Mariko Miyagi -- Gaado Shita no Kutsumigaki（ガード下の靴みがき）

 

In the last several years, a YouTube genre known as ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos has popped up in all sorts of settings such as massage, haircuts and even shoe shines. In oldspeak, I guess you can say it's all about getting that tingle up the spine and relaxing through the sights and sounds of getting that rubdown or other sort of tonsorial treatment. For me, I really did enjoy getting the full service at a Japanese barber when I was living in Ichikawa. I never had that shoe shine though since frankly most of my life has been spent in either sneakers or loafers. By the way, the above video is from Japan ASMR.

This kayo kyoku here is "Gaado Shita no Kutsumigaki" (The Shoeshine Boy Under the Overpass), a 1955 song by singer/actress Mariko Miyagi（宮城まり子）which probably tugged at quite a few heartstrings. Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Ichiro Tone（利根一郎）, the kayo involves a young lad all alone in the city with a dead father and a very ill mother just trying to survive as a shoeshine boy. The music possesses that wistful and plaintive feeling of innocence and industriousness as he tries to persuade customers for some work.

Miyagi was one of the early veterans on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, appearing no less than eight times between 1954 and 1962. "Gaado Shita no Kutsumigaki" was the second song that she performed on the New Year's Eve special in that same year of 1955, and considering her later work helping children, maybe this song had a very deep effect on her.