Akira Matsudaira -- Minato no Ame (港の雨)

Akira Matsudaira (松平晃) has always been, to me, one of those singers who existed and had a few hits, but never stood out in any way. I think his singing is alright. A little similar to Ichiro Fujiyama's (藤山一郎), but not nearly as clean and precise. He looked alright. Prim and proper, but not nearly as eye catching as Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴) or Hisao Ito (伊藤久男). He was just okay. Please don't cancel me, Matsudaira fans.

コロムビア月報正月　昭和12
National Diet Library archives

I know of Matsudaira from his biggest hit "Circus no Uta" (サーカスの唄), one of the classic Koga Melodies which took me a very long time to appreciate. Aside from that, I only became more aware of what else he had to offer very recently, like "Hana Kotoba no Uta" (花言葉の唄) and "Yuuhi wa Ochite" (夕陽は落ちて). I wouldn't say those were instant likes from me either. However, I've recently come to see him A LOT, but not by choice. I think I've mentioned that I've been digging around the National Diet Library's Columbia Records prewar archives for pictures of a certain someone research. Since Akira-san was also from Columbia Records, I'd often see his portraits and casual shots during my excavations. I must admit that there were some amusing photos, one in which he had a moustache and I couldn't get over it. All that naturally made me more a little more curious about the artist I always overlooked.

And so, just about a week or so ago, I decided to be adventurous and picked a Matsudaira tune while doing one of my ryukoka dives just because. That was when I happened across the above video for "Minato no Ame". I had no expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised by what hit my ears. First and foremost, it reminded me a lot of Mr. Nakano's "Yogiri no Minato" (夜霧の港), another harbour-themed tune which was released about a year prior. I love "Yogiri no Minato", which could be why I took to "Minato no Ame" immediately. Like the former, the latter has a jaunty, somewhat cheery melody, but there is a layer of sadness not unlike a dense and chilly fog resting over the dark waters of the bay. "Minato no Ame", has an ever so slightly jazzy flavour with the light tinkling of the piano during the instrumental sections, which is what I found most enjoyable about it. As for its words, it features our protagonist, probably at a bar by a harbour, drinking away his sorrows and bitter memories of a breakup that came flooding back with the downpour outside. The straight manner in which Akira-san relays his lines is probably what I would think the Meiji/Taisho enka (艶歌) style sounds like. But perhaps its his higher, more nasally vocal quality and an overall softer delivery that allows for the protagonist's sadness to be conveyed amid the buoyant melody.

"Minato no Ame" was released in March 1933 as the B-side to Ms. Columbia’s (Misao Matsubara) “Ukigusa no Uta” (浮草の唄). Looking at the archives, this song seems to be Akira-san's first recording upon signing on to Columbia, and it seemed to be a decent hit since it was still being talked about months after it hit the shelves. The music was composed by Yoshi Eguchi (江口夜詩) and the lyrics were provided by Sonosuke Sato (佐藤惣之助), both of whom would go on to create some of the ryukoka world's most significant hits. 

This article makes it sound like I dislike Akira-san, but I don't. I was just more ambivalent to his presence until now. I'm glad I came across "Minato no Ame" because it finally made me see “Akira Matsudaira” and not just a ryukoka singer who existed. Coincidentally, today (8th March) is Akira-san's death anniversary. I didn't plan this as a dedication article, but I thought it apt that me appreciating his works at long last came at just the right time.   

コロムビア月報4月　昭和12
National Diet Library archives

P.S. There he is: Moustache Akira╰( ´︶` )╯! I knew I wasn’t hallucinating while my stomach ran on empty on a previous NDL expedition a few weeks ago. Yes, I went again just yesterday to uncover more info on some songs and this image, among other things... No, I wasn't (deliberately) looking for Nakano this time. Y’know, even though I was trying my best to stifle a laugh upon first witnessing this, the more I look at it, the more I think Akira-san looked good with facial hair. I've never seen any other photo of him with a moustache, so I wonder if this was just a one time look.

