Yumie Morita/Mirei Kitahara -- Shiokaze no Fuku Machi（潮風の吹く町）

My ancestors once lived in a small village along the southern coast of Wakayama Prefecture. During my very first visit to Japan, I stayed for several days in my grandfather's village and remembered how each night, the locals went out to the shore to haul in the nets with any catches of fish. One fish that I remember eating was something called kamasu. It was quite good after being grilled.

I found this kayo some time ago on YouTube and put it into the list of to-be-mentioned. It's "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi" (Town Where the Sea Breeze Blows) and was sung by Yumie Morita（森田由美恵）. Released in 1971 as Morita's debut, the words and music by Rei Nakanishi and Keisuke Hama（なかにし礼・浜圭介）respectively are very natsukashii since it wasn't too long after its release that I made that first visit to Japan to meet my grandparents for the first time.

Despite the nostalgia factor, the setting for "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi" is actually somewhere in the northern parts of Japan along the sea instead of the western parts of the nation where Wakayama is. Morita sings that well-worn theme of longing for the old hometown where the fishing nets, the old train and Mom are located.

There is no J-Wiki article for Morita but I was able to find a brief profile at WebKoo for the singer. She began singing at the age of 3 and then in 1969, she was a champion at the National Kayo Contest. After the release of "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi", which was deemed a hit since it sold around 300,000 records, there were four more singles released under the Polydor label. However, after that, it seems as if Morita retired, but she's currently and probably has been working as a vocal trainer for a very long time.

I then discovered that "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi" was covered by hearty-voiced Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）, and not surprisingly, her take on the song is a bit more in the Mood Kayo sphere of things. It took a bit of doing, but I was able to find out through a Goo Q&A that Kitahara's cover version had been included in a March 1985 BEST compilation.