Akiko Futaba/Columbia Rose/Chiyoko Shimakura -- Miss Sendai（ミス仙台）

 

One year ago today, the World Health Organization declared the pandemic that has still been affecting our lives but perhaps there is a fair bit of hope peeking through today with a variety of vaccines that didn't even exist in early 2020 gradually being put into arms. As I remember it, it was a tense time going into spring with me having to wake up early to avoid lineups for the supermarket while shelves were often devoid of bread, toilet paper, sanitizers and tissues.

Ten years ago today, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck the Pacific coast of Japan devastating towns and cities in the northern part of the nation while shaking and scaring folks like myself and millions of other residents in the Tokyo area. Although I've heard that there are may be as many as tens of thousands still displaced in Miyagi Prefecture and other vicinities, the past decade has seen recovery coming back to the Tohoku.

I was wondering what to do on March 11th for "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I didn't want to come across as overly pompous about the anniversary but neither did I want to ignore the fact that there was this major national disaster back in 2011. Therefore, I decided to search for some kayo that commemorated and celebrated the Tohoku area in some way. There was one folk song that I'd been looking at, but I then thought that the lyrics were a tad too ironic for today's article, so I will cover that one a little later on since I still think that it can have a place on the blog.

However earlier today, I did find this song that possesses a history and was created by two famous kayo writers, lyricist Yaso Saijo（西條八十）and composer Yuuji Koseki（古関裕而）titled "Miss Sendai". Originally recorded by 21-year-old Akiko Futaba（二葉あき子）for release locally in July 1936 and then nationally later that August, "Miss Sendai" provides a glimpse of the emotions and the scenery of the city of Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, through the four seasons. 

It is indeed a jaunty kayo, and the song was categorized as a shin-minyo（新民謡...new minyo）according to the J-Wiki article on "Miss Sendai". From what I know of minyo as traditional Japanese music for events such as festivals, I was rather curious about what shin-minyo was all about, and I discovered via the genre's own J-Wiki page that such songs were often requested to be made by local governments and businesses to tout their regions in the names of local patriotism and tourism to the entirety of Japan. So, basically speaking, the song was a three-minute campaign for a particular geographical area done to music.

"Miss Sendai" became a hit for Futaba in Sendai and the rest of the prefecture but then less than half a year later, her "Otome Juu-kyuu"（乙女十九...Young Girl at 19）was released in January 1937, and it was basically a slightly sped-up version of "Miss Sendai" with new lyrics by Saijo. This then became Futaba's first major nationwide hit.

Nippon Columbia was the record company behind "Miss Sendai" and it would also be responsible for a second release of the kayo by a different artist several years later. The company apparently did like their imaginative promotion strategies and so in the late 1930s, they came up with the idea of a Miss Columbia to sing songs, and they had Misao Matsubara（松原操）take on the new name.

Some years after World War II, Nippon Columbia for a similar campaign beginning in the early 1950s with a female singer who would go by the moniker, Columbia Rose...a bit of a cheeky take on the notorious Tokyo Rose. The first Columbia Rose was a native of Gunma Prefecture, Matsue Matsumoto（松本マツ江）, and she released numerous singles and made five appearances on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen throughout the decade up to the early 1960s. But then, once Matsumoto left the name, a second Columbia Rose was selected in the form of Noriko Mune（宗紀子）from Tokyo.

Columbia Rose II also released her singles which included a cover version of "Miss Sendai" in 1962. Her version also has that natsumero feeling to it but I think her vocals are also slightly more relaxed. Mune did have her sole appearance on the Kohaku in 1964, and in 1975, she moved to Los Angeles for a time. However, she became good friends with Matsumoto and even appeared frequently on stage together. Mune passed away last year in August at the age of 78 in Kanagawa Prefecture.

For the record, a third Columbia Rose, Mina Nomura（野村美菜）, made her debut in 2004.

Not sure if it's this particular recording but Chiyoko Shimakura's（島倉千代子）version of "Miss Sendai" sounds quite a bit older than its July 1974 release. The tempo is even more languid than the one for the Futaba original and J-Wiki states that Shimakura utilized some of the enka kobushi technique in her delivery of the lyrics. Since this version was the first version that I'd heard, I did wonder whether this would be considered to be an enka tune.