Bin Uehara -- Oya Koi Dochu (親恋道中)

 

Bin-san, otsukaresama deshita

It'd been only a month since I started grad school when I had to do my first proper presentation. It was also my longest one yet at about half an hour long. Solo. The pressure was immense despite the class on Japanese music being tiny (five people, including my prof). The fact that the prof is my academic advisor only intensified things (oh, geez). But, having dear Bin-san gently grinning back at me was comforting. I think we made it through okay. Tired, but kinda okay. 

For some context, class presentations functioned as mini-lectures on anything related to Japanese or East Asian music. So, of course, I had to do an enka-kayo-ryukoka thing. Specifically, I featured the beginnings of what would later become a staple topic in modern-day enka: matatabi-yakuza kayo, or songs that featured the likes of ronin, yakuza, and other wanderers of the Edo era. It seemed to have been popularized in the early to mid-1930s by the lyricist we're pretty familiar with on KKP, Masato Fujita (藤田まさと), who had penned many a matatabi kayo hit. A couple of singers also became synonymous with this theme of song. Interestingly, both were from Akita prefecture, both wore glasses, and both were known for singing in a more "traditional Japanese"-sounding style. Between the two, I naturally picked Bin Uehara (上原敏). I featured four of his matatabi kayo hits as examples, doing so in a way similar to how I'd write my KKP stuff, oddly enough. As you saw above, I "brought" Bin-san along for the ride as well for moral support and, in a way, to have him there in spirit to witness a random foreigner doing a presentation on him in English 79 years down the road. 

Admittedly, part of me wanted to include this song in my project just so that I could show Bin-san live in action.

Anyway, one of my picks was "Oya Koi Dochu" from March 1939. This was Bin-san's final hit before things took a nose dive for Japan and for the poor man himself as another devastating war was to come. Perhaps because of this, little information was recorded on this piece. But we do know that Fujita was in charge of its words and Itsuro Hattori (服部逸郎) its sentimental melody and that it appeared in a musical movie titled "Roppa Uta no Miyako e yuku" (ロッパ歌の都へ行く) from the same year. Starring the titular comedian Roppa Furukawa (古川緑波), the movie included a concert by multiple singers towards its end. It was a clip of this concert where I first got to witness live performances of familiar pre-war music stars in their early days and Bin-san as a non-static portrait. You know the feeling of finally being able to put a face to a voice? It felt sort of like that. The above video is Bin-san's portion of the movie's concert. 

The full version.

From what I understand from Fujita's words, "Oya Koi Dochu" tells of a yakuza-ronin feeling the bite of homesickness on his rootless travels. He is miserable enough to contemplate leaving behind his carefree, itinerant lifestyle and eventually does return home, where his mother tearfully awaits him. Bin-san's mournful vocals only emphasise our protagonist's anguish. Considering the time period this song was released, I can imagine that it would've tugged at the heartstrings of many a soldier and the families waiting for their loved ones to come home safely. On a less sentimental note, the narrative of a frowned-upon yakuza-ronin exiting an unsavoury lifestyle and returning to a life of a responsible, upright citizen who takes care of his mother/parents could have some political undertones... but let's keep the sentimental value of the song for KKP and the cut-and-dry speculations for school.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Q54y1v7rz/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click

Here is another video that includes the only other live reel of Bin-san I can find online. It mixes the above clip with what seems to be scenes from another movie in which Bin-san cameoed (?) as himself. Honestly, the star-struck moustachioed fellow in that clip is me.

This was from a few months back
The shelf is not nearly as spacious anymore

A trip Odate, Akita, is in order. I do want to tell Bin-san that he's not forgotten and not to be remembered as just "Shoji Taro No.2" (東海林太郎の第二号... I am not kidding. It was actually one of his nicknames). And that for a short amount of time in the 21st century, his voice rang through the halls of a university. And that he is resting peacefully wherever he may be. I've decided to visit his plaque on his death anniversary. I read that his fans gather there to pay respects on that day, so I'm curious as to how that'll play out.

On a final note, here's the modern-day Bin-san (or Shoji) doppelganger and his brothers doing their rendition of "Oya Koi Dochu". I feel that the simple arrangement with just Yujiro's (雄次郎) accordion and Ryuzaburo's (龍三郎) bass made Kotaro's (孝太郎) delivery almost as forlorn and lonely as the original.