Eiko Segawa -- Inochi Kurenai（命くれない）

Was doing the usual maintenance of the blog last night and so was wrapping up the articles in 1987. One of them was the Top 10 Oricon Rankings for 1987 Singles and I noticed that I had covered all of the songs listed except for one...the No. 1 single for that year.

Obviously, I wasn't going to let that one go. But the interesting about this No. 1 of the year is that unlike the recent No. 1s of the year which have been owned by the alphabet aidoru groups, the No. 1 single for 1987 had been recorded by an enka/Mood Kayo singer. Now, how poignant is that?

Yup, Eiko Segawa（瀬川瑛子）got her No. 1 via her 40th single "Inochi Kurenai" which was released in March 1986. This was almost 20 years after her career had begun in the late 1960s, and at first, when "Inochi Kurenai" was released right on the first day of spring, it hadn't been expected to make that much of a splash. In fact, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper via J-Wiki, record stores all over only requested a shade over 1800 records to sell. Talk about humble beginnings.

However, going into 1987, thanks to a growing reputation through Japanese cable radio (yuusen), Segawa's single would finally reach No. 2 on Oricon and then end up as the top-selling single for that year. By the end of January 1988, "Inochi Kurenai" ended up pressing its one-millionth record. And even by the end of 1988, the song came in as the 20th-ranked single of the year. The song also earned Gold Prizes from the JASRAC Awards for 1987 and 1988.

Written by Osamu Yoshioka（吉岡治）and composed by Jun Kitahara（北原じゅん）, the story revolves around a woman vowing to make her marriage work no matter what the obstacles are. When I first saw the title "Inochi Kurenai", I had thought that it meant "I Won't Get My Life", but through looking at Yoshioka's lyrics which repeat the title, and even putting the title through Google Translate, the answer I got was "Will Not Give Up". And I thought: good enough.

The other realization is that I've heard the weaving opening notes time and again over the years but never knew that it belonged to this particular song and singer. Well, perhaps before the fame of "Inochi Kurenai" grew to huge proportions, a lot of folks may have forgotten about Segawa but that was no longer the case. She received her very first invitation to the 1987 Kohaku Utagassen to sing this one. She would be invited three more times to the NHK special with the most recent appearance being in 1996.

Actually, my first article on Segawa can be seen here.