Hiroshi Itsuki -- Shinjuku Mangetsu（新宿満月）

 

When it comes to Shinjuku and the genre of enka, my KKP-obsessed mind automatically goes to the late Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）, especially via one of her trademark songs "Shinjuku no Onna"（新宿の女）.

Although I've heard of plenty of Ginza-based enka and Mood Kayo over the years and then some Roppongi kayo, I can't say that I've heard of a lot of Shinjuku-based songs that come easily from my memories although they probably have had their say within the pages of the blog over the past ten years. To explain, I believe that my imagination has used one of Tokyo's famous neighbourhoods as the setting for songs from many genres, but to hear a kayo that has given a shoutout to Shinjuku within its lyrics or its title isn't quite as easy.

But in recent weeks, I was able to gain knowledge about another Shinjuku song through Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）September 2021 single "Shinjuku Mangetsu" (Full Moon Over Shinjuku) because of his performance on "Uta Con"（うたコン）. Itsuki's tenderhearted vocals and Masakane Tsuta's（蔦将包）arrangement of the song, especially with that accordion and the haunting female backing chorus, strike me as a pleasant old-fashioned enka ballad which perhaps even Fuji could have tackled. By the way, that's a nice video of Itsuki against the backdrop of skyscraper-stuffed Shinjuku.

That adjective of old-fashioned is quite apt since "Shinjuku Mangetsu" was written by a couple of legendary songwriters who both left us several years ago, lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Toru Funamura（船村徹）. In fact, I can hear that Latin guitar plucking away introspectively which was a characteristic of the latter's melodies. Over the past few years, I've noticed that new songs have been featured on shows such as "Uta Con" that had been created by songwriters who passed away quite a while ago and since despite looking, Itsuki's rendition doesn't seem to be a cover of any original from years back, I'm now wondering if record companies are now digging through the time vaults for any musical creations that never reached the recording stage.

What also brings that certain enka-ness to "Shinjuku Mangetsu" is the lyrical content in which the protagonist who's now working in Tokyo (presumably in one of the huge towers of Shinjuku) is pining over the moon for the love that they have left behind in the hometown, and perhaps that significant other is sharing the same moon for the same purpose. Being separated from the warmth of family, friends and love in one's regional birthplace while toiling away in the metropolis was definitely one of the big tropes for the old kayo way back when. 

Itsuki may now have retired from the Kohaku Utagassen and at this writing, I'm still not sure what the fate of this program is (one longtime NHK variety series quickly got the axe in the past few days), but if the veteran performer could return, it would be nice if he could sing this one on the Shibuya stage once more, although he would be performing it a kilometre south of the titular area.