Kazuko Aoyama -- Ai to Shi wo Mitsumete（愛と死をみつめて）

 

From the tattered windmills of my mind, I remember the 1970 film "Love Story" with Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, mostly through certain scenes (including the final one with Ryan's character sitting all by his lonesome in the park as he tries to process the fact that he lost the love of his life) and the famous theme song which was further popularized by Andy Williams.

Well, through a performance on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）and a Ken Shimura（志村けん）gag several years ago, I remember a kayo kyoku that was based on a 1963 best-selling novel that sold well over a million books. The novel was "Ai to Shi wo Mitsumete" (Looking at Love and Death) by journalist Makoto Kouno（河野實）and it was about his real-life three-year correspondence as a university student through letters with a young woman who would tragically succumb to disease at just 21 years of age.

Producer Masatoshi Sakai（酒井政利）was probably one of those millions who had read the book and decided that he needed to have a song created for "Ai to Shi wo Mitsumete". To get that feeling of wistful youth into the song, Sakai didn't bother ask a veteran lyricist but a Meiji University fourth-year student who was working at a record company, Hiroko Ohya（大矢弘子）, to come up with the words. Meanwhile, the producer contracted Keishiro Tsuchida（土田啓四郎）to compose the song. Released in July 1964, it was recorded by then-18-year-old singer Kazuko Aoyama（青山和子）, and by the sounds of it (including the mournful chorus), it looks like Sakai wanted to make this a three-hanky kayo reflecting the original story in the book, even including the names of the two main characters, Miko and Mako.

"Ai to Shi wo Mitsumete" would earn a Japan Record Award that same year and sell more than 700,000 records. However, the single wasn't the only media tribute to the novel. A few months later, a movie with the same title and plot would make its presence known, starring Sayuri Yoshinaga（吉永小百合）.