Ken Takakura -- Kiri no Hatoba/Nakaseruze（霧の波止場／泣かせるぜ）

In the late Ken Takakura's（高倉健）roles, he could be seen as the dependable fellow who can protect you when the going gets tough or the guy you don't want to ever meet in an open plaza let alone in a dark alley.

Back in late 2014, I wrote about his song "Abashiri Bangaichi" （網走番外地）from 1965. Takakura never had a particularly long discography with his most prolific period being in the 1960s, but by my estimation, he wasn't too bad a singer. His growling delivery when singing was just as good at relating a hard-knock life as was his acting.

I came across this video of a single that he released in February 1967, and it contains both the A-side and B-side. The A-side is "Kiri no Hatoba" (Foggy Wharf) which provides the setting of many an enka/Mood Kayo scene of romance and breakup gets its fame. Written by Ryo Yano（矢野亮）and composed by Toshio Shiraishi（白石十四男）, Takakura seems to give a resigned story of life in a way that flows out like an enka tune despite the arrangement that sounds like it was meant to be performed in a swanky nightclub...i.e. Mood Kayo. The rhythm itself kinda lends to a feeling of a wayward vagabond and if it weren't for the arrangement, I would have thought it more fitting for a masterless samurai wandering through Edo Era Japan.

Both Yano and Shiraishi were also responsible for the definitely Mood Kayo B-side, "Nakaseruze" (Make You Cry). The relentless piano and saxophone set the tone for Takakura as he sounds like a veteran gangster sullenly doing his job with little enjoyment but with plenty of duty. "Nakaseruze" is perhaps a cautionary tale to a young punk or a fellow barfly about what getting into the dark side of life may entail. Both songs help define the term shibui to anyone asking about the old-time music.