After half a century as an enka performer, Takashi Hosokawa(細川たかし)doesn't really have anything left to prove. He's looked very dapper in his suits but for the past several years, he's been appearing in more formal and traditional garb perhaps to illustrate his status as an elder stateman of the genre.
However, it also seems as if he's been willing to not only show the epic-ness of his music but also to poke a little bit of fun at his image with the help of AI and/or CG. He did this for the music video of his July 2024 85th single "Otokobune"(男船)and now he's gone even further for his most recent single, "Kamui Misaki" (Cape Kamui), which was released in January 2026.
There is an actual Cape Kamui in West Hokkaido but the music video would have you know that the song isn't really about a geographical feature on Japan's northernmost island; it's about Hosokawa as a determined ninja (who somehow got access to Captain America's Super-Soldier Serum) while being assisted by his crack team of cats. Yes, it's a rather Dadaist presentation. But as written by Ayako Fujibayashi(藤林綾子)and composed by Akihito Masuda(増田空人), it does sound like a manly man enka with that piercing heroic trumpet and an arrangement that would make the Grand Old Man of Enka himself, Saburo Kitajima(北島三郎), swoon.
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