Ichiro Kanbe -- Juu-dai no Koi Sayonara（十代の恋よさようなら）

 

I heard this one on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた...Songs of Japanese Spirit） and found out that it had originally been sung by Ichiro Kanbe（神戸一郎）. He first came to KKP's attention back in October 2022 when I wrote about his "Nagoya Blues"（名古屋ブルース）which was released in 1971.

This time around, that song that I heard on the NHK kayo kyoku show is "Juu-dai no Koi Sayonara" (Farewell, My Teen Love) which happens to Kanbe's debut single from December 1957. He was still a teen when he released his first song (and yup, he cut quite the dashing figure on that cover) and yet, his vocals showed off a fairly more mature-than-expected quality which probably made him quite the crooner from the get-go. Written by Miyuki Ishimoto（石本美由起）and composed by Gento Uehara（上原げんと）, compared to the somewhat despair-sounding "Nagoya Blues", there is a bit more bittersweet yet hopeful vibe from "Juu-dai no Koi Sayonara" in a que sera sera fashion. I'm a bit torn on whether this would be now considered an enka ballad or a straight kayo kyoku, though, especially since enka wouldn't enter officially enter the Japanese lexicon until the early 1970s.