Yujiro Ishihara -- Yogiri no Bojou（夜霧の慕情）

Aishitemo, aishitemo ~

I actually remember those opening words from The Tough Guy's 1966 song "Yogiri no Bojou" (Yearning in the Night Fog) from when I was a toddler. Definitely long time, no hear. Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）entry here seems to straddle that line between enka and Mood Kayo. It's got that wistful and fleeting arrangement which brings out that image of a couple dressed in yukata while on that arched bridge looking at cherry blossoms, but at the same, there is that haunting organ and lonely Latin guitar that hints at Ishihara the balladeer walking through the side streets of Tokyo.

Written by Hisao Ohtaka（大高ひさを）and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎眞一）, "Yogiri no Bojou" is a sad, plaintive elegy on the passing of a relationship. In this case, Ishihara is the one to break things off as a noble gesture to his one true love so that she doesn't get mired into his life as a gangster. The lass may be heartbroken but will not get broken by life.

With that story imbued into the lyrics, I figured that there must have been a movie to go with the song. And sure enough, when I checked J-Wiki, there was a Nikkatsu film with the same title made in the same year with The Tough Guy playing a boss by the name of Horibe. I'm not sure how well "Yogiri no Bojou" the movie did at the box office but the song did very well. In fact, it's Ishihara's 9th most successful number, selling 1.7 million records.