Gosanke Imagined: Senzen Polydor Sanba Garasu（戦前ポリドール三羽烏）

I've noticed that J-Canuck has been putting out some "Gosanke Imagined" articles featuring potential trios/quartets in the Japanese music world that should/could have been but never were. Naturally, I wanted to hop on that train and bring out some of my imagined Gosanke (御三家) too. The first I will put up is what I'll call the Senzen Polydor Sanba Garasu, or the Prewar Three Ravens of Polydor Records. 

Our 3 fellows are Taro Shoji (東海林太郎), Bin Uehara (上原敏), and Yoshio Tabata (田端義夫). This was just as much a fan-picked trio (considering Bin san and Batayan) as it most probably was an actual trio, albeit one not formally named. As the title suggests, they were major stars from Polydor Records, particularly in the late 1930s. I went with calling them ravens since it seemed like the common term used when referring to a trio of male stars back in the early Showa era, like the Sengo Sanba Garasu (戦後三羽烏). As an aside, Polydor was one of the big 5 record companies in the prewar era, along with Victor, Columbia, Teichiku, and King. I think that can help one see the scale of our trio's presence in the pre-WWII music scene.

Shoji was the oldest and first to debut in 1933. This was followed by Uehara, who was 10 years his junior and debuted in 1936. Tabata, the youngest and 11 years Uehara's junior, debuted in 1938.  Besides hailing from the same company and reaching stardom in record time, they shared a couple of other commonalities. For one, they all weren't music school graduates and thus not classically trained, the latter being a desired trait among pop singers at the time. Two, their biggest hits from the 1930s were mostly matatabi mono, or songs that featured samurai, ronin, or yakuza. This all the more cemented Polydor Records as the company that prided itself with more Japan-themed songs among its competitors, who leaned a little more towards the Western sound. It was for these reasons that my song selection will feature a matatabi mono from each of our 3 gentlemen. Each of these songs features a different real life yakuza figure who often appear in rokyoku and other traditional Japanese narrative arts. 

Taro Shoji -- Akagi no Komori Uta (赤城の子守唄) (1934)

This was Shoji's first smash hit from 1934 and it featured Asataro Itawari (板割浅太郎), a yakuza who took his nephew under his wing after killing his uncle out of duty to his boss, the big wig Chuji Kunisada (国定忠治). Big yikes. Apparently, Shoji himself wasn't familiar with the story often told by the likes of rokyoku stars at the time of recording.

Bin Uehara -- Tsuma Koi Dochu (妻恋道中) (1937)

Ah, yes, dear Bin san. "Tsuma Koi Dochu" was his first hit from 1937. The character featured here was Kira no Nikichi (吉良の仁吉), who went on a mission to kill someone at the orders of his master. The catch was that this someone happened to be his wife's brother. But, duty above compassion, and so Kira leaves his wife to fulfill his mission. Fun fact, it wasn't known if the real Kira was even married, so the narrative that included his wife was simply for drama's sake.

Yoshio Tabata -- Otone Tsukiyo (大利根月夜) (1939)

Osu! 

Batayan's foray into matatabi mono probably began with this massive hit, "Otone Tsukiyo" from 1939, which featured the hapless Miki Hirate (平手造酒). I talked about the talented swordsman-turned-yakuza in my article on Haruo Minami's (三波春夫) "Otone Mujou" (大利根無情) some time back, so I won't dwell too much on it. But the grander, more dignified air that Batayan tune exudes seems to highlight Hirate's past glory before his spiral into degeneracy. Most matatabi mono that about real yakuza figures up to this point in the Showa era usually centered around the above mentioned Kunisada, Kira, as well as Shimizu no Jirocho (清水次郎長) and Mori no Ishimatsu (森の石松). But "Otone Tsukiyo" likely set a precedent of having Hirate's tragedy be conveyed in popular song. 

To round things off, here's some extra trivia about our trio:

1. Tabata debuted while still a teenager (he was 19 at the time), which was still somewhat of an anomaly for singers at the time. As you may have noticed in the photos above, he also shaved his head when he debuted and I'm not sure why (yet). But it's Batayan, so I'm not surprised by his hijinks anymore. Perhaps he simply wanted to mark the start of a new journey?

2. Shoji and Uehara were both from Akita Prefecture, were both university graduates, and were both white-collared salarymen before they entered the world of music. That's in addition to the aforementioned musical similarities. Let's not forget that they looked vaguely alike, especially with those round glasses. But I heard that Mr. Taro (yes, I'm calling him that from now on) was the joker who loved his Dad jokes while Bin san was the more serious one.

As usual, Kiyomaro Kikuchi's "Showa Enka no Rekishi" was my info source.