James Miki -- Sakaba no Katasumi de（酒場の隅で）

 

Screenwriter, writer and former singer James Miki（ジェームス･三木）passed away at the age of 91 on June 14th. For some reason, his name rang a bell when I first heard his obituary on NHK last night. Being the writer behind many many scripts on TV and movies since 1969, I probably did hear his name quite a bit although I've never been all that avid a watcher of Japanese productions.

However, his name has been mentioned among the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" once. He was the writer for the 1985 NHK morning serial drama "Miotsukushi"（澪つくし）which garnered one of the highest average ratings; he was even the lyricist for the sung version of its theme song as recorded by Etsuko Sai（彩恵津子）. A couple of years later, he would also be responsible for writing the script for the NHK historical drama "Dokuganryū Masamune"（独眼竜政宗）, showing the life and times of the legendary feudal lord Masamune Date（伊達政宗）as depicted by a young Ken Watanabe（渡辺謙）.

But as I mentioned up at the top, Miki, who had been born Kiyomoto Yamashita（山下清泉）in what had been Manchukuo, was a singer for a very short while before deciding that he would fare better as a writer. According to J-Wiki and part of an interview during the NHK tribute to him, he was given his stage name by his representative record company along the same lines as more famous singers such as Dick Mine（ディック・ミネ）and Frank Nagai（フランク永井）. When he switched from recording to writing, he simply kept his stage name as a new pen name.

That short while of singing took up the years of 1957 and 1958, and at one point, he was even the warmup act for the aforementioned Nagai and singer Haruo Minami（三波春夫）. His second of three singles released in 1958 was "Sakaba no Katasumi de" (In One Corner of a Bar). Written by Kazuo Negishi（根岸一男）and composed by Kenroku Uehara（上原賢六）, I wasn't quite sure whether to categorize this rather gentle song as a straight kayo kyoku or an enka tune. Despite the titular spot, I certainly couldn't call it a Mood Kayo but in the end, since I see it labeled on YouTube as a ryukoka（流行歌）, the old way of saying kayo kyoku, I've given it the pop label. 

It's only the one song I've heard, but I don't think Miki was any slouch at singing at all. However, he obviously found a much more lucrative and fulfilling career handling a pen rather than a microphone. My condolences to his family, friends and fans.