Yujiro Ishihara/Mayumi Itsuwa -- Omoide Sagashi（思い出さがし）

 

Good ol' "Seibu Keisatsu"（西部警察...West Police Division） on TV Asahi. It was always fun to see fantasy and police work come in hand-in-hand with massive urban explosions, repeated gunplay and enough car collisions to send insurance companies into orgasm. Plus, it had the larger-than-life Tough Guy himself, Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）, as the Chief of Detectives. My good friend, JTM, knows more about the old Japanese police dramas than I do so it was only in the last few hours that I discovered that there were three officially delineated series of "Seibu Keisatsu" with the first original series lasting between October 1979 and April 1982. Then came "Seibu Keisatsu Part II" which went from May 1982 to March 1983 and finally "Seibu Keisatsu Part III" from April 1983 to October 1984.

Along with the weekly pyrotechnics, there was another trope with the iconic cop show in that Ishihara would often provide the ending theme and at least one or two of them have shown up on the blog up to now. Well, here is a third one and this one is a little special. "Omoide Sagashi" (Searching for the Memories) was used only for Episode 31 on "Seibu Keisatsu Part III" in December 1983.

I don't know what the episode was about and according to the ratings for No. 31 on J-Wiki, it wasn't one of the more highly-rated shows but considering the one-off ending theme regarding the melancholy crooning over a reunion of former lovers, I do wonder if the plot involved Ishihara's Chief Kogure suddenly re-engaging with an old flame. In any case, I can imagine Tetsuya Watari's（渡哲也）loyal field leader and the No. 2 guy, Inspector Daimon, meeting up with his boss and friend at a bar at the end of the episode and telling him "There are always other fish in the sea".

Me waxing hypothetically aside, the other surprise was that "Omoide Sagashi" was actually written and composed by singer-songwriter Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）. Itsuwa had once been called the Japanese equivalent of Carole King before she went into a more Fashion Music direction in the late 1970s. So, it was revealing that she did create this brooding Mood Kayo which was a perfect fit for Ishihara.

The amazing thing is that Itsuwa recorded a self-cover of "Omoide Sagashi" in her own refined style and although I had assumed it was originally done at around the same time as the one she offered to Ishihara, her version was actually performed for an August 2017 compilation, "Golden Best ~ Itsuwa Mayumi Special Collection"（GOLDEN☆BEST五輪真弓－スペシャルセレクション－）. I know that it was a mere six years ago but I can only describe the arrangement here as Fashion Music with that rich piano and strings. Nice inclusion of the trumpet as well.