Akari Yamanishi -- Kinokawa yo（紀ノ川よ）

 

The above video comes from YouTube's Hidaka Channel and it's a short presentation of Hidaka Town in Wakayama Prefecture which is basically where my ancestors hail from. I haven't been there in a few decades but my grandparents used to run a minshuku by the coast. It was in a very remote area where in all likelihood, the insects and reptiles (including the dangerous habu snake) far outnumbered the citizens living there.

I'm not sure whether it was TV Japan's way of making amends to the especially senior citizen group of viewers as the broadcasting service approaches its end on March 31st, but for some reason last Friday afternoon, my parents got two solid hours of kayo kyoku and enka as the 90-minute "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌...Songs of Japanese Spirit） and then 30-minute "Hayauta"（はやウタ）were shown back to back. 

On "Hayauta", we all got to meet an enka singer from Wakayama Prefecture, Akari Yamanishi（山西アカリ）, who released her newest single last October. "Kinokawa yo" (The Kino River). It's quite the boisterous enka go-touchi song from her home province, delivered in those lower tones by Yamanishi. What really makes her stand out is that she doesn't quite sing in the usual way for female enka singers: basically standing still in a conservative dress or kimono while making graceful and sweeping arm gestures. She follows the upbeat rhythm with some sharp arm slashes almost on the level of an aidoru and in the music video at least, she's even doing some high jumps as if she were in an ancient Toyota commercial. Lastly, she's not in any traditional dress; Yamanishi is in a matching tartan blazer and slacks.

"Kinokawa yo" was written by Chisato Sakura（さくらちさと）and composed by Hideo Mizumori（水森英夫）. According to her biography on the Tokuma Japan Communications website, Yamanishi got her start in the music industry by winning the weekly NHK "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）episode when it was taking place in Tanabe City in Wakayama in 2008 and even participating in the grand championship episode. Then she was placed under Mizumori's wing to be trained as a professional singer. She made her official debut in 2017 with "MIZMO"（水雲）.