Chiharu Matsuyama -- Yoake（夜明け）

 

Y'know...I wish that I had taken some obviously morning photos with my late Casio camera back in the day when I was living in the Tokyo area, but then again, back then I had no idea that I would be writing a blog daily in Toronto. As it is, though, this is a morning shot of the massive waiting horde trying to get into the 2009 anime fair that was held at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. However as the saying goes, its bark was worse than its bite, since once the doors finally opened, the clog of humanity cleared within five minutes as if Drano had been sprinkled onto it.

The morning thumbnail is up there because the topic of this article is "Yoake" (Daybreak) by crooner-songwriter Chiharu Matsuyama（松山千春）. This was his 7th single from August 1979, and it's an interesting one because once again, it's one of those songs that isn't readily categorizable. Does it reside in that gray area between kayo kyoku and enka called New Adult Music? I would say no since although there are those old-fashioned vibes of kayo kyoku, I'm not quite sure if the arrangement by Nozomi Aoki（青木望）actually extends to traditional enka. It's been categorized on J-Wiki as folk but the beat seems a bit speedier and more whimsical and jazzier just to be a folk song. So, I also threw in the New Music tag in Labels. There's something about "Yoake" that reminds me of the 1970s jazz-folk tunes that I sometimes heard on the radio here in Toronto...maybe something Tom Waits-like.

As for the lyrics by Matsuyama, he has basically inserted himself as the protagonist as he sings about declaring to himself that he'll face the unknown country with some renewed vigor. Those lyrics also hint that he may be doing on his own while speaking of a former significant other who may have left this mortal coil or has simply broken up with him. Matsuyama may have suffered a bad turn in his life, but he's getting his act together again for that beloved one. "Yoake" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and ended up as the 46th-ranked single for 1979. The song was also used as the theme song for a 1979 NHK drama titled "Kazoku Nikki"（家族日記...Family Diary）.