Hiroshi Inoue -- Tokyo Waltz（東京ワルツ）/Wakare no Tango（別れのタンゴ）

 

I've mentioned this to people and readers before but my favourite era in Japanese history isn't particularly the Muromachi or Taisho periods for example. Actually, the one group of years that has been interesting for me is the postwar era extending to the early 1970s because I had always wondered how Japan was able to rise above the ashes to become the 2nd-largest economic power behind the United States at one point. But before I end up wearing those rose-coloured glasses of romanticism, a lot of those years were ones of struggle and with the sudden ramp-up in industrialization once more, there was a heavy toll on the environment and health.

Still, I've been able to get a glimpse and a feel for the Tokyo of the 1950s or 1960s thanks to visits to the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. The time warp walk around the city seems to make one's vision go sepia and the ramen is pretty darn good, too. 😋 I must thank the good people at Nippon Wandering TV for the above video.

But of course, this is a kayo kyoku blog and not a ramen one, although I imagine that there are far more of those than there are of mine. And perhaps filtering over the speakers in the mockup Tokyo underneath the ground floor of the museum is a September or October 1961 single by crooner Hiroshi Inoue（井上ひろし）depending on whether you go with the J-Wiki article on Inoue or YouTube uploader Ka Fu respectively. "Tokyo Waltz" is a Mood Kayo written by Sou Nishizawa（西沢爽）and composed by Itsuro "Raymond" Hattori（服部逸郎）and has the rich tenor of Inoue expressing a man's heartbreak within the Tokyo nightlife. The melody indeed takes on a sad and slow waltz.

The B-side is "Wakare no Tango" (Farewell Tango) which continues the themes of dancing and imminent romantic loss, but this time as the title says, the melody by Tadashi Manjome（万城目正）has a bit more of that Latin spice. Ko Fujiura（藤浦 洸）came up with the lyrics, and listening to the song, I can imagine a couple born of the nightlife in the megalopolis having one last teary cheek-to-cheek dance on the nightclub floor before having to part permanently.