Yoshie Kashiwabara/Mayumi Itsuwa -- Haru Gokoro（春ごころ）

 

Lest that I would dare think that the summer has finally arrived, I went outside in my thin T-shirt an hour ago to get the paper and got a blast of 10-degree Celsius air with a stiff wind. It was brisk to say the least and was almost grateful that it felt so stuffy and warm inside my room. I could also say that winter, let alone spring, has yet to release us from its icy grip.

Anyways, that picture of 80s aidoru Yoshie Kashiwabara（柏原芳恵）is from the cover of the very first issue of Hawaii-based Japanese pop culture magazine "Eye-Ai" that I ever bought at Nippon Video back in the 1980s. That really was a big-hair era for her, wasn't it?

Listening to her 24th single from New Year's Day 1986, "Haru Gokoro" (Spring Heart), reminded me of her other spring-based hit, "Haru Nanoni" (春なのに）, from a few years earlier. The melody is truly elegant (bordering on Fashion Music) with the strings and piano, and the lyrics are bittersweet and heart aching as they describe a relationship that may be about to hit the rocks for good. Of course, I immediately thought of singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）who had also come up with "Haru Nanoni". 

However, digging into the J-Wiki article for "Haru Gokoro", I kinda smacked myself on the head when I saw Mayumi Itsuwa's（五輪真弓）name behind words and music with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）as the arranger. Itsuwa is definitely of the Fashion Music sub-genre with all of its elegance, class and pathos, and listening to the song again, I could definitely envisage either Kashiwabara or Itsuwa in a Parisian café sighing wistfully.

"Haru Gokoro" would be Kashiwabara's final single to reach the Top 10 to this date by placing at No. 10 with sales of over 60,000 records. It's also a track on her February 1986 BEST compilation, "Merci!" which peaked at No. 33 on the charts. Itsuwa would do a more mysterious and definitely non-Fashion Music cover of "Haru Gokoro" for her September 1986 14th album "Toki no Nagare ni"（時の流れに...In The Flow of Time）.