Happy Monday! Well, the third Monday of July has already passed in Japan but they did celebrate a long weekend culminating in the national holiday of "Umi no Hi" or Marine Day (or Sea Day or Ocean Day). I was watching the NHK news footage of kids and grownups hitting the sea and having oodles of fun while the heat wave bombarded on them. And so I figured about whether I actually had done a tribute to the national holiday. As it turned out, I did do a tribute back in 2023, also on the third Monday of July.
But I still wouldn't let the idea of another Author's Picks go. So thanks to a J-Wiki entry called "Umi wo Daizai to Shita Gakkyoku"（海を題材とした楽曲...Songs Themed on the Sea）, I was able to find some more ocean-frolicking-themed tunes that I had already written about way back when. Without further ado then:
(1966) The Wild Ones -- Omoide no Nagisa（想い出の渚）
(1980) Seiko Matsuda -- Aoi Sangoshou（青い珊瑚礁）
(1984) Junichi Inagaki -- Ocean Blue （オーシャンブルー）
(1984) Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe -- Kimi no Heart wa Marine Blue （君のハートはマリンブルー）
(1985) Yukiko Okada -- Summer Beach
(1986) TUBE -- Season In The Sun
I was just reading up on marine day yesterday! To my understanding it was only made a national holiday back in 1995, but the celebration itself dates back to 1941?
ReplyDeleteThat's right. A communications minister for the Imperial government in 1941 commemorated the day on behalf of Emperor Meiji's voyage on the Meiji Maru back in 1876. It didn't become a national holiday until 1995 and then from 2003, just to make a long weekend, Marine Day would take place on the 3rd Monday in July.
DeleteAt this point, I think June is the only month in Japan that doesn't have any sort of official holiday or celebration.
The history behind 'Umi no Hi' is fascinating, and I think it is Japan's newest holiday, too. Ah, one of Matsuda Seiko's freshman year's songs, 青い珊瑚礁 in conjunction with the famous Seiko hairstyle 「聖子ちゃんカット」。 Some people think that 青い珊瑚礁 was her debut song, but of course not, kayokyoku plus readers or friends, for we all know that her debut song was 「裸足の季節」, right? Of course! Oh, is very ironic that Yukiko Yamada shows up on this post as she is the one who replaced Seiko as the commercial actress for Shiseido's Ekubo back in 1980. However, I think it was Seiko's song used for the commercial and then her next single at the CM was released the very song mentioned in this blog article, brought Seiko fame and recognition and were the first steps of Seiko becoming the "Eternal Idol".
DeleteYup, the famous Seiko cut! It even has its own Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiko-chan_cut
Delete"Hadashi no Kisetsu" was indeed her first single but I think "Aoi Sangoshou" is probably more beloved among the fans.