Sanae Jounouchi -- Ryuuhyou no Tegami（流氷の手紙）

 

Nope, I have to admit that it isn't the most flattering caricature of Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）enka-singing member Sanae Jounouchi（城之内早苗）but it was the only picture that I could find on the fly for her.

Several years ago, Marcos V. was kind enough to display Jounouchi's debut single as a late-teen solo enka singer away from the usual teenybopper tunes of her mother group, "Ajisaibashi" (あじさい橋) from June 1986. Well, later in November, Jounouchi released her second single, "Ryuuhou no Tegami" (Letter in the Ice Floe).

Alongside the fact that a teenager was making waves as a bona fide decent enka singer from Onyanko Club itself, there are also some interesting observations surrounding "Ryuuhou no Tegami". For one thing, lyricist and Onyanko Club Svengali Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）were behind the creation of the song with Kei Wakakusa's（若草恵）arrangement. For one thing, Akimoto was usually associated with the aidoru and perhaps some general pop music while Goto was usually seen as a funky fellow behind the bass who often delved into City Pop. It was indeed unusual to see the two of those guys handing an enka tune. Heck, I was just writing about Goto yesterday with his "file".

Another observation is that Wakakusa's arrangement of "Ryuuhyou no Tegami" makes for a very elegant enka. In fact, I'd say that it's a melange of genres. The aidoru aspect is that I was accustomed to hearing some of those stirring strings in a number of aidoru songs throughout the 1980s to add that touch of class, and staying on that melody line, I feel that the elegance is so prominent that it could also be considered to contain some of that Fashion Music. From the title alone, I had already suspected that this wasn't the typical giddy puppy love tune but the cold aftermath of heartbreak.

Jounouchi's debut "Ajisaibashi" and the follow-up single of "Ryuuhyou no Tegami" broke into the Top 10 with the latter peaking at No. 10. The singer therefore reached an early career highlight in that she was the first enka singer to break into the Top 10 on Oricon with her first two singles.