Japanese Pop Music x Bon Odori（盆踊り）

 

Being summer, it's festival season in Japan and I know that it's in full swing whenever I hear about or see Tokyo's Sumida River Fireworks Festival on the final Saturday of July. I've seen it on television from the air-conditioned comfort of my Ichikawa apartment and around thirty years ago, I actually saw it with my own eyes from the apartment of a student who generously invited teachers and fellow classmates over for a fireworks party. We were very fortunate in that the apartment was right by the Sumida River in Asakusa where I used to work, so the fireworks literally exploded right over our heads. Getting back home, though, was quite the adventure in time and physics.

Festivals in Japan also mean bon odori...the great communal dance around the raised stage all draped in red and white like the colours of the Japanese flag. Nothing says the dog days of summer than doing those rhythmic steps while sporting a colourful yukata and geta while a min'yo is being sung and performed on stage.

However, in the last several years, there has been some relaxation of the rules in terms of the music, so instead of the traditional stuff, examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop have been used to get the crowds all roused up and dancing. Thanks to an NHK report yesterday, I was rather inspired to put up this list that I got from a far bigger list on Line Music. Yes, you can dance to these in the Bon Odori style!

(1984) Ann Lewis -- Roppongi Shinju （六本木心中）

(1985) Yoko Oginome -- Dancing Hero （ダンシング・ヒーロー）

(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Tokyo wa Yoru no Shichi-ji (東京は夜の七時）

(2001) B'z -- Ultra Soul

(2013) AKB48 -- Koisuru Fortune Cookie (恋するフォーチュンクッキー)

P.S. They could even make a Bon Dance out of this classic!

J-Canuck's Four Favourite Songs by Original Love

 

For the Friday edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, we all got the delight of being serenaded by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love. It was a reminder of how great a singer he has been for well over thirty years. Ever since I first heard one of his tunes on my friend's car radio, I've been hooked by his distinctive voice and his happy adoption of various genres including jazz, rock and soul.

Much to my surprise, I realized that I had yet to provide a Favourites list regarding Original Love so here it is to finish today's cadre of urban contemporary on KKP Friday! Have a great weekend!

(1993) Seppun (Kiss) （接吻）

(1993) Sunshine Romance (サンシャイン ロマンス)

(1994) Asahi no Ataru Michi （朝日のあたる道）

(1996)  Primal

Nagoya Singers

Nagoya Castle
by Base64 via Wikimedia Commons

Last week, I posted up "Sagamihara Singers" in tribute to the fact that my hometown of Toronto and the city of Sagamihara had a sister-city relationship. Tonight, I'm talking about "Nagoya Singers" but my inspiration isn't connected to any similar bond between Nagoya and a Canadian city. In fact, I don't think Nagoya has any sister-city relationships with any urban zones in my nation although it does have them with Los Angeles, Mexico City and Sydney.

Nope, the impetus for writing about singers or bands who come from Japan's 4th-largest city is today's edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information show. It just so happens that the focus was on Nagoya and all of those scrumptious dishes that originate there and elsewhere in its Aichi Prefecture. When I saw that wonderful dish of grilled eel called hitsumabushi（ひつまぶし）on my screen earlier, I just went "OK...got my second article for Hump Day!". But have a look at hitsumabushi and some of the other famous local treats in the video above from Mui's Diary.

Anyways, I've got four acts here from Nagoya. Please enjoy!

(1983) Junko Yagami -- Jealous

(1984) Yukiko Okada -- Dreaming Girl

(1993) Yoshiko Goshima -- Shiroi Iro wa Koibito no Iro （白い色は恋人の色）

(2011) Sentimental City Romance -- Sun Sunny Friend

Anyways, Nagoya has been in the news for being one of the hottest places in Japan right now, so I'm hoping that folks there are trying to keep cool and safe. As a PS, you can also take a look at another Nagoya specialty, ten-musu（天むす）, from YouTuber Just One Cookbook.

