The Works of Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）

 

I only found out the news a few days ago via a chance Twitter browsing and then it was further reiterated by commenter Jim Laker, but unfortunately another veteran songwriter has left this mortal coil. Composer and arranger Makoto Kawaguchi passed away at the age of 83 on October 20th due to sepsis.

Kawaguchi has had a fairly long list of songs represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but I've yet to come across any official media reports of his death on YouTube which is unusual. There have been a few personal YouTube accounts that did cite his passing but for a composer like Kawaguchi who did create a lot of classic kayo including Mieko Hirota's（弘田三枝子）1969 "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）above, it's a little surprising that NHK hasn't mentioned anything although perhaps some of the commercial networks may have done so. 

The composer/arranger was born Masahiro Kawaguchi（川口眞弘）in the city of Kobe on November 5th 1937 but grew up in the city of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. According to his J-Wiki profile, while studying in the Music Department at Tokyo University of the Arts, he became a part of chanson singer Fubuki Koshiji's（越路吹雪）backing band Claire de Charme as a pianist and then worked part time for composer Taku Izumi's（いずみたく）office. Kawaguchi dropped out of university in his senior year seeing that his job was becoming more of a full-time gig. 

Although in 1966, he helped arrange The Ventures' version of "Futari no Ginza"（二人の銀座）, his official debut as a composer was in 1969 with the successful "Ningyo no Ie" with Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼） providing the lyrics. "Ningyo no Ie" was Kawaguchi's third-most successful creation which was followed by Saori Yuki's（由紀さおり）1970 hit "Tegami"（手紙）and Akira Fuse's（布施明）1974 hit "Tsumiki no Heya" （積木の部屋）at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.

I haven't really delved too deeply into what made Kawaguchi tick in terms of his preferences for songs but my surface impression at this writing is that in the early part of his career at least, he seems to have been drawn into the darker or sadder aspects of romance just judging from the songs including the ones above. Basically, he composed his music in the kayo realm with some stretches into aidoru and tokusatsu and even City Pop.

I'd like to introduce some of the other songs that Kawaguchi created that I had yet to put onto KKP, beginning with the late Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦）July 1971 "Sayonara wo Mou Ichido"（さよならをもう一度...Farewell, One More Time）, the great singer's follow-up single to the iconic "Mata Au Hi Made"（また逢う日まで）. With lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, a frequent songwriting partner, I guess that another observation is that Kawaguchi liked to go brassy and proud with his compositions, and that fit hand-in-glove with the booming voices of Ozaki and, for that matter, the aforementioned Fuse.

"Sayonara wo Mou Ichido" is the tough-but-tender song of sweet parting since although the couple may not have Paris, they will always have tomorrow to get back together to talk of old times. The arrangement is indeed brassy and proud, and the song reminds me of folks like Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck. With an Oricon weekly ranking of No. 2 and an end-of-year ranking of No. 14, I'm sure that all involved were very proud of this one.

In the previous year, Aku and Kawaguchi had teamed up to provide Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）with his August 1970 56th single, "Manatsu no Arashi"（真夏のあらし...Midsummer Maelstrom）, a story of being majorly distracted by the beautiful bodies around during the hot (and bothered) season. I believe that I mentioned Tom Jones above; well, I think that this is the wilder side of Jones singing through Saigo, and if I may be so bold, I think that Saigo's performance is rather similar to what soon-to-arrive Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）would bring to the kayo zeitgeist of the decade. Strangely enough, Kawaguchi would compose songs for Saijo soon enough.

(5:07)

Kawaguchi delved into the aidoru realm alongside lyricist Mieko Arima（有馬三恵子）for 70s teenybopper singer Yuko Asano（浅野ゆう子）for a couple of songs, her debut single "Tobidase Hatsukoi"（とびだせ初恋）and the follow-up, "Koi wa Dan Dan"（恋はダン・ダン）, both released in 1974. Asano's third and final single for that year was "Hitoribocchi no Kisetsu"（ひとりぽっちの季節...A Season of Loneliness） from December. Once again, tackled by Kawaguchi and Arima, those strings and what I think are an ocarina and an accordion bring forward a lot of spring innocence from a case of puppy love that doesn't seem to be heading to its happy end. 

One more song that I'll put up on his tribute here is "Doyoubi no Cinderella"（土曜日のシンデレラ...Saturday Cinderella） sung by Sawako Kitahara（北原佐和子）as her 3rd single in September 1982. It's another aidoru tune and the arrangement is perfectly suited to the time of the early 80s teenyboppers, with the swift strings this time and the jingly synthesizers. This time, Kawaguchi's songwriting partner was lyricist Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）whose words almost make me wish the title was more along the lines of "The Taming of the Cinderella" as a young lady is, comically and physically or figuratively, poking a strong finger into her Prince Charming and demanding where the love and the glass slipper are. Again, I haven't explored the world of Kawaguchi in full but at first blush, it's remarkable how his melodies may have adjusted for the times and demands in music. Still, lyrically speaking, this seems to be along the lines of Kawaguchi's attraction to the not-so-happy themes in love.

Of course, there are the other Kawaguchi creations that you can cruise through under his name in the Labels section, but also if your Japanese ability is up to it, you can also look through his J-Wiki profile for a more complete list of his compositions. I never even touched his arrangements which is a separate list. Regardless, his accomplishments since the 1960s merit a tribute in kayo history.