Kokoro Umetani -- Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori（磐越西線ひとり）

 

Garlic and pasta, Laurel and Hardy, cola and ice cubes...matches made in pop culture heaven. May I add one more? Enka and trains...a Japanese combination that generates the feeling of loneliness and longing as a person deals with romantic adversity. Over here, we seem to deal with breakups by meeting with friends or engorging oneself on a tub of ice cream. Over there, song protagonists seem to hop on a train for the north...probably because of the cold and the snow.

Anyways, I have another example of an enka-and-train song. This is "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori" (Alone on the Ban-etsu West Line) by 17-year-old enka phenom Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）. I've referred to her a couple of times on the blog including my recent article on a couple of tourist sites in Asakusa but had yet to actually put up a song by her. However, Umetani has been making an impression with a surprisingly mature voice and a standout look which strikes me as being Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）in her "Desire" appearance and Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.

But there is nothing rock in her debut single which was released in July 2023. It's very much an enka song with Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）providing words and music respectively. Very melancholy fare, it deals with a lady taking a lonely introspective ride on the titular JR line going from Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture to Niigata City in Niigata Prefecture. My good friend who's been going to the Tohoku region for the last couple of years can probably give me some more insight on how wintry the area gets. 

Considering her youth and her very oaken voice, I couldn't help but get some prodigy vibes from Umetani along the lines of a young Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）back in the day. "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori" reached No. 23 on Oricon. She has since released a second single in 2024 along with an album, so it'll be interesting to observe how her career develops in the years to come. Maybe in the near future, she will even show up on the Kohaku Utagassen.