Hachiro Kasuga -- Kurashiki no Hito (倉敷の女)

Kasuga performing at the Kurashiki no Hito promotional recital.
The band conductor (extreme right) is likely Hayashi.
From Mikasa, 14 April 1968 Issue

It goes without saying that a singer's voice is their main attraction... Well, most of the time I would think it is. It certainly is one of them for me. I tend to favour the smoother, resonant vocals of singers* from the 1930s and immediate postwar era, and value the singer's ability to convey emotion without having to go over the top - I'm looking at you, do-enka singers. I suppose it's no surprise by now that the one who is the perfect intersection of everything I like in a singer's voice is Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎). 

Hachi ordinarily delivered his songs according to the music sheets with little to no room for adlibbing, for this seemed to be a hardline expectation for artistes in the old kayo world (approx. late 1920s to early 1960s). Such an expectation began to fade by around the 60s or so as more and more amateur singers came on to the scene. By the time enka the genre sprouted (1964-65), conveying anguish/sadness/drama, as well as not sounding "perfect" nor singing according to the (music) books seemed to take priority - in enka, at least. Nevertheless, Hachi still mostly sang as he did when recording songs, though on the rare occasion he does surprise me. One of such times is in Kurashiki no Hito (Woman of Kurashiki). 

Part of Kasuga's late-to-take-off "Onna Series"* (女シリーズ), Kurashiki no Hito hit the shelves in March 1968, was written by Takashi Tsukasa (司太可志), and composed by Isao Hayashi (林伊佐緒). I got to know this song several years ago when I was still testing the waters with Hachi. I was on board with it fairly quickly with it being a romantic blues Mood Kayo with the saxophone blaring away and all. Topic-wise, its your standard enka and Mood Kayo fare, i.e. our song protagonist is reminiscing and pining for the titular woman from Kurashiki - a love that wasn't meant to be. However, at the time the Hachiro Kasuga whom I knew as generally sounding measured if not somewhat gloomy seemed to let loose and essentially cried out in anguish at the song's crescendos. So emotional is this cry that his voice was on the cusp of breaking. I was floored. I don't know why, but it sent my heart racing. "Kasuga could sound like that??" I thought. Admittedly, I still feel the same way now, despite it being at least 6 years from that very moment. I suppose there's something attractive in him straying from his usual, rather placid demeanour and expressing more primal-sounding emotion.

I don't think Hachi ever reprised the same vocal style in recordings since then, and I did wonder why this sudden anomaly with Kurashiki no Hito. This is pure speculation on my part, but this song emerged around the time when blues Mood Kayo singers like Shinichi Mori (森進一) and Mina Aoe (青江三奈) made it big. Both were known not just for their unique, husky vocals, but also heavily emotive cries or sighs of anguish - particularly Mori. Considering Hayashi sensei's melody was made in a similar vein to the younger singers' hits, I wonder if Hachi decided - or was instructed - to take on a style not unlike them. 

Moving on, Kurashiki no Hito is a go-tochi song that is set in Kurashiki, a quaint town in Okayama prefecture where the vestiges of the Edo era remain. It seemed like it with the Kurashiki town council's support, with hopes that it'd boost tourism - one of the pluses that come with being featured in a go-tochi songs. To that end, the song was also quite heavily promoted in the town/the prefecture, enabling it to perform fairly okay in terms of sales. Unfortunately, it didn't really stand up to the test of time, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that it's mostly a deeply buried gem.

I got this at a a used book flea market in
Shinbashi for 200 yen 

I've not been to Kurashiki yet, but I have in my mind's eye only what photos, videos, TV shows, have shown me, and the romantic picture Tsukasa had so vividly depicted in Kurashiki no Hito: traditional houses with snow white walls and ash grey tiled roofs, waterways lined with willows hanging lazily over the water's surface, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was considered Japan's answer to Venice. I think it's high time I heed the call of this go-tochi song and head down there for one of my solo trips. I'm also a big fan of author Seishi Yokomizo's detective Kosuke Kindaichi series, where several instalments were set in Okayama. There's a little museum exhibition in a town around Kurashiki where Yokomizo had evacuated to during WWII and served as the setting to the series' first tale, so that'd definitely be on my must-visit list.

I would've loved to see Hachi singing Kurashiki no
Hito live. From Mikasa, 14 April 1968 Issue

Anyway, let's circle back to Kurashiki no Hito to end things off. Despite it being a relatively unknown Kasuga Bushi, it's sung fairly regularly at the Kasuga Enka Denshokai. I decided to give it a go for myself during my first visit of the year. Ordinarily, I'd be shaking from the nerves, or being too self-conscious with singing the songs "right," but I thought that if Hachi could let loose and put his all into conveying Kurashiki..., so could I. I think it was the only song that I was able to sing with no inhibition. And by golly, that felt so good! And to sing it with/for people who enjoy Kasuga bushi as much or even more than I do felt so good. 

*A series of songs with the word "onna"(女) but read as "hito"(ひと) in their titles. It was technically kickstarted by Kasuga with Nagasaki no Hito (長崎の女) in 1963. However, it became associated with Saburo Kitajima (北島三郎), who more consistently released songs of this theme since his Hakodate no Hito (函館の女). By the time Kasuga began to be more consistent with the "Onna series" in the late 1960s, the series' association with Kitajima essentially became almost set in stone.