Chiyoko Shimakura -- Kono Yo no Hana（この世の花）

 

"Uta Con"（うたコン）devoted some minutes of its broadcast last night to the late singer Chiyoko Shimakura（島倉千代子）who had passed away ten years ago today at the age of 75. There were some very familiar kayo kyoku sung including her 1980s hit "Jinsei Iroiro"（人生いろいろ）which I posted on the day that she left this mortal coil.

However, one Shimakura song that I hadn't included here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was her debut single, "Kono Yo no Hana" (A Flower of This World). Released in March 1955, it was used as the theme song for the cinematic adaptation of a Makoto Hojo（北條誠） novel of the same name, and as written by Yaso Saijo（西條八十）and composed by Tadashi Manjome（万城目正）, "Kono Yo no Hana" is a wistful and wiser if sadder observation on the sweet fragility of a first love as it fritters away like a blossom. Though I've categorized it as an enka tune, enka tunes officially didn't exist until the early 1970s with a lot of sudden retrofitting of songs into that particular genre. But back then, the song had been considered to be a kayo kyoku so I've also put in the pop Label as well.

For Shimakura, who was a month shy of her 17th birthday, her dreams came true on an overwhelming level since "Kono Yo no Hana" became a huge hit, selling two million records within six months of it being put on the shelves. It has remained her biggest hit although Shimakura wouldn't actually sing the song on the Kohaku Utagassen for the first time until her 26th appearance on the NHK New Year's Eve special in 1982.