Rumiko Koyanagi -- Hitori Bayashi ~ Gion Matsuri yori（ひとり囃子－"祇園祭より"－）

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Over the weekend, I caught some live YouTube coverage of the annual Gion Festival in Kyoto. It's good to see some of the venerable events back in Japan again, although the weather all over the country has been volatile, to say the least. 

Last year around this time, I also acknowledged the return of the Gion Festival with a 1986 song by Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）simply titled "Gion Matsuri"（祇園祭）that could possibly fall into that middle ground between kayo kyoku and enka known as New Adult Music. This time, I have a much earlier song from June 1974 titled "Hitori Bayashi ~ Gion Matsuri yori" (Lone Musical Accompaniment ~ From the Gion Festival) by Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）.

Considering Koyanagi's status in the music industry back then, the song has been categorized as an aidoru tune but with some of the traditional melodic affectations imbued, I couldn't help but also throw in the enka tag, too. Maybe it indeed skews a little closer to that genre compared to "Gion Matsuri" by Tanimura. There's also a certain child-like innocence in the arrangement and even the vocals by the singer herself as if the famous Kyoto festival were being seen by a little kid for the first time (most likely on the shoulders of Dad considering how crowded the streets can be to witness the gorgeous floats). 

Koyanagi's 12th single "Hitori Bayashi" reached No. 21 on Oricon. It was written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多条忠）with Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）as the composer. The song was also a track on her 8th album "Koyanagi Rumiko ~ Atarashii Tomodachi"（小柳ルミ子 －あたらしい友達－...New Friends） which was actually released a month earlier, although the J-Wiki article on the song warns that the arrangement is different there.