Fukinoto -- Shunrai（春雷）

 

Officially, spring arrives in a few hours. Although I'm happy for the sunny weather outside, I can hardly say that it's spring-like out there, but we're hoping for an uplift of temperatures going later into the week. Hopefully, folks in the Kanto region in Japan are enjoying their cherry blossoms.

As such, I was looking for a spring-themed kayo out there since I've already gotten famous ones such as Candies'（キャンディーズ）"Haru Ichiban"（春一番）and Ami Ozaki's（尾崎亜美）"I've Been Mellow" onto the blog. Well, I did find one but it's a little out of the ordinary.

I've known the duo Fukinoto（ふきのとう）, consisting of Yasuyo Yamaki（山木康世）and Motoyoshi Hosotsubo（細坪基佳）, primarily for their 1982 song "Hitori no Fuyu Nara Kuruna"（ひとりの冬なら来るな）, and like that one, I'd initially assumed that "Shunrai" (Spring Thunder) was going to be another tune of bitter heartbreak just from seeing the kanji for that title, and that had been the original plan. However, according to an interview that Yamaki had given the website Asagei in 2021, there was a change of plans. 

Sadly at the time, Yamaki's mother had been dying of cancer and with her son understandably upset about her condition, he created "Shunrai" as a form of giving thanks and expressing grief. There is indeed a certain drama and urgency in the delivery of the song with the minor key and rolling rhythm under the arrangement by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. "Shunrai" peaked at No. 22 on Oricon following its release in February 1979, and it was placed as a track on Fukinoto's 7th album from May that year, "Jinsei-Haru-Oudan"（人生・春・横断...Crossing of Life and Spring）.