz brought in some rock which became fusion, and enka incorporated the electric guitar to liven itself up. It seems as if Finnish music did parallel Japanese music in its willingness to take a look at some of the American genres for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Finns have had great intrest in everything American and British like many others since WW2. Nowadays the idolizing of everything American has (and likely will be) become even an problem cause whatever happens in there will spread also here through social media mostly. Which also includes rap musics gang culture and all that. It has become a problem within the Middle Eastern and African youngsters in the capital region.
ReplyDeleteBut hope it'll turn and be about the music again.
Japan has had its great interest in the pop culture and other forms of culture in America for a long time. Although City Pop has been attracting people from outside of Japan, one of the singers that has been associated with the uber-genre, Junko Yagami, has pointed out that it's because of American West Coast AOR that City Pop was able to thrive.
DeleteSince you've been kind to offer some of the singers from iskelmä, I should also give my recommendations of other singers from enka and Mood Kayo.
Sayuri Ishikawa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvc0LadtZUk
Harumi Miyako
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKmma_bRdQE
Hiroshi Itsuki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPCWCN1QoGA
Los Primos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV78dQsYSvo
Los Indios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewBjQRbmaiE
Shinichi Mori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMaLeZAJEIU
Thank you for your recommendations!
DeleteI really liked Hiroshi Itsuki, Los Primos and Shinichi Mori.
Los Indos performance really reminded me of old iskelmä and their tv performances. I actually recognised Shinichi Moris' song, I've seen it performed by I think it was five female enka singers, the male vocals worked really well and I do have a tendency to lean more towards male vocals regardless of the genre.
Hi, LornanAutoalanBlogi. All of the above are among the old guard so I was hoping that there would be someone you would like. Mori's "Minato Machi" is a favourite for covers; I believe the late Teresa Teng did her version of it as well, and maybe she was one of the five that you stated.
DeleteI dug up the performace of the 5 females. I think it's fairly recent though Tengs' version is good too.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/d0Zdar4SPhA
One old timer I like but haven't herd too many songs yet is Hachiro Kasuga. I really love his version of Otomi-san.
Kasuga is one of the pioneers for modern enka. Our resident enka/Mood Kayo fan Noelle Tham has written her fair share of articles on his music.
Delete