Sayuri Ishikawa -- Hitorizake（獨り酒）

 

Kamiya Bar（神谷バー）is an Asakusa institution that was literally around the corner from my NOVA branch although I only went there once since I was never much of a drinker. Supposedly, it is the oldest bar of its type in Japan and it is also the place where the Japanese cocktail Denki Bran（電気ブラン...Electric Brandy） was invented in the late 19th century.

The website "Cool Material" has a description of what Denki Bran is all about but what goes into the drink and in what quantities are apparently still secret. As for the above video by Sanpo suru Android（散歩するアンドロイド...The Walking Android）, we get to see the young lady enjoy a meal and the famed libation at the source itself. That one time that I visited Kamiya Bar, I did try a Denki Bran and had some of those dishes that go well with the drink, but perhaps unsurprisingly, I don't remember very much. However, I can say that I did visit this famous place.

During my years in Japan, I did visit the various izakaya chains with friends and students to celebrate certain events and/or to just hang out after catching a movie in Shinjuku or Ginza. But I don't recall ever going to a bar just because I wanted to drown my sorrows in drink following a bad day or relationship. Doing such a thing though is definitely one reason to hit the watering holes in any nation.

"Hitorizake" (Drinking Alone) is a lovingly arranged enka sung by veteran Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）as her August 2021 single. Composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）, it's not one of those electric guitar-powered gutsy songs but an enka with a gentle guitar and strings that are as reassuring as the sympathetic hostess of one's favourite nomiya who will always act as the salve. But the lyrics by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and singer-songwriter kinuyo don't play up the fact that the typical bar is on the same level as a medical clinic. It is simply the place to drown those sorrows, no better or worse.

Ishikawa showed up on last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）to sing "Hitorizake" and to talk of the late Kitajo. She mentioned that her single may have indeed been the final song that he wrote before he left this mortal coil in November.