Shin Kouda -- Sakaba no Kingyo（酒場の金魚）

By James St. John via Wikimedia Commons

I've mentioned a few times in past articles about one of my favourite restaurants in Toronto, Kingyo. I still go to the place now and then but usually just for lunch. It was one of the great izakaya when I first visited the place on the recommendation of a friend and eventually it was often the case that our group year-end dinners took place there. However, during the COVID lockdown, Kingyo took a right turn and evolved into a half-Japanese grocery shop and half-eatery, so those dinners were no longer viable due to the lack of seating space.

Well, in the early days, in keeping with its name, Kingyo did have some goldfish in one specialized large table. Unfortunately, one night, a drunken moron opted to have some really fresh sashimi by swallowing the goldfish whole which may have signified something for the future of the restaurant.

Anyways, my memories of Kingyo were sparked by this song that I saw performed on a recent edition of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）. My family noted audibly about the whereabouts of former singer Shin Kouda（香田晋）, and more on that later. However, Kouda was the one behind this song titled "Sakaba no Kingyo" (The Goldfish at the Bar) which struck me not only as something quite kayo kyoku...rather interesting considering that this was his 16th single from April 1998, far into the J-Pop era. I figured that there was more of a hybridization of sorts in terms of genre. 

Then, when I took a look at this J-Wiki profile, it showed that he sang both enka and folk songs. Maybe the jaunty "Sakaba no Kingyo" was a nice mix of the two genres or another example of New Adult Music. In any case, this was an example of songwriting pedigree with Yu Aku（阿久悠）handling lyrics, Takashi Miki（三木たかし）as the composer and Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）arranging everything. I'm just not sure whether the goldfish is an analogy for the flitting in and flitting out of customers over a usual day at this bar or whether real goldfish are just living their aquarium lives while human drama is playing out outside of the water. 

On seeing the thumbnail of the video above, I could recognize Kouda as someone that I used to see on television a fair bit. Kouda was born Koji Washizaki（鷲崎孝二）in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1967, In 1985, young Koji was scouted by famed composer Toru Funamura（船村徹）after the teenager had sung in a karaoke contest held via the composer's radio program. A few years later in 1989 after having served as Funamura's apprentice, the new Shin Kouda debuted with "Otoko Doushi"（男同志...Male Comrades）. In 1994, he would even get onto the Kohaku Utagassen to perform "Yume Ichido"（夢いちど...Dream One Time）.

However, after releasing his 40th single in October 2011, Kouda basically fled show business in early 2012. Through a magazine interview, he admitted that he had decided to retire without any official announcement due to pent-up stress which affected his ability to sing. At the time, he felt that he was being pushed into becoming more of a TV personality which wasn't what he wanted to be. In the end, he had to seek psychiatric care. Kouda is now very much a past name for Wakazaki and after marrying someone outside of the entertainment industry, he is now a Buddhist monk, helping to run a restaurant and a wellness studio. His only regret is that he couldn't give an official explanation to his fans.