Go-Touchi Songs（ご当地ソング）: The Kanto region

 

As if anyone needed reminding, it is indeed October 1st, 2022. Time for fall leaves, harvesting and good food such as matsutake mushrooms and grilled sanma in Japan. Turkey and pumpkin pie would be the delicacies here in Canada and the United States, but I digress. 

Last Saturday, I began a series known as "Go-Touchi Songs", those tunes that reflect a certain region or prefecture or city in Japan. They are held near and dear by many people in the country and last weekend, I started with Hokkaido and the Tohoku region which tends towards the northern part of the main island of Honshu. But as promised, I am now going into the area where I spent almost two decades of my life: the Kanto region which includes Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Gunma, Chiba and Kanagawa Prefectures along with Metropolitan Tokyo. As was displayed in last week's list, the songs aren't all about enka and Mood Kayo. Also to reiterate, this is a very tiny list merely to provide a small taste of these geographically based songs (especially where Tokyo and Yokohama are concerned); you can take a look at the far more extensive list at J-Wiki. Plus, I'll be covering the Chubu region next week.

1. Yukio Hashi -- Itakogasa (潮来笠) for Itako City in Ibaraki (1960)

2. Duke Aces -- Ii Yu da na （いい湯だな）for Gunma (1966)

3. Manzo Saita -- Naze ka Saitama（なぜか埼玉）for Saitama (1980)

4. Chisato Moritaka -- Watarasebashi (渡良瀬橋) for Ashikaga City, Tochigi (1993)

5. Takashi Hosokawa -- Yagiri no Watashi (矢切の渡し) for Matsudo City, Chiba (1983)

6. Shizuko Kasagi -- Tokyo Boogie-Woogie （東京ブギウギ）for Tokyo (1947)

7. Ayumi Ishida -- Blue Light Yokohama（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）for Yokohama, Kanagawa (1968)

As was the case with Hokkaido and the Tohoku last week, I'd like to finish with a couple of delicacies from the Kanto: yaki manju（焼き饅頭）in Gunma and monjayaki（もんじゃ焼き）in Tokyo respectively.