Today would have been Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）84th birthday today. This past week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode reminded me of today's special day in kayo kyoku history through a brief tribute involving a couple of songs.
In June 1958, Misora's 138th single, "Rockabilly Kenpou" was released but it was the B-side that was performed on last week's "Uta Con", "Hanagasa Douchuu" (Hanagasa Travels). From what I've read, a hanagasa is a conical straw hat that seems to be most famous now for its use in the midsummer Yamagata Hanagasa Festival. I don't know whether it had a specific purpose in ancient times so I can assume that it was basically just headwear to keep the sun off.
The words and music for "Hanagasa Douchuu" were provided by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, and it's a jaunty enka tune delivered with the singer's usual brio to reflect the mix of happiness and loneliness of journeying the byways of Edo Era Japan. Perhaps from the video above, the traveler was probably some sort of ronin as portrayed by Misora herself.
The A-side, "Rockabilly Kenpou" (Rockabilly Swordsmanship), is indeed an interesting combination of Misora's pugnacious vocals for an enka tune and some happy-go-lucky rockabilly music. Once again, Yoneyama created words and music for this A-side as the singer gets into cocky form describing her finely-honed capabilities with the sword. As she mentions in the song, women can more than hold their own in a fight. Perhaps this is more Bill Haley and the Katanas rather than the Comets.
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