Masao Sen -- Bokyo Sakaba（望郷酒場）

 

Because I was never a huge drinker, I never really frequented a bar where everyone knew my name either in Japan or Canada. In the former country, my students took me and the teachers to a whole variety of izakaya and drinking establishments all over Tokyo whereas in the latter country, the closest that I ever got was Kuri, the karaoke bar of my university years, or the Madison Ave. Pub in the Annex, a neighbourhood right by the University of Toronto. And for that matter, The Mad was a place where I noshed more on the chicken wings and fries while drinking a Coke or coffee. I did have the odd Guinness, though.

To be honest, I was looking through the song list in the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen, just to see what else I may have not covered although I did feature a number of songs from that 32nd edition on the pages of KKP. And sure enough, there was one by a venerated and venerable enka singer, Masao Sen（千昌夫）.

"Bokyo Sakaba" (In a Bar Longing For Home) was Sen's 31st single from September 1981, and just from seeing the title, it rather grabbed my attention. I remember from reading up on some of Noelle's articles that the 1950s and 1960s were the decades for bokyo kayo（望郷歌謡）, the songs of nostalgia and homesickness that hit the airwaves to much success. At the time, many young Japanese were encouraged to leave their homes in the far-flung regions to head to the big cities to power the economic revitalization of the nation. Of course, many of those people probably did miss their hometowns and families.

So, it was interesting to see that as late as 1981, there was a song with the title of "Bokyo Sakaba", sung tenderly by Sen as the protagonist in Ryuichi Satomura's（里村龍一） lyrics waxes wistfully about becoming much like his own father as he looks upon his own life and drinking habits. The karaoke-friendly enka melody was provided by Seiichi Sakurada（桜田誠一）.