Being Friday, I would usually be putting up my spate of urban contemporary tunes onto the blog, but I hope you'll permit me one change here. Singer and actor Yukio Hashi passed away at the age of 82 yesterday on September 4th. My parents and I were watching an NHK news flash when the announcement came out which garnered a joint gasp from all of us. In the last couple of years, we had seen him announce his retirement from show business in 2023, even going to the extent of searching for a young singer to take on the name of Yukio Hashi and continue his music. But due to popular demand, the original Hashi rescinded that retirement exactly a year later. I don't know if many of us who've enjoyed enka and Mood Kayo knew that he was sick but he had been diagnosed with an Alzheimer's-type disease earlier this year and that may have been a factor in his passing along with pneumonia according to the latest report on J-Wiki.
Hashi's death is especially poignant as he not only was one of the three young Turks in Japanese pop culture's first Gosanke trio alongside Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）and Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）, but in our household, I came to realize that a number of his records were part of my father's collection. So, his voice was a familiar one on the stereo although I wouldn't know who he really was until many years later. The Tokyo-born singer was mostly known for his enka and Mood Kayo classics but he could also put out songs that were outside of those traditional genres...songs that would also become very popular over the decades.
I'm going to put up the songs that I knew as a kid at home. My condolences go to Hashi's family, friends, and many fans.
(1962) Itsudemo Yume wo （いつでも夢を）
(1965) Ano Ko to Boku ~ Swim Swim Swim（あの娘と僕-スイム・スイム・スイム-）
(1966) Muhyou（霧氷）
(1967) Koi no Mexican Rock （恋のメキシカン・ロック）
(1971) Kozure Ohkami （子連れ狼）
Hashi is one of those geinoujin seems like has been around forever -- I honestly thought he'd be closer to 90.
ReplyDeleteI guess KOZURE is the tune of his I recognize the most. He also played Kinsan in the 1970s, which I always thought was odd casting. He never looked to me like a tough guy with a tattoo...
Hello, Saburo. Yes, he'd been around for decades as an entertainer. I think he even showed very recently on some kayo kyoku show this year despite his diagnosis. For me, it'll be "Muhyou" and "Itsudemo Yume wo" that I remember the best because my parents kept playing the singles on the RCA.
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