Saburo Kitajima -- Shiro（城）

 

A few months ago, I decided that I would become a tourist in my own hometown of Toronto. And as such, I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario for the first time in half a century back in April. Well, today, I visited Casa Loma, the castle-style mansion that's now well over a century old and has been a popular site for film shooting such as "X-Men", "Cocktail" and "Chicago". You can take a look at the Wikipedia article for some of the other movies that have been filmed there.

Of course, I had to go on a day that was deemed to have one of the worst levels of air pollution on Earth today (a hot and sticky day, to boot) and I actually had to climb the Baldwin Stairs to reach Casa Loma. I'm surprised that I actually survived. To be fair, the number of steps is probably a mere fraction of the stairway to heaven needed to access some Japanese temples but I wonder if architect E. J. Lennox had some sort of sadistic streak in him.

The above shot here is of the Group of Seven Room, named after the famous Canadian group of painters including A.Y. Jackson. I wonder if this is where Professor X (Sir Patrick Stewart) held court with his students.

Well, seeing that I did visit Casa Loma for the first time in 46 years, I figured that I ought to post an article having to do with castles. At first, I'd considered an Author's Picks consisting of castle kayo but considering that I'm doing this late at night, I just don't think I have the time or energy. But while I was searching, I did encounter this Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）enka titled simply "Shiro" (Castle).

Man, for a June 1993 enka, "Shiro" is mightily old-fashioned without any sign of an electric guitar. It's got the traditional koto and shakuhachi along with some epic chorus and timpani to really set down the feeling that Kitajima is really paying tribute to the overall Japanese castle right down to its parts and construction. And yet, he looks downright Bing Crosby-ish in his cardigan on the cover of the single. Daisuke Shiga（志賀大介）was in charge of the lyrics while the composer was none other than Sabu-chan himself under his usual pseudonym of Joji Hara（原譲二）.

Jun Matsue -- Fatty

Wikimedia Commons

Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully, wherever you are, you and your mother are enjoying a meal, flowers and other things this day. The above photo is that of a Chinese buffet and although we're not going to one tonight, we are going to get some Chinese food delivered to us on Mom's request. Calories be damned!

Speaking tangentially and delicately on buffets and calories, I have this song "Fatty" here by singer-songwriter Jun Matsue（松江潤）. Now, Matsue has representation here already as the leader of his later project Spoozys which was something of a late 1990s/early 2000s group, and from the songs that I've covered under that band name such as "Plastic Planet", we got to hear some raunchy techno rock along the lines of POLYSICS.

Well, "Plastic Planet" may have been Spoozys' debut outing, but "Fatty" was Matsue's first single all the way back in September 1993.  And I'm assuming that it was also a track on his first album from that same year, "Sunny Pop Generation". It's definitely some sunny guitar pop/rock...venturing more into the Shibuya-kei sphere than technopop. Instead of POLYSICS, I get more Flippers' Guitar with perhaps a bit more liveliness in the guitar. Maybe it's not really a Mother's Day tune (well, with a title like "Fatty", it shouldn't be😨) but it can still fit the feeling of a nice sunny Sunday song.

Takajin Yashiki -- Tokyo（東京）

 

Takajin Yashiki（やしきたかじん）left quite the legend behind when he passed away about a dozen years ago, and evidently, anyone who has ever met him knew where he/she stood with him fairly quickly. Of course, there was the whole thing about him not liking Tokyo or Tokyoites, but as I mentioned in my first article on the late singer "Yappa Sukiyanen"（やっぱ好きやねん）, I think it was more that he disliked certain media corporations in Tokyo and their ways rather than a blanket hatred for the city.

Speaking of his signature "Yappa Sukiyanen" from 1986, which seems to be the one song of his that still gets performed by some of his friends such as Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）, I was surprised to realize that his April 1993 20th single "Tokyo" was his biggest hit, according to the song's J-Wiki entry. I actually first heard it last night on the weekly episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, and my eyebrows soared up on seeing the title and who the singer was considering what I noted in the first paragraph. However, I reminded himself that Yashiki didn't have any particular axe to grind when it came to Japan's capital itself.

