Yukio Hashi & Akiko Kanazawa -- Dai Tokyo Ondo（大東京音頭）

 

With Tanabata happening a couple of days ago, I figure that Japan has entered its annual weeks-long festival season. Lots of traditional dancing, yukata-wearing, food-noshing and minyo-singing to be had all over the nation. 

To be honest, I can't remember how I encountered this festive tune. Perhaps it was through one of the music shows popping up on NHK via Jme but it's appropriate for the time. At first glance, I'd assumed that "Dai Tokyo Ondo" (Great Tokyo Song) was something that had been around for a century at least but then I looked up its article on J-Wiki and discovered that it had been created by lyricists Tsuneharu Takita（滝田常晴）and Masato Fujita（藤田まこと）and composer Minoru Endo（遠藤実） back in the relatively recent year of 1979 (in May, to be exact). It so happens that the festive "Dai Tokyo Ondo" was actually created to commemorate the 15th anniversary of what is now the channel TV Tokyo back in that year. There was apparently a contest in which around 3000 entries were accepted for a celebratory song.

Mr. Takita must have been doubly honoured when he found out that veteran enka singer Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）and relative newcomer Akiko Kanazawa（金沢明子）would record "Dai Tokyo Ondo" as a duet officially as Hashi's 140th single. It also became the title song for a Hashi album that came out in September 1979.

"Dai Tokyo Ondo" may have been created on behalf of a TV station, but it has since also become a regular part of the Tokyo summer festival scene, and it's been covered by a number of other singers over the years. However, the Hashi and Kanazawa duet is supposed to the one that had the most success.