Thursday, February 7, 2019
Michiya Mihashi -- Moonsault no Osho-san (ムーンサルト和尚さん)
No words can describe this masterpiece of an album cover. As I said before, "Knock 'em dead, Mitchie!"
Ever since I found the Michiya Mihashi (三橋美智也) fan club YouTube channel (I think), I've had the pleasure of having essentially the minyo star's entire discography descending on me on a daily basis. It seems that no stone is being left unturned in Michi's music garden, including the gaudy little one that hides his insane disco phase. I've made mention of this spin-off from his usual stage persona before, and it's as far-out as it looks with disco-fied covers and a full-on album, all with pictures of the awkwardly serious guy in the "Saturday Night Fever" polyester suit.
In the way of this album, "Gekire! Michi" (激れ!ミッチー) from 1979, I've thus far talked about one track from it, that being "Disco Tengoku" (ディスコ天国). This time, it's "Moonsault no Osho-san" (The Moonsaulting Monk). What exactly is a moonsault? Well, it's a type of back flip and also the name of a pro-wrestling move. But in the context of the song, I'm pretty our monk in question is back flipping and not pretend-wrestling someone into submission. Anyway, I think the best way to describe "Moonsault no Osho-san" is that it's an easy-listening, fun romp featuring a cheeky monk making a beeline for the village for to meet some ladies once the sun goes down. From the funky music, you can tell that he's having fun probably showing off his moonsaulting skills and tattered rags, but once dawn breaks, he has to return to the temple like an unhappy kid being called home by his parents. This premise is actually quite like "Iwate no Osho-san" (岩手の和尚さん), where a bunch of monks head into town to PARTY HARD!!!
"Moonsault no Osho-san" was had its lyrics and music done by Tatemi Yoshida and Masahisa Takichi (吉田健美 . 武市昌久) respectively. Well, despite being more pop inclined than "Disco Tengoku", I find "Moonsault no Osho-san" a lot less earth-shatteringly strange. Perhaps it's because there's no shamisen solo in the midst of a techno flurry, but I think it's mainly because I'm so conditioned to this side of his musical career by now.
P.S. This song brings to mind this show on NHK called "Ikkyu-san For Adults" or something like that. Now, I don't know much about the original "Ikkyu-san" show, but I was quite surprised to see this little cartoon short series of the monk going around womanizing and patronizing brothels being aired in the day (at 10.45am on Friday mornings, where I'm at). Personally, I'm not against this at all because I find the fact that it airs right after some sort of "Let's Learn The Okinawan Dialect!" show that looks like it targets kids absolutely hilarious. *Cue "Outstanding move!" meme*
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Hi, Noelle!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have to say that if I had been in the middle of drinking something and seeing that album cover of Disco Michiya, I most likely would have given the Mother of All Spit Takes. As you were mentioning, although there is the presence of that "Saturday Night Fever" version of the singer, the general mood of "Moonsault no Osho-san" reminds me more of the story of "Saiyuki", the 1970s TV show that featured the famous Monkey King of Chinese literature (https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2012/07/godiego-monkey-magic.html).
"Ikkyu-san" was shown on TV Japan here, too, until it finished its run recently. Yup, the song would have fit in quite well with the mellow zaniness of the natives there.
Yup, that is indeed a very spit-takeable expression by Michi, J-Canuck! I'm pretty sure his fan club did a mass spit take when this album flew on to the shelves.
DeleteI'm familiar with "Saiyuki", or as I know it, "Xi You Ji" (basically the same kanji but read in Chinese). Now that you mention it, this song's monk's behaviour is quite like the Monkey King's, especially in the way of being spry and mischievous.