Naomi Nomoto -- Eve no Yoru（イブの夜）

 

Well, some good news to start off Hump Day in that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has not only welcomed in a new contributor, Oliver, but also as of yesterday, we have exceeded 2019's total number of articles of 901. In other words, this is Article No. 906!😄 I can only wonder whether we may even hit the big 1000 before KKP turns 10 in 2022.

(24:24)

Article No. 906 is on a Xmas song that I believe was relayed to me by Scott the J-Xmas song expert, and the singer-songwriter behind it, Naomi Nomoto（野本直美）, may fall into what Oliver was talking about: that artist who pops up for a few or several years but then disappears off the show business radar seemingly forever.

So, it's a foregone conclusion that I couldn't find out very much about Nomoto. However, I was able to pick up some informational scraps here and there. On one Japanese blog titled "Folk Song Café", the author also addressed the observation that the singer was a bit of a mysterious figure but I could glean that she was active in the 1980s as one of the few Japanese acts who made the successful leap from folk into rock (another act was ALFEE). In fact, the author posits that Nomoto could have inspired a number of other singers and bands including Takako Shirai（白井貴子）, Mari Hamada（浜田麻里）, Princess Princess（プリンセスプリンセス） and SHOW-YA.

However, with "Eve no Yoru" (Christmas Eve Night), which was released as a single in 1984 according to a site specializing in female singer-songwriters between 1972 and 1999, this is a very calming soft-as-fluffy snow Xmas ballad written and composed by Nomoto. However the lyrics, which are incompletely provided on another blog, relate the story of a woman who's trying to reach someone from a phone booth on a snowy Xmas Eve to tell him of her feelings but the line is busy. The clock may be ticking.

The country lilt in Nomoto's melody reminds me of Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）"Winter Rose" although as I mentioned in the article for that one, "Winter Rose" perhaps wasn't specifically meant as a Xmas tune. Of course, for City Pop fans, whenever Kurahashi's name is mentioned, "December 24" comes quickly to mind. I can imagine one of my favourite singers easily covering this Nomoto tune, though.