The song was "Furimukeba Nihon Kai" (The Sea of Japan When You Turn Around), Itsuki's 2005 single. Despite the sharp brass and wall of strings in the intro and the refrain, the song is a fairly gentle and mellow paean to that hometown on the western side of Japan. And I think the first two lines of "Furimukeba Nihon Kai" even take a knowing poke at the protagonists of enka balladry who seem to head either north (women) or west (men). Itsuki, though, just wants to go back where it all started for him, which is Fukui Prefecture along that coast by the Sea of Japan.
When I was looking up this song, I also found some more interesting trivia. This was the first collaboration between Itsuki, who composed the song, and the Fukuoka-born novelist and lyricist, Hiroyuki Itsuki（五木寛之）, and no, the two are not related. The fans of the veteran enka singer already know this but Hiroshi Itsuki was born Kazuo Matsuyama（松山数夫）in Fukui and along the hard road to success, he had taken on a number of stage names including Masaru Matsuyama（松山まさる）and Ken Mitani（三谷謙）. The final name change to Hiroshi Itsuki came about in 1971 when lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）planted that family name onto the singer from the novelist Itsuki. I wonder how novelist Itsuki must have thought on seeing his new namesake who had problems even securing food at that time develop over the decades into becoming one of the most recognized celebrities in Japan.
"Furimukeba Nihon Kai" was another feather in the cap for singer Itsuki as it hit as high as No. 14 on Oricon, selling over 100,000 copies.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.