Shinichi Mori -- Sawari wa Meichoushi（さわりは名調子）

 

The last time that I wrote about enka legend Shinichi Mori（森進一）was back in October 2020 after hearing his then-most recent single "Showa/Heisei/Reiwa wo Ikiru"（昭和・平成・令和を生きる）which had been released in June of that year.

Considering that as of this writing, Mori is now 75 years old, his output hasn't been nearly as frequent as it once was and he's retired from the Kohaku Utagassen after many years of dependable appearances as one of the enka representatives. Still he has yet to retire fully from music. In fact, last year, he put out his 128th and most recent single in July, "Sawari wa Meichoushi".

At first read of that title, I was wondering whether things would get rather salacious within the lyrics since I had initially translated it into "Your Touch is Excellent". But not being fully versed in the intricacies and subtleties of language in enka, I had to take a look at jisho.org to see that "sawari" can also mean "manner". Yu Aku（阿久悠）, who left this mortal coil, in February 2007, had written these lyrics which may be talking of a sweet and, dare I say, even chaste relationship between a man and his wife, girlfriend, or club paramour, so I think the milder translation of "manner" might be the more appropriate one.

Mori was the one behind the original melody with Yoshichika Inomata（猪股義周）as the arranger, and the two made quite the proud and brassy song out of Aku's lyrics. For me, the horns are the best thing here although the main melody is one of serenity and contentedness. The above shortened version of "Sawari wa Meichoushi" in the the video has Mori enjoying a day out at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, my old stomping grounds in the 1990s as an English conversation teacher.

The other notable thing is presumably Mori coming across Aku's lyrics and being able to weave a song around 15 years following the master lyricist's death. I think that with those lyrics, enka or Mood Kayo were probably the ideal genres for the song, genres that I usually hadn't associated Aku with. It also goes to show that even posthumously, Aku has still been able to provide his contribution to Japanese popular music. I wonder how many more of his unpublished material is out there, ready to be made into full-fledged songs.