Kokichi Takada -- Izu no Sataro（伊豆の佐太郎）

 

Good morning to all and holiday greetings to both Canadians and Japanese. We've got Canadian Thanksgiving here today while in Japan, it's Sports Day. 

NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）was back on the schedule after a slight hiatus so we got some of the old kayo kyoku back in our ears. One of the first songs on the slate was a 1953 enka by singer-actor Kokichi Takada（高田浩吉）. Now, almost a decade ago, I first posted about the Hyogo Prefecture-born Takada through his 1955 entry "Meigetsu Sataro Gasa" （名月佐太郎笠）regarding the ronin Sataro who roamed the countryside. The song was written by lyricist Naomi Matsuzaka（松坂直美）and composed by the legendary Masao Koga（古賀政男）.

Well, that 1953 song apparently had a younger version of Sataro in the area of Izu. Titled "Izu no Sataro" (Sataro of Izu), it had a couple of different but also very famous songwriters of the time, lyricist Yaso Saijo（西條八十）and composer Gento Uehara（上原げんと）. When compared to the later song, "Meigetsu Sataro Gasa", "Izu no Sataro" sounds more urgent and industrious in a "I gotta do what I gotta do" way while "Meigetsu Sataro Gasa" has a more content and laidback nature as if Sataro may finally have found some peace and quiet at last.