Takuro Yoshida -- Seifuku（制服）

 

Over the years of doing the blog, I've discovered some trends here and there within the kayo kyoku sphere. For example, in the postwar years, there was a massive migration of labour from the rural areas of Japan to the big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka to power the factories and companies needed to get the economy back in shape. Called shuudan shuushoku（集団就職...mass employment）, tens of thousands including graduates of junior high schools would ship out to the city to begin a new tough life in the hopes that their efforts would translate into financial and economic success.

Singers and songwriters have always kept their eyes and ears open for the issues of the day and I'm sure that shuudan shuushoku was one big topic over the years. And songs were indeed created with the theme of moving to the big cities, working hard, and missing the old hometown. Probably the most famous of these kayo kyoku is Hachiro Izawa's（井沢八郎）"Ahh, Ueno Eki"（あゝ上野駅）from 1964, the singer's story of all of those young people getting off at one of Tokyo's most famous train stations which was the gateway to the city and to the new life.

Recently, I found another similarly-themed song although the genre is different. Folk singer-songwriter Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）came up with "Seifuku" (Uniforms), which was a track on his June 1973 album "Otogizoushi"（伽草子...Fairy Tale Book）. Written by Osami Okamoto（岡本おさみ）and composed by Yoshida, it's a somewhat bittersweet recollection of someone seeing a group of young ladies in their school uniforms who have just arrived at Tokyo Station from points beyond to enter their new company and the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life. The impression by the observer is that a lot of them will be facing quite a few challenges in the cold, cold world.