Gosanke Imagined: Senzen Polydor Sanba Garasu（戦前ポリドール三羽烏）

I've noticed that J-Canuck has been putting out some "Gosanke Imagined" articles featuring potential trios/quartets in the Japanese music world that should/could have been but never were. Naturally, I wanted to hop on that train and bring out some of my imagined Gosanke (御三家) too. The first I will put up is what I'll call the Senzen Polydor Sanba Garasu, or the Prewar Three Ravens of Polydor Records. 

Our 3 fellows are Taro Shoji (東海林太郎), Bin Uehara (上原敏), and Yoshio Tabata (田端義夫). This was just as much a fan-picked trio (considering Bin san and Batayan) as it most probably was an actual trio, albeit one not formally named. As the title suggests, they were major stars from Polydor Records, particularly in the late 1930s. I went with calling them ravens since it seemed like the common term used when referring to a trio of male stars back in the early Showa era, like the Sengo Sanba Garasu (戦後三羽烏). As an aside, Polydor was one of the big 5 record companies in the prewar era, along with Victor, Columbia, Teichiku, and King. I think that can help one see the scale of our trio's presence in the pre-WWII music scene.

Shoji was the oldest and first to debut in 1933. This was followed by Uehara, who was 10 years his junior and debuted in 1936. Tabata, the youngest and 11 years Uehara's junior, debuted in 1938.  Besides hailing from the same company and reaching stardom in record time, they shared a couple of other commonalities. For one, they all weren't music school graduates and thus not classically trained, the latter being a desired trait among pop singers at the time. Two, their biggest hits from the 1930s were mostly matatabi mono, or songs that featured samurai, ronin, or yakuza. This all the more cemented Polydor Records as the company that prided itself with more Japan-themed songs among its competitors, who leaned a little more towards the Western sound. It was for these reasons that my song selection will feature a matatabi mono from each of our 3 gentlemen. Each of these songs features a different real life yakuza figure who often appear in rokyoku and other traditional Japanese narrative arts. 

Taro Shoji -- Akagi no Komori Uta (赤城の子守唄) (1934)

This was Shoji's first smash hit from 1934 and it featured Asataro Itawari (板割浅太郎), a yakuza who took his nephew under his wing after killing his uncle out of duty to his boss, the big wig Chuji Kunisada (国定忠治). Big yikes. Apparently, Shoji himself wasn't familiar with the story often told by the likes of rokyoku stars at the time of recording.

Bin Uehara -- Tsuma Koi Dochu (妻恋道中) (1937)

Ah, yes, dear Bin san. "Tsuma Koi Dochu" was his first hit from 1937. The character featured here was Kira no Nikichi (吉良の仁吉), who went on a mission to kill someone at the orders of his master. The catch was that this someone happened to be his wife's brother. But, duty above compassion, and so Kira leaves his wife to fulfill his mission. Fun fact, it wasn't known if the real Kira was even married, so the narrative that included his wife was simply for drama's sake.

Yoshio Tabata -- Otone Tsukiyo (大利根月夜) (1939)

Osu! 

Batayan's foray into matatabi mono probably began with this massive hit, "Otone Tsukiyo" from 1939, which featured the hapless Miki Hirate (平手造酒). I talked about the talented swordsman-turned-yakuza in my article on Haruo Minami's (三波春夫) "Otone Mujou" (大利根無情) some time back, so I won't dwell too much on it. But the grander, more dignified air that Batayan tune exudes seems to highlight Hirate's past glory before his spiral into degeneracy. Most matatabi mono that about real yakuza figures up to this point in the Showa era usually centered around the above mentioned Kunisada, Kira, as well as Shimizu no Jirocho (清水次郎長) and Mori no Ishimatsu (森の石松). But "Otone Tsukiyo" likely set a precedent of having Hirate's tragedy be conveyed in popular song. 

To round things off, here's some extra trivia about our trio:

1. Tabata debuted while still a teenager (he was 19 at the time), which was still somewhat of an anomaly for singers at the time. As you may have noticed in the photos above, he also shaved his head when he debuted and I'm not sure why (yet). But it's Batayan, so I'm not surprised by his hijinks anymore. Perhaps he simply wanted to mark the start of a new journey?

