The Works of Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）

Wikimedia Commons via the Agency for Cultural Affairs

 

Since going into the 21st century, NHK's Kohaku Utagassen has undergone a number of key changes in its format, but one thing that has been retained is everyone's singing of "Auld Lang Syne" or as it is known in Japanese, "Hotaru no Hikari" (蛍の光）. The orchestra goes into its rendition at the end of the broadcast with a brief glimpse of the man who's conducting them. In the past, that has been singer Ichiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）and singer-songwriter Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）. For the past several years, though, it's been singer-songwriter Shunichi Tokura.

Well, since it's been several months since I've written up a Creator article (the last one was for Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）back last August), I've decided to whip one up tonight for one of the more prolific songwriters. Tokura has come up with some of the biggest hits in the late kayo kyoku period including those for some of the most famous aidoru of the 1970s: Pink Lady and Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）.

Born in Tokyo in June 1948, Tokura got into music pretty early in life by picking up the violin at the age of 4. His father was a diplomat so for several years, their family was living in West Germany where he started studying the basics of music. Returning to Japan at the age of 12, some of his junior high school classmates included future officials in government and business. He then returned to Germany for high school (where he joined a band called The Beat Cats) before making his way back to his home country.

During his sophomore year in university, Tokura became the vocalist for the folk group The Panic Men which came out with a 1968 single called "Omoide no Komichi"（思い出の小径...Path of Memories）. This was also the time when he took up his future career as a composer and one of his first creations was Chinatsu Nakayama's（中山千夏）"Anata no Kokoro ni" (あなたの心に) in 1969.

A few years later in 1971, Tokura would compose "Tenshi ni Narenai"（天使になれない...Can't Be An Angel） with lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, a heartfelt 8th single for Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）that became her first Top 10 hit, coming in at No. 8. It was also Wada's ticket for her 2nd appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year.

Tokura currently has 60 articles, not including this one but including one which shows his own solo song "I'm Just a Man". I was pretty surprised and happy to get his name on the byline as a performer. But let's show some of the ones that he has composed for other big-time acts. Along with other composers such as Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, there is a bit of a "He made that one?!" buzz around Tokura.

(1977) Pink Lady -- UFO

(1974) Momoe Yamaguchi -- Hito Natsu no Keiken（ひと夏経験）

(1979) Tomoko Kuwae -- Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion （私のハートはストップモーション）

(1972) Linda Yamamoto -- Dounimo Tomaranai （どうにもとまらない）

(1977) Karyudo -- Azusa Ni-go （あずさ２号）

(1973) Pedro & Capricious -- Johnny e no Dengon （ジョニイへの伝言）

Along with his many accolades over the decades, he was the JASRAC chairman and currently Tokura is the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Not bad for a guy who once whipped up a melody about an alien-human love affair.