Tadaharu Nakano -- Rokyoku Blues (浪曲ブルース)/Jazz Rokyoku (ジャズ浪曲)

 Music moves with the times

The times move with music

They follow each other, round and round. What will be in this time? Tango? Blues?

What's that, Mr. Nakano*? You know the answer? Well, c'mon up! The stage is yours. Show us how you combine the 30s' most fashionable genre with the most anachronistic one with the fantastic R. Hatter.

Sometimes, if you want something you
just gotta do it yourself. So, I did.
I'm liking my handmade Nakano bromide.

From my articles in the past year or so, I think I've let on that I like Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴). I mean, he was quite spiffy and I always thought he was pretty cute. "China Tango" and his other tango-inspired works undoubtly made him more attractive. What made him a little more than a mainstay on my ryukoka list, however, was his penchant for humour in his smooth, jazzy tunes either on his own or with his jazz quartet, the Columbia Nakano Rhythm Boys. The song that introduced me to that side of him was "Rokyoku Blues."

"Rokyoku Blues"

According to the official rokyoku association's website, this traditional narrative art with shamisen accompaniment originated from the Meiji era, but may have had its roots hundreds of years ago in older narrative art forms like joruri. Also known as naniwabushi, it was a form of entertainment by the people for the people and its topics often featured stories of heroic chauvinism, loyalty, filial piety, romantic tragedies, etc. Proud Edo-era samurai, forlorn ronin, and morally grey yakuza were common protagonists. In the early Showa era (the mid-1920s to the early 1940s), rokyoku was particularly popular, appearing on records and heard on radio waves. It was even promoted by an increasingly nationalistic government because it showcased "appropriate" values. In this very same period but on the opposite side of the coin, jazz and Western culture were all the rage in a nation also trying to play catch up and overtake its Western compatriots. It was modern, it was stylish, it was what you heard in a fashionable Ginza cafe on the gramophone with your coffee. It was the way forward, not like stuffy rokyoku and its feudalistic themes. Naturally, pop music took note of the popularity of both, creating more traditional Japanese-themed songs in the likes of the matatabi kayo genre, but also experimenting with Western sounds like jazz, blues, tango, etc. Often times, these two starkly contrasting types of music were somewhat removed from each other. But sometimes you had a Tadaharu Nakano and a Ryoichi Hattori (服部良一), pioneers of jazz and blues in early Japanese pop music, to bring them together. Many fascinating combos were created and I think it's fair to say that "Rokyoku Blues" was one of them.

Released in August 1939, "Rokyoku Blues" kicks off in dramatic fashion with blaring trumpets and Nakano's booming baritone. His introductory recitation is reminiscent of rokyoku's tanka or "spoken dialogue" section. Despite Mr. Nakano being classically-trained, I thought his attempt at a Japanese-like (nihon cho) delivery filled with kobushi and akusei like a rokyoku artist was pretty solid, even if a little stiff. So far so rokyoku. And then the jazz kicks in jaunty Hattori fashion. Mr. Nakano maintains a bit of that akusei and gives us an animated and rather meta run-down of the tropes of naniwabushi stories and characters. Providing the words was Soanshi Mizuno (水野草庵子... I'm not sure how his first name is pronounced), who was actually known for penning many a rokyoku piece, so we know we're getting the real deal, even if silly. I'm no expert in the genre, but here are the references I could catch: 

1. Asataro Itawari (板割浅太郎) and Mt. Akagi from "Kunisada Chuji" (国定忠治), including a straight-up shout-out to its ryukoka counterpart, Taro Shoji's (東海林太郎) "Akagi no Komoriuta" (赤城の子守唄) 

2. The Tone river, probably a reference to Miki Hirate (平手造酒) in "Tenpo no Suikoden" (天保水滸伝) and/or Mohei Komagata (駒形茂兵衛) in "Ippon-gatana Dohyo Iri" (一本刀土俵入り).

3. The one-eyed rogue of Shizuoka, Mori no Ishimatsu (森の石松) in "Ishimatsu Sanju Ishibune" (石松三十石舟). 

All ninkyo mono (samurai-yakuza-themed stuff), but all some of the most well-loved tales. Also, many of the lines from "Rokyoku Blues" seem to have come from the no.3, like a personal favourite, "Baka wa shinanakya naoranai!" (Stupidity is only cured with death.) Not because I watched/heard the original work or anything, but I simply agree with the sentiment. 

On the note of no.1, even though I'm not an aficionado on Hattori Melody by any stretch, references to other songs within a song he made seemed to be a Hattori-ism, especially if the party-loving composer with the widest grin writes the words himself. "Rokyoku Blues" was written by Mizuno, but seeing as to how "Akagi no Komoriuta" was plonked into a stanza, I can't help but feel that Hattori may have had some say in its creation. That's just my flimsy theory, but maybe there is some evidence...

"Jazz Rokyoku"

On a slightly different note, I actually knew "Rokyoku Blues" as "Jazz Rokyoku." That was because a video with the latter title was the one that caught my attention at first. However, I eventually found out that "Jazz Rokyoku" was a slightly different song and that what I'd been listening to the whole time was actually titled "Rokyoku Blues." Probably a minor mistake on the uploader's part, but I don't blame them since the existence of both is a bit of a strange one and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself. 

So, "Jazz Rokyoku" was actually released earlier in 1938 with Hattori in charge of both music and lyrics, and it was recorded by Mr. Nakano with the Rhythm Boys. And then somewhere in the next year or so, Nakano recorded "Rokyoku Blues" on his own with the words by Mizuno. The odd thing is that only "Rokyoku Blues" can be found on Nakano's discography on 78Music, while only "Jazz Rokyoku" can be found in the discography list in Hattori's autobiography "Boku no Ongaku Jinsei" (ぼくの音楽人生).  Nevertheless, I guess you could say this is a case of "Same same but different." Both do sound somewhat similar, although "Jazz" has more raucous percussions and a bossa nova groove to it. "Jazz" is also far less heavy on the explicit rokyoku references. Instead, I think it has naniwabushi theme stereotypes, like the joys and romantic tragedies of daily life. The "Baka wa shinanakya naoranai" is still there, though so thank you R. Hatter. Hattori originally writing "Jazz" was why I'm thinking that it was plausible he had some input in the later day "Blues." But, y'know, I could be wrong. Either way, I am personally more a fan of "Blues" because I do love those on-the-nose shout-outs and its smoother arrangement.

As usual, the historical information on the music industry and society were garnered from my understandings of Kiyomaro Kikuchi's "Showa Enka no Rekishi." 

*Because I don't know if Tadaharu Nakano went by any nickname, I've decided to simply call him Mr. Nakano. But I have to clarify that it's different from Ichiro Fujiyama's "Mr. Fujiyama." The latter was derived from his prim-and-proper style, the former from his suaveness. The other option was "Teddy" because my smooth brain thought Tadaharu > Ted > Teddy. But, y'know, sometimes you just can't let intrusive thoughts like that win.