Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Bamboo Boat（バンブー・ボート）

Today has perhaps ended up as being one of the more positive days for me so far during this COVID-19 nightmare. Toronto's rate of new infections dropped to around the low 300s and on a more personal level for our family, TV Japan just announced that their regular broadcasting schedule will be returning this Saturday after almost a month of the NHK World Premium schedule. Not that we had any complaints about the current regimen; most of the regular TV Japan shows are 85% NHK anyways. It turned out that TV Japan based in New York had a number of its staffers come down with the coronavirus which somehow led to the change, but the really good news is that everyone has recovered there. Generally, it's still too early to say that happy days are truly back again, but taking things day by day, perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little bigger.

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

One of those NHK shows that has continued to be a staple on both regular TV Japan and NHK World Premium has been the morning serial "Yell"（エール）, and I just wrote about the theme song by GReeeeN, "Hoshikage no Yell"（星影のエール）some days ago. One of the characters is Mitsuko Sekiuchi, the mother of Oto, the young lady who has suddenly agreed to give her hand in matrimony to the congenial-if-jittery genius songwriter Yuuichi Koyama. Mitsuko is not too pleased with the announcement, especially since she had told her fierce-hearted daughter to break off the relationship with Yuuichi. However, despite telling her imminent son-in-law to his face that he's frankly a dolt, she can also see the good in him and the love that Oto has for him, so she has...reluctantly...allowed the wedding to go through.

Mitsuko is played by actress-singer Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）, and it really shows how much time has passed when she's playing a middle-aged mother who's mostly sweet but can unleash her inner dragon persuasively. She's the Taisho Era version of Mrs. Cunningham from "Happy Days". After all these years, I still see Yakushimaru as that wide-eyed teen ingenue in the sailor-suit uniform sporting a machine gun on posters.

And I still remember her as that 80s singer with the soft and resonant voice. Case in point, I found this final track from her 2nd album "Yume Juuwa"（夢十話）from August 1985. Titled "Bamboo Boat", it's been a while since I've listened to Yakushimaru's material, but this particular song is reflective of what my memories relate of her music: personal, whimsical and mellow with plenty of strings.

Written by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）, the partnership between Kisugi and Yakushimaru is back again after their collaboration on "Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu"（セーラー服と機関銃）in 1981. Hiroko-chan is singing about a South Seas romance that has since faded into bittersweet memory, but bittersweet chocolate is pretty tasty so the past affair is probably not too hard to take either. It's a nice way to finish up "Yume Juuwa".