Sayuri Ishikawa -- Hamauta（浜唄）

 

Although the shore by my grandfather's village in Wakayama Prefecture was too small to have any of the large fishing vessels moored there, as a kid visiting the place in 1972, I do remember witnessing my grandfather and his fellow villagers bringing in the nets filled with fish. The name that I heard mentioned for that fish was kamasu（かます）, and I recollect that it was delicious grilled, although it was still years before I finally appreciated sushi and sashimi. The thing is though when I looked up kamasu in the J-E dictionary, the translation came out as barracuda! My impression had been that one was more likely to be bitten by a barracuda than vice versa.

In any case, to start off this week of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" tunes, I'm going with Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）105th single, "Hamauta" (Ballad of the Shore) which was released in March 2012. With the guitar-powered brio of contemporary enka but lyrics that seem to be more evocative of older enka regarding sending fishing fleets out to sea for their daily bountiful catch, it has Ishikawa once again putting her all into her vocals. Folks like Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）would probably nod in respect.

Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）came up with the lyrics while Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）composed "Hamauta". Looking through the lyrics, I thought it would be some sort of go-touchi song like the ones that I have been writing about every Saturday, but there is no mention of any specific place in the lyrics so the song can apply to anywhere around the Japanese archipelago.