Saburo Kitajima -- Otoko Michi（男道）

 

Yesterday, for the first time in 7 months, NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）amateur singing contest program returned to the airwaves. Of course, there were all of the COVID-19 restrictions in place but the show indeed went on, and naturally my family was more than willing to verbally praise or chastise the contestants as they saw fit.

One of the senior contestants tackled an enka by the grand master of the genre himself, Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）. And on listening to "Otoko Michi" (The Path of a Man), the introductory timpani and the anthemic brass automatically screamed out "SABU-CHAN!". Not surprisingly, on looking up the song at J-Wiki, it was used as the ending theme for the 1990s seasons of the long-running historical hero series "Abarenbo Shogun"（暴れん坊将軍...The Unfettered Shogun）. I mean, nothing but the best music for the shogun in disguise Yoshimune Tokugawa.

Released as one of three singles by Kitajima to be released on the same date of June 5th 1993 (!), the grand "Otoko Michi" was written and composed by the singer himself under his nom de plume, Joji Hara（原譲二）. It's similar in tone to the original ending theme of the show, also by Kitajima, "Honoo no Otoko"（炎の男）that had been first revealed to viewers in the late 1970s.