Keiko Fuji -- Sayonara Tokyo（サヨナラ東京）

 

Well, while I was writing up Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）bittersweet kayo kyoku "Sayonara Tokyo" from July 1964, I noticed to the right of the screen that there was another song with the same title, this time performed by another veteran who also sadly left this mortal coil several years ago.

My initial impression was that Keiko Fuji's（藤圭子）"Sayonara Tokyo" was a cover of the Sakamoto original, but nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, this song was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Yukihiko Ito（伊藤雪彦）. Senke's lyrics also actually tell of a romance gone bust but the dynamics are different in that the poor woman scooted from the countryside or small town to see her lover in gigantic Tokyo, only to be shocked and heartbroken.

Whereas Sakamoto's "Sayonara Tokyo" had a distinctive Latin guitar, Fuji's "Sayonara Tokyo" has the much more twangy guitar and the overall arrangement is much more in the Mood Kayo (including that sharp trumpet) vein that is her genre-in-trade. The song was also not released as a single but was included as a track on her December 1977 album "Omokage Heiya"（面影平野...Field of Reminders）.