2. Shoji and Uehara were both from Akita Prefecture, were both university graduates, and were both white-collared salarymen before they entered the world of music. That's in addition to the aforementioned musical similarities. Let's not forget that they looked vaguely alike, especially with those round glasses. But I heard that Mr. Taro (yes, I'm calling him that from now on) was the joker who loved his Dad jokes while Bin san was the more serious one.

As usual, Kiyomaro Kikuchi's "Showa Enka no Rekishi" was my info source.

Akira Matsudaira -- Circus no Uta (サーカスの唄)

Quite some time ago (it was meant to be "Not too long ago", but I got a horrendous writer's block for this article at that point in time), commenter Hanibo mentioned that Akira Matsudaira (松平晃) was one of the few popular ryukoka stars that hadn't yet been profiled on KKP, so I thought that now would be a good time to give him a label of his own, and what better way to start it than with the song that brought him into fame, "Circus no Uta" (Circus Song) from 1933.

For some reason, I was never keen on circuses. I mean, they have animals I like perform tricks and performers doing death-defying stunts, but I could never get into it. I wonder if it was a subconscious aversion to it after I got traumatized by "Dumbo" when I was young (especially since I love elephants)... and the dang clowns. This aversion was probably also what kept me away from "Circus no Uta", easily one of the evergreen ryukoka to come out of the 30's and one of the great Masao Koga's (古賀政男) pride and joy.

Well, but after the aforementioned prompt and after watching an interview of Koga, I finally set my aversion aside and gave this Matsudaira hit a good listen. I got to say, it's very... circus-y... in the sense that it's jaunty and what I believe is the clarinet fluttering in from time to time adds a sort of whimsical edge to a score that is heavy on the accordion. This accompanies the equally renowned Yaso Saijo's (西條八十) words about a carny who's bored with his roving lifestyle and yearns to go home to his special one.

With two of the old kayo's big wigs having worked on "Circus no Uta", it was no wonder why it did as well as it did. But prior to its success there were some complications: for one, Koga also had a severe writer's (creator's?) block when it came to having to complement Saijo's forlorn piece. Two, the one whom this tune was originally written for, Ichiro Fujiyama (藤山一郎), moved to Victor from Colombia Records, so they had to find a replacement in then newcomer Matsudaira. In spite of all that, Matsudaira managed to make it work and we have the classic we know today that has been covered countless times by enka singers in the following decades.

There were so many renditions to pick from, so I decided to put the one by Koga's last student, Eisaku Ohkawa (大川栄策). In this one, you can enjoy a slightly more modern take on the music while still retaining the quintessential Koga-sound.


Before we end off this article, here an introduction to Matsudaira: Born Tsuneharu Fukuda (福田恒治) on 26th June 1911 in Saga prefecture, he had quite a rough road on his way to becoming a singer. First he faced objections from his father, then he had some financial difficulties that put a strain on his musical education when he did go up to Tokyo. However, Matsudaira did manage to get into the music scene through Nitto Records via a friend's recommendation, and debuted as Shizuo (?) Ohkawa (大川静夫) in 1932, all while still in school. All the way up to the next year, (from what I understand) he jumped from record company to record company in an effort to produce a hit, until he landed in Colombia, where he encountered "Circus no Uta" and the rest was history. In the way of his name, he underwent about half a dozen name changes, one per record company, prior to his breakthrough until he finally settled with "Akira Matsudaira" in 1934. In this way, he kind of reminds me of Toshiro Omi (近江俊郎).

(Noelle from 11/3/24: Allow me to correct myself on some things. For one, that friend was his senior at Tokyo Music School and the Ichiro Fujiyama. Also, his jumping from record company to record company was when he was working part-time as an under-the-radar singer to pay off school fees. He actually recorded "Circus no Uta" while still doing covert part-time. Perhaps because the song blew up in popularity, he got into trouble with school, so he quit and chose the path of pop music. In doing so, Fukuda officially signed on to Columbia in 1934 under "Akira Matsudaira", the stage name he used when he was a covert part-timer at Columbia.)

