Happy Monday! And it's certainly been a downright balmy start to the week at -6 degrees Celsius this morning. Didn't need a scarf, toque or gloves to get the errands done. I've even got the window open to get some fresh air into the room for the first time in several days.
Ah yes! The photo above is of a plate of scrumptious negitoro sushi that I had at that basically automatic kaiten sushi place in Yodobashi Akiba, the electronics emporium right by JR Akihabara Station. It's definitely one of my favourites and I haven't had one of those in years. If I ever return to Tokyo, I'm making a beeline to that place or any kaiten, really.
That is just the segue I need to introduce a really old-style robust enka to start off the week. "Ichiban Maguro no Uta" (Celebration of the No. 1 Maguro). I can smell the sweat and the sea spray as enka singer Kouhei Fukuda（福田こうへい）tears into this song of a fishing crew battling the cruel elements to get their hoard of tuna for market. Hearing this for the first time on "Uta Con"（うたコン）almost a couple of weeks ago, I began reminiscing about Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）muscular tunes of the rough-and-tumble fellow putting in a hard day's work no matter how Herculean the task.
While Akito Yomo（四方章人）provided the shamisen, proud trumpet, wailing electric guitar and the pounding drums, it was actually a prominent fisherman from the northern part of Japan, Yoshinobu or Yoshinori Kumagaya（熊谷義宣）*, who came up with the lyrics, and what better person to describe the battle between tuna and Man than a man who's always in the thick of it himself? "Ichiban Maguro no Uta" broke into the Top 10 by hitting No. 5 after its release on New Year's Day this year.
*I had enough trouble trying to find the readings for the first name but the family name has even more readings, and I couldn't find any hiragana transcription for the kanji or hear any introductions of the fisherman on the videos. Therefore, if anyone can confirm what his name is, that would be greatly appreciated.
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