As with my previous article, the song of this posting was something that I had also seen last night on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）. Unlike Akira Mita（三田明）, who was able to appear on the show to sing one of his hits, enka singer Hideo Murata（村田英雄）left this mortal coil back in 2002 but thankfully his legacy has been able to live on through his music via sources such as TV and YouTube.
One of Murata's trademark songs that was covered by Noelle Tham was the 1961 "Osho"（王将）where he sang about the wonder and dignity of the game of shogi. He also gave his tribute to the martial art of judo a couple of years later in February 1963 via "Judo Ichidai" (Judo for Life) and just as he had for "Osho", his oaken and proud delivery for this particular song belied an elegance which may have also reflected aspects of judo itself through the precise techniques and applied strength used.
Composer Shinichi Yamaji（山路進一）and lyricist Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）were behind the creation of "Judo Ichidai" which also became the theme song for the movie of the same name that was released in April 1963. The movie starred Sonny Chiba（千葉真一）and there was a small part for Murata himself, although the poster below seems somewhat misleading.
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This is off-topic, but I'm currently watching the Little League Softball World Series and it's Canada versus Japan(first time they qualified). Nice intersection with this blog, haha.
ReplyDeleteSome how I have heard of "Judo Ichidai" before some where. I am wondering if you mentioned this song before on this blog, but I am not sure how to search blog content to figure the answer to this question. Anyway, epic song!
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. When I heard it on Sunday night, I wondered whether Noelle or I had already covered it, but when I checked out Murata's KKP file, I was surprised to find out that it had yet to be profiled.
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