Written by Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）and composed by Akihiko Kawakami（川上明彦）, Yashiki seemed to grab onto the words and music like a football and run to the end zone with it. It's quite the Latin-tinged pop song of greatly regretting that lost love in Tokyo, although going through the Kansai dialect-friendly lyrics, I sometimes wonder whether the protagonist was actually heartbreakingly lamenting no longer being in Tokyo anymore. 

"Tokyo" got no higher than No. 52 on Oricon and initially, sales weren't all that brisk. However, over the next few weeks, the requests to radio stations started flooding in and pretty soon, Takajin got noticed once more not just in the Osaka area but all throughout the nation.

Happy 10th, Uta Con!（うたコン）/Hideki Saijo -- Ai no Juujika（愛の十字架）

 

First off, Happy 10th Birthday to the NHK music show "Uta Con". I saw their episode last night and it was nice not only to see some of the highlights from the past ten years but also get a tour of how the magic works at NHK Shibuya. It's amazing how quickly the years fly by...I remember when "Uta Con" got the baton passed over to it from "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）back in 2016.

Now, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" had its tenth anniversary back in 2022 so I actually pulled out most of the guns to celebrate our grand project back then, and of course, you can take a look at some of that via "10th Anniversary Special: 10th Anniversary Songs". However, I still wanted to commemorate the "Uta Con" achievement so I've opted to present a few songs over the years that have had something of the number 10 involved in the titles. I'll admit though to being a little cheat-y with my choices. But the important thing is that I also have the opportunity to present a new tune onto the blog by the late great Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. Anyways, without further ado:

(1984) Akina Nakamori -- Jukkai (1984) (十戒 (1984))

(1986) Minako Honda -- the Cross ~ Ai no Juujika（愛の十字架）

(1993) SMAP -- $10

As noted above, I have this Hideki Saijo tune that has that 10-ish relationship (albeit through kanji association only). This is "Ai no Juujika" (Cross of Love), his 7th single from December 1973. Indeed, it shares the same title as Honda's song above but that's the only common denominator. It is otherwise a totally different animal.

Written by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）and composed by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）under Koji Makaino's（馬飼野康二）arrangement, this is also the first time for me to hear Saijo's "Ai no Juujika", and from what I hear, it's a very early Hideki song of passion and angst. It's quite the cross for him to bear and I think he's even shedding a few tears in the concert audio above. All the better for the screaming fans to rush over to comfort him. Not surprisingly, the song hit No. 1 and finished 1974 as the 22nd-ranked single.

trf -- Do What You Want

 

Considering how much I (and much of the Japanese music lovers) got caught up in the wave of trf as part of the Komuro Steamroller in the 1990s, I think I've covered pretty much all of the big hits that the dance-pop group had to offer such as "Boy Meets Girl" and "EZ DO DANCE". I may have missed that first year of trf bloom by landing in Japan at the end of 1994, but there were still a few more years of the group hitting the big time.

So, it's the case where I'm looking for some of the songs by the group that I never got to hear. And speaking of "EZ DO DANCE", I did come across their coupling song here called "Do What You Want". It is quite different for a number of reasons: 1) YU-KI is not the main vocalist, leaving the vocals to the other two female members, Etsu and Chiharu (although they don't seem all that prominent behind the mike, 2) who I think the main vocalist is happens to be Suzi Kim who used to sing for the eclectic band 99.99, and 3) all those dance synths have mostly been left at home.

In fact, I think "Do What You Want', which was written and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）with Kim also working on the lyrics, sounds more like a New Age music think piece with the title being emanated like a mantra for free love. Most likely, listeners would be sitting in a yoga position rather than dancing it up at the clubs. As I said, it's quite the different song by trf.

Yuiko Tsubokura -- Je t'aime（ジュテーム）

 

In the relevant J-Wiki article for this particular song by chanteuse Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）, she sang this on TV Asahi's "Music Station" while still in her wild costume as the squeaky-voiced singer for B.B. Queens. Maybe they were reprising their hit song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. Anyways, I would have loved to have seen the expressions on everyone's faces while she was creamily singing it. Well, we can all check the video below out.

