Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Snow Lady Fantasy

 

Welcome to another J-Urban Contemporary Friday at "Kayo Kyoku Plus". And what great timing, too! Just when I logged on, I found out through the Twitter feed that City Pop impresario Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）is celebrating his 62nd birthday today, so let's do some of that.

However, let me preface the song with the story of the Japanese folklore spirit known as the yuki-onna（雪女）or snow lady. According to the video above and Wikipedia, her motivations and history are as enigmatic as any X-File depending on time and place in Japan. She has been evil and she has been...well...nice, so it's a wonder that she hasn't been brought in as a character for Marvel Comics,

I saw her once in a manga as a kid and in that one, she was this sylph-like presence who was invited in by a kindly farmer on a night of a bitterly cold winter storm. She gladly accepted a cup of hot tea but noticed when a puddle began to form under her, she had to skedaddle really quickly.

Well, throughout all of her incarnations in time and space, Kadomatsu has brought the yuki-onna in as perhaps the actual snow lady herself and not just a stoic woman at the dance club in his "Snow Lady Fantasy". Sharing track space with "Hatsukoi"（初恋）as a November 1985 12-inch single, it shows that even hot funk and a guy's love can be applied to a cold yokai. I was wondering about the chorus and the sax player, and through Discogs, I discovered that they were Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and Bob Mintzer respectively.

An extended version of "Snow Lady Fantasy" was included in Kadomatsu's December 1986 album of remixes "T's 12 Inches" (heh, heh...Kad was a real cad, wasn't he?). To be honest, I had been keeping this one in place until later in winter, but seeing that it was the guy's birthday, I decided that it could be unleashed today. In any case, I can imagine him having a great birthday party surrounded by a lot of friends in a swanky place.