Yujiro Ishihara -- Gas Tou（ガス燈）

 

I would think that someone as legendary as The Tough Guy, the late actor and singer Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）, was a shoo-in for multiple appearances on the year-end Kohaku Utagassen. After all, he was the charismatic young rebel of the 1950s and early 1960s and then the sage figure of law enforcement authority in the 1970s and 1980s along with the fact that he was a well-established crooner of Mood Kayo for many years. Plus, he was the head of Japan's own Rat Pack, the Ishihara Gundan（石原軍団）.

But I couldn't find any mention of him ever being in the annual music special and usually singers of his popularity and longevity get their own history of Kohaku appearances on J-Wiki, but there wasn't anything. Checking through Yahoo Japan, there was the usual Q&A where I discovered that though he had made an appearance on the 1957 8th edition as a guest and not as an active participant, there was no other edition where he showed up again. Apparently, he turned down the invitation from NHK time and time again since the theory went that he didn't need the Kohaku to maintain or gain popularity which turned out to be right.

Anyways, that was my trivia hunt for today. I was actually doing my usual maintenance last night when I came upon the B-side for Ishihara's "Omokage no Hito"（おもかげの女）from February 1985. The A-side was a song that I posted about back in 2017, and for the record, "Gas Tou" (Gaslight) has nothing to do with Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）jazz torch song of the same name. In fact, as written by Norihiko Sugi（杉紀彦）and composed by Kensuke Kishimoto（岸本健介）, this is another tenderhearted Mood Kayo croon by The Tough Guy about reminiscing on that past romance as he looks at the line of gaslight lamps on the street. There is a sudden veering in the instrumental bridge where things go pop (music) but it doesn't stay there long enough for "Gas Tou" to become a New Adult Music sort of song.

Not sure if this is a thing but maybe there are certain common landmarks in Japan that become popular as parts of kayo kyoku titles. Gas lights could be one of them since I've already mentioned two songs with that title. There are also those stone lanterns by venerable houses and restaurants and maybe even large bells.