My parents have been wondering about where enka legend Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）has been over the past few years. Well, through one newspaper and one magazine via J-Wiki, I found out that she's basically been retired from the geinokai over the past decade with her final concert being at the end of 2015. At last report, she was living with just-as-retired actor Shigeru Yazaki（矢崎滋）in a hotel somewhere in the Tohoku region.
Last night, while we were watching NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）, I encountered a song that I had never heard by Miyako (performed by someone else, of course) titled "Ara Miteta no ne" (Ah, You Were Watching Us) which was released as her 12th single in January 1966. Written by Shinichi Sekizawa（関沢新一）and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, it's a coquettish little enka featuring Miyako as this young lady in a small town who has been experiencing a thrilling affair with a guy. Unlike other couples who would want to keep their relationship on the QT, it seems as if young Harumi isn't exactly hiding her glee at being found out. The jauntiness of the melody hints pretty loudly that the revelation is just as thrilling as the affair.
Harumi Miyako is quite a performer both in singing and dancing. It is actually refreshing to so an Enka singer move around on stage like that.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. If I remember correctly, she was quite the bundle of energy on the stage. She also had that distinctive way of holding her mike.
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