No squeaky voice here for her 4th solo single "Je t'aime" which came out in January 1993 and definitely no hint of "Odoru Ponpokorin". This is a classy urban ballad that sounds as if it should have been the ending theme for a drama. Guess what? It was...it finished each episode of the NTV drama "Jealousy"（ジェラシー）. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, this sophisticated pop song was Tsubokura's highest-ranking single when it hit No. 25 on Oricon.

Personal Pronouns

Vi.gomez via Wikimedia Commons

 

It is a whimsical Wednesday here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so to alleviate the usual things about Hump Day, the windmills of my mind rotated rather furiously. As a result, in addition to the internal hemorrhaging, I was able to realize that a fair number of the songs of note in our humble little blog often have titles containing variations of personal pronouns whether in English or Japanese or other languages. Here are just a few of them.

(1973)  Akiko Kosaka -- Anata （あなた）

(1975) Hiromi Iwasaki -- Watashi Tachi （私たち）

(1980) Kenji Sawada -- I am I

(1986) 1986 Omega Tribe -- Kimi wa 1000% （君は1000％）

(1993) Keizo Nakanishi -- You And I

Jun Horie -- La Regina （ラ・レジーナ）

 

I started thinking about the anniversary day's plans including the cover versions for "Memory Glass" a few weeks back, and so finding the covers, I then thought about some of the other songs that singer-songwriter Jun Horie（堀江淳）had recorded in the decades between now and the 1980s. It wasn't particularly easy since "Memory Glass" was the one big hit for him.

However, I did find one song which was some years after "Memory Glass". There was his 1993 maxi-single or mini-album titled "Tokyo"（東京）which for some reason doesn't exist in his J-Wiki discography but exists on Apple Music. One of the tracks is "La Regina" which has that urbane feeling of 1990s Tokyo and sounds like something that could have been a theme song for a J-Drama suspense during a weeknight. Horie's high-pitched voice is unmistakable.

Caoli Cano & Haruo Chikada -- Mechanica（メカニカ）

 

Considering the music and age of this particular album, this might be one of the rarest of the rare. And yet, I would like to explore it further. According to the explanation underneath the YouTube video, this is "Tokyo-teki"（東京的...Tokyo-esque） from March 1993, a compilation of songs under the aegis of Haruo Kubota（窪田晴男）who had been a band member of Haruo Chikada & The Vibratones（近田春夫&ビブラトーンズ）and a music producer.

With each of the nine tracks on the album addressing some aspect of Japan's capital city, the first track is "Mechanica" which was written by singer and sake brewer Caoli Cano（かの香織）and composed by Kubota's old boss Haruo Chikada. Kubota himself was on the keyboards here. It's quite the way to start things off with Cano's light and breathy vocals fronting a half-strutting, half skulking House beat, it seems like, as if some guy or lady in a red convertible is making Shinjuku or Roppongi their territory on a Friday night.  There are also a couple of times when this musical flourish suddenly bursts forth like a fountain going several metres up into the night sky which in a way reminds me of some Pet Shop Boys tunes. This album may be quite the ride in my old stomping grounds.

George Yanagi -- Araburu Tenshi-tachi（荒らぶる天使たち）

 

It was just a little over fourteen years ago that musician and singer George Yanagi（柳ジョージ）left this mortal coil at the untimely age of 63. He's probably one of those guys who fit that Japanese fashion meme of slightly rascally middle-aged men that was making some headlines on TV twenty or so years ago. 

Yup, he's still looking very kakkoii on the cover of that April 1993 album "Yokohama AREA 2" in which I serve you a track "Araburu Tenshi-tachi" (Scarface Angel). Just from the title of that song, I'm guessing some well-meaning guy is taking the hits and rolling with the punches as he tries to clean up his area of town. There's almost something Batman-like about this.

But Batman gets orchestral soundtracks. Over here, it's Yanagi backed up by a chugging and churning bluesy-rock horn section as the singer is growling out his lyrics but not in an overly raspy way. Listening to "Araburu Tenshi-tachi", I also feel some similarity to Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, although Yanagi's stuff has a bit more soul in there. Toshi Sumikawa（トシ・スミカワ）took care of the lyrics while the melody was handled by Toshiro Masuda（増田俊郎）. "Yokohama AREA 2" reached No. 45 on the yearly Oricon rankings.

