Ikko Furuya -- Juu-nana Sai no Koro（17才の頃）

 

When I heard the news yesterday that Tokyo-born veteran actor Ikko Furuya（古谷一行）had passed away on August 23rd at the age of 78, I was reminded of his appearances in historical dramas and then his role as the famous and popular detective Kosuke Kindaichi（金田一耕助）in the 1970s, which has been played by a number of other actors. In fact, the above video is of a Cup Noodle commercial parodying Furuya's portrayal of the master sleuth with perpetual dandruff issues.

Along with his thespian work, Furuya also released several singles mostly in the 70s and 80s along with five studio albums between 1974 and 1983. One such single that he released in October 1981 was "Juu-nana Sai no Koro" (When I Was 17). My image of the actor was when he was already an old man with a craggy visage, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear him as a young fellow sounding very silky-smooth. His vocals come across as being slightly reminiscent to those of folk/pop singer Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）. Composer Hiroya Watanabe（渡辺博也）came up with a folksy pop melody to match the words by lyricist Kaoru Ichiba（市場馨）whose real name is Haruki Tango（丹古晴己）.

Even as someone who only had a brief time watching Japanese dramas regularly, Furuya's name and face were well known to me. But I still only learned recently that his son, Kenji Furuya（降谷建志）, was the vocalist of mixture rock band Dragon Ash, with his daughter-in-law being tarento MEGUMI. Regardless, my condolences go out to Furuya's family, friends and fans.