Hitomi Kaga -- Fukanasake（ふかなさけ）

 

As soon as I heard the boozy saxophone from the intro, I knew that we were in heavy Mood Kayo territory. I could already see the cigarette smoke and hear the clinking glasses of whiskey on the rocks.

The interesting thing is that the singer behind this B-side to her 1984 single "Gion Bojou"（祇園慕情...Longing for Gion）, "Fukanasake" is a bit of a mystery. There's not much information about Hitomi Kaga（加賀ひとみ）although there is an entry on someone else named Hitomi Kaga (same kanji and hiragana, too) on J-Wiki. But looking deep into that article and her file on Discogs plainly shows that we are talking about two different women. The J-Wiki article is of an opera singer who was still in high school in the 1980s while the Kaga here and on Discogs started her career as a singer in the 1960s.

And to be honest, I'd never heard of the word fukanasake before. I found out that it means "hollow kindness" and so I'm guessing that, considering the genre involved here, it's about some lady who was betrayed by a love 'em-&-leave 'em cad in the big city somewhere. Maybe she's drinking her sorrows away in some dingy hole-in-the-wall. Anyways, the song was written and composed by someone whose name in kanji form is one of the rare instances that has absolutely stymied me. Wild speculation with some help from Jisho.org is that it could be pronounced Hiizu Aika（愛佳禾）. It might even be an especially muscular pseudonym for an otherwise famous songwriter but if anyone can give me some insight, that would be great. But for right now, I look as pensive as Ms. Kaga does on the single cover.🤔