Ikuzo Yoshi -- TSUGARU

 

The NHK music shows are all calling it a year and that includes the amateur song program "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）on Sundays. The final episode for 2020 was another stay-at-home show instead of the customary community hall-set broadcast and this has been the pattern for the past few months most likely because of pandemic. 

Enka singer Ikuzo Yoshi（吉幾三）was the lone guest today and he was his usual heart-on-his-sleeve self as he got all misty-eyed for some of the more poignant performances, especially by one young girl who was channeling her inner Mariah Carey and a fellow currently living in Thailand who wanted to send his love to his mother back in Japan.

Another aspect of Yoshi is that he can perform both the heart-tugging enka ballads such as "Sake yo"（酒よ）as well as the more comical tunes such as "Ora Tokyo sa Igu Da" （俺ら東京さ行ぐだ）and his very early "Ore wa Zettai! Presley"（俺はぜったい!プレスリー）. I wonder if he can even be known as the Weird Al Yankovic of kayo, especially when he sings out in his native dialect.

One young man today even emulated Yoshi by performing one of his more recent efforts. In September 2019, the Aomori Prefecture-raised singer decided to all hip-hop and rap through his digital download "TSUGARU" as he patters away at warp speed in Tsugaru-ben. I'll be honest here and say that even I could only understand 5% of what he was on about but he's definitely got the feel for the genre since he was the one who came up with not only the lyrics but the melody.