Yuiko Kinoshita -- Hokasarete（放されて）

 

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I was watching "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた...Songs of Japanese Spirit） on Jme which was celebrating Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子）60th anniversary in the recording industry. I also stated that I had come across some intriguing and attractive kayo kyoku for the first time.

One of those songs is "Hokasarete" (Being Let Go), a melancholy ballad about the aftermath of a romantic relationship in which at least one of the now ex-lovers didn't want to end. Written by Ou Yoshida（吉田旺）and composed by Koji Tokuhisa（徳久広司）, this was the 1984 debut single for Yuiko Kinoshita（木下結子）, who I hadn't heard of before. It took a bit of doing but I found some information on her at the Holiday Japan website. A native of Osaka, she had been working in a company and doing some commercial jingle recording on the side following high school for a couple of years before it was time to go behind the microphone in the recording booth.

"Hokasarete" is one of those 80s tunes that aren't easy to peg into one genre hole which makes it all the more interesting to me. It's got the Kansai dialect bluesiness, pop and some rock guitar in there so I also threw in the New Adult Music into Labels. Plus, the arrangement also reminds me of a far more famous ballad "Love is Over" originally by Feifei Ouyang（欧陽菲菲）right down to certain string sequences. In fact, I could easily imagine Ouyang or Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）covering "Hokasarete" in terms of the melody and the lyrics. I was struck by one line, though, where Kinoshita sings "Watashi wa yappari enka desu"（私わやっぱり演歌です...I'm an enka ballad after all）. Of all the genre names that I've included, enka is definitely not one of them but I'm gathering that the protagonist in the song is comparing herself to a typical sad traditional ballad considering her current plight.