Yukio Hashi -- Edo no Hana（江戸の花）

 

As has been reflected on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years, veteran singer Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）has been able to tackle a number of genres including enka, Mood Kayo and even some rock. Tonight, it'll be some enka.

I heard this one on last Saturday's episode of "Songs of Japanese Spirit" on NHK's satellite channel, and it's quite the jaunty tune called "Edo no Hana" (The Flower of Edo). If I'm not mistaken, it was actually Hashi himself singing this one on the stage (I was actually around the corner from the telly having dinner at the time so I couldn't see the screen).

"Edo no Hana" was actually the B-side for Hashi's 122nd single "Mukou Tooru wa"（向こう通るは...Passing Yonder） from October 1973, and both songs were used as the theme songs for NTV's adaptation of historical novel series "Denshichi no Torimonochou"（伝七捕物帳...The Memoirs of Denshichi The Detective）. It was evidently quite the popular series since it had first been televised on TBS in 1968 for a few months before NTV had its time with its own version for four years and then TV Asahi produced yet another version in 1979. 

While "Mukou Tooru wa" served as the opening theme for the first half-year of the NTV series, "Edo no Hana" was the ending theme for those early episodes before taking over as the opening theme for the remainder of the series. Kazuya Senke（千家和也）was the lyricist while Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）took care of the music.