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Noelle's Favourite Songs From The 30's & 40's

Whenever a song were to be firmly wedged into my brain, I realise, more often than not, the song in question would be a pre or post war song. Could be a new discovery or an old favourite, be as it may, the moment I listen/hum along to/think of a ryukoka, it would linger in my head for days. I believe that's what J-Canuck calls an ear worm. I'm not sure why music from that era sticks to me like industrial strength super glue. Probably it's because they're simple and catchy, which explains why a good number of them are still popular over seventy years down the road.

This brings us to what I shall be sharing today: My list of some of my favourite ryukoka at this point in time that were spawned during the 1930s and 1940s. I had initially planned on including stuff from the 50's as well but decided against it after some thought. The reason being, if I did so, the list would inevitably comprise of Hachi, Michi, Muchi and Minami. Now, as much as I like them, I feel that I've been talking about them a lot, and adding the four here would then make the list rather predictable and therefore... boring. That being said, there is one fellow here that, I feel, won't be much of a surprise either.

In this article, I've narrowed my picks down to one song per singer for simplicity's sake, and I'll also be highlighting the lines from each entry that always comes to mind. For the latter, it's not necessarily because I fully understand what the words mean, but mostly because I like how it sounds when sung - strange, but it is what it is.

Well, anyway, let's get to it, shall we? The songs aren't listed in any particular order.

Ichiro Fujiyama -- Tokyo Rhapsody (1936)

Tanoshii miyako koi no miyako (楽しい都 恋の都)
Yume no paradise yo hana no Tokyo (夢の楽園よ 花の東京)

Tanoshii miyako indeed, Mr Fujiyama.

Oh boy, the chorus has been on repeat in my brain for the past few weeks. Out of all the tracks on this list, "Tokyo Rhapsody" (東京ラプソディ) is the most recent addition to my ryukoka favourites. Although I've been a fan of Ichiro Fujiyama's (藤山一郎) other evergreen classic, "Aoi Sanmyaku" (青い山脈) for a much longer period of time, I couldn't get enough of the faster pace and exuberance portrayed in "Tokyo Rhapsody". The video above has the newer version as well as the original. I really enjoy the new take of it for the cool and funky arrangement - just makes the song ten times catchier!

Noboru Kirishima & Hamako Watanabe -- Soshu Yakyoku (1940)

Hana wo ukabe te nagareru mizu no (花をうかべて 流れる水の)
Asu no yukue wa shirane domo (明日のゆくえは 知らねども)

"Soshu Yakyoku" (蘇州夜曲) is a tune that has been covered dozens upon dozens of times in Japanese and Mandarin. I've put down the very first recorded take of it here by Noboru Kirishima and Hamako Watanabe (霧島昇・渡辺はま子), but frankly, I'll always be happy to hear this song sung by just about anybody. While it's definitely the softest entry here, I do enjoy it for its beautiful melody - especially so in ASKA's atmospheric and languid version, which I listen to most - and romantic set of lyrics.

Dick Mine -- Tabi Sugata San'nin Otoko (1939)

Mita ka kiita ka ano tanka (見たか 聞いたか あの啖呵)

Wouldn't be list of pre and immediate post war ryukoka without something from the matatabi (股旅) label. Apparently, that's the proper term used to call songs featuring those wandering ronin. Coming back to the topic, there are a couple of matatabi enka from the late 30's that I'm always listening to - actually, I believe they're the ones that solidified my love for matatabi enka/ryukoka - but the one I tend to pick first is Dick Mine's (ディック・ミネ) "Tabi Sugata San'nin Otoko" (旅姿三人男). It's jaunty music is mainly what draws me to it... but I think that's about it because some of the lyrics still have me scratching my head and trying to figure out how they relate to each other.

OOOOSSSSUUU!!!

Yoshio Tabata -- Genkai Blues (1949)

Arashi fuki maku Genkai koete (嵐吹き巻く 玄海超えて)
Otoko funa nori yuku mich'ya hitotsu (男船乗り 往く道ゃひとつ)

Y'know when I mentioned that there's going to be a predictable artiste featured here? Yup, it's good ol' Batayan. There are also many works by Yoshio Tabata (田端義夫) that I favour but as with the aforementioned self-imposed rule, I can only choose one. So, I chose "Genkai Blues" (玄海ブルース). It was between this or the other matatabi tune I implied earlier, "Otone Tsukiyo" (大利根月夜), and the former was picked as I tend to find myself singing/humming this slightly bluesy madorosu entry more often.

Katsutaro Kouta & Issei Mishima -- Tokyo Ondo (1933)

Haa hana wa Ueno yo (ハア 花は上野よ)
Choito yanagi wa Ginza (チョイト 柳は銀座)
Tsuki wa Sumida no tsuki wa Sumida no yakatabune (月は隅田の 月は隅田の屋形船)

Here we have another entry dedicated to Tokyo, but this one has a Japanese flavour to it rather than Western. The festive bon odori melody and the constant "yoi yoi yoi" of "Tokyo Ondo" (東京音頭) is really quite hypnotic and catchy, latching on to me the moment I heard it at Kiyoshi Hikawa's (氷川きよし) event in Ikebukuro. As with "Soshu Yakyoku", I've put down the original version of "Tokyo Ondo" here by Katsutaro Kouta and Issei Mishima (小唄勝太郎・三島一聲). However, I normally listen to Hikawa's abridged version with it's updated score and five verses instead of the insanely long ten stanzas in the original - I'm fond of the song, yes, but there's only that much of a bon odori song I can take in one sitting before I call it quits.

Haruo Oka -- Akogare no Hawaii Koro (1948)

Hare ta sora soyogu kaze (晴れた空 そよぐ風)
Minato defune no dora no ne tanoshi (港出船の ドラの音愉し)
Wakare tape wo egao dekireba (別れテープを 笑顔で切れば)
Nozomi hatenai haruka na shioji (希望はてない 遥かな潮路)
Ah ah ah akogare no Hawaii koro (あゝ 憧れのハワイ航路)

Coming to the end of the article (thanks for sticking around), the last ryukoka that has been a perennial favourite of mine is Haruo Oka's (岡晴夫) "Akogare no Hawaii Koro" (憧れのハワイ航路). Ah, that was a time when I thought the mannerisms of the likes of Oka when performing were utterly amusing - honestly, I still find it quite funny now.

As you've probably noticed, I've highlighted the entire first stanza of "Akogare no Hawaii Koro" instead of simply a line or two. My reason for this is that firstly, I have it so firmly implanted into my brain that it doesn't take much for me to utter out the whole thing; secondly, this one stanza from the optimistic lyrics, combined with the jolly melody, gave me my first taste of what music was like in post-war Japan when I was still happily listening to just Chage and Aska. It was weird at first, but it was hard not to like it after a few listens.

That's the end of this article. I hope you enjoyed listening to these ancient classics. I might do one on my favourite songs from the 50's and/or 60's sometime, but we'll see how it goes... When I do, I promise I will be objective in my choices and the article won't just be filled with Hachi's works.

Ichimaru -- Tenryu Kudareba （天竜下れば）

Referring to the most recent episode of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, the theme for last night was water, and I think the old kayo liked to pay tribute to Japan's fair share of waterways ranging from rivers to oceans.

The name Ichimaru（市丸）popped up again last night on the NHK program. Some months ago, I wrote an article about this interesting synthesis of shamisen and swing music called "Shamisen Boogie-Woogie"（三味線ブギウギ）that had originally been sung by the geisha-singer when she was entranced by American jazz in the postwar era.

Well, the song that was performed last night was one of her earlier hits, "Tenryu Kudareba" (Going Down The Tenryu River). Released in 1933, this song is pure enka in which Ichimaru pays tribute to this flowing waterway that passes through Nagano, Aichi and Shizuoka Prefectures. It may have had some special meaning to the singer since she was born in Nagano.

One of the other reasons that I decided to put this song up was that I recently spoke with my old university buddy who, along with her daughter, has been practicing Japanese dance for many years. She informed me that some of her friends in dancing have actually been taking a look at this blog, presumably for some of the enka songs that could be performed through odori. And I think "Tenryu Kudareba" may fit into that category. So if any of you see this, thank you for your patronage and please give Laura a shoutout. I'll be seeing her in a couple of weeks anyways to catch "Wonder Woman" with her family.

"Tenryu Kudareba" was written by Mikihiko Nagata（長田幹彦）and composed by Shinpei Nakayama（中山晋平）.

Katsutaro Kouta & Issei Mishima/Kiyoshi Hikawa -- Tokyo Ondo (東京音頭)

What a wonderful combination: Yonin shu and "Tokyo Ondo".

(Sorry but the original video has been taken down.)

With the theme of this week's "Uta Kon" featuring the metropolis that is Tokyo, I figured that there may be a couple of tunes that, without a doubt, would have been sung on the Shibuya stage. The first of which being one of Ichiro Fujiyama's (藤山一郎) evergreen hit "Tokyo Rhapsody" (東京ラプソディ) and the other being "Tokyo Ondo" - not to be confused with "Daitokyo Ondo" (大東京音頭). I came home late from work that evening so I only caught the later half of the episode but it was enough to confirm the former. As for the latter, I looked up the song lineup on the "Uta Kon" site and it was nowhere to be seen.

Why I anticipated "Tokyo Ondo" to be sung was due to it being a rousing and festive Bon dance tune that features the different parts of the bustling city like Ginza and Ueno, plus Kiyoshi Hikawa (氷川きよし) was present. He is one of the many enka singers who have tackled it with his 2016 rendition being in the C-type version of "Miren Gokoro" (みれん心), and the only time I've heard it was at his album promotion event in Ikebukuro a few months ago. So I was hoping to hear more of this extremely catchy song again rather than just the short stub in the MV above - bummer. That settles it, I'm gonna get myself that C-type single - about time for my annual online CD shopping anyways.

Moving on, "Tokyo Ondo" goes way back to the 1930's. Lyricist Yaso Saijo and composer Shinpei Nakayama (西條八十 . 中山晋平) had originally created it in 1932 for a Bon dance event in the Hibiya park and was titled "Marunouchi Ondo" (丸の内音頭).Victor Records then decided to turn "Marunouchi Ondo" into a commercial record and was marketed as a "destination song"; it had minyo singers Fumikichi Fujimoto 's (藤本二三吉) version on the A-side and Issei Mishima's (三島一声) on the B-side.

The really long version with Mishima's nasally delivery and Kouta's piercing vocals.

A year later in 1933, "Marunouchi Ondo" turned into "Tokyo Ondo" when the lyrics were changed to include more areas in Tokyo, and it became a duet between Mishima and Katsutaro Kouta (小唄勝太郎) - Kouta is a lady, by the way, with her real name being Katsu Makino (眞野 かつ). It was then when it's popularity exploded and eventually it became a long hit that stayed popular over the decades. By 1971, it was said to have sold around 20 million copies. Kouta became synonymous with ditties that had her going "Haaa...", a.k.a. "Ha Kouta", after the success of "Tokyo Ondo".

"Tokyo Ondo" isn't just a minyo track as, much to my surprise when doing my research, it is used as a fight song for two Tokyo-based sports teams: the baseball team Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and FC Tokyo from the J-League (football/soccer). Never thought I'd see such a combination: sports and minyo. The fight song version has a quicker pace and definitely has a more rah-rah spirit to it than usual.

Here's Masako Mori (森昌子) in a cool kimono-dress hybrid cheering on the Yakult Swallows at one of their games. Hikawa had done something similar too recently. (J-Canuck: Unfortunately, that video has been taken down.)

Since I've been saying that "Tokyo Ondo" is the backup tune for a Bon dance, here is how the dance goes to wrap things up.

billboard-japan.com/goods/detail/514238

Yaa-to-na sore yoi yoi yoi
YAAAaa-to-na sore yoi yoi yoi

Oh geez this is gonna be stuck in my head for the next few weeks...