Hiromi Ohta -- Yureru Aijou（揺れる愛情）

Asturio Cantabrio via Wikimedia Commons

 

Because we've been writing "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for fourteen years now, I've been getting interested in seeing some of those B-sides for those famous singles by various kayo performers. To think that it's taken this long just to start plumbing the depths of "the other side" is somewhat astonishing although we have managed to take a look at some of them even before last week's anniversary.

One of the earliest posts that I put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was for Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）classic "Momen no Handkerchief" (木綿のハンカチーフ）which was released back in December 1975 as the Tokyo-born singer's 4th single.  The cheery kayo kyoku has stuck with Ohta all these decades so that basically whenever she shows up nowadays on some TV show, it's to sing either "Momen no Handkerchief" or "Saraba Siberia Tetsudo" (さらばシベリア鉄道）.

The plot of the A-side involved the relationship between a couple of smalltown lovers in which the guy is now working in the big city while the gal is still in the hometown. Well, the somewhat more melancholy "Yureru Aijou" (Wavering Love), the B-side, seems to be a sequel of sorts for "Momen no Handkerchief". I've only listened to it a few times but the impression I'm getting is that the couple have met up again during the boyfriend's semi-regular visits back home, and maybe, just maybe, things are a little unsteady on the romance front, at least according to what I've gleaned from the title. Perhaps the guy is worried that his girlfriend is losing interest due to the distance and passage of time but she keeps reassuring him that she doesn't need to see a ring or that small house built for her and him...just that occasional but regular "I love you" is fine enough for now.

The same team behind "Momen no Handkerchief" was also taking care of 'Yureru Aijou": lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. Methinks that if a 2026 single based on the fate of the couple were produced, I would think that the couple are celebrating their 45th anniversary, still in that small house in their hometown, with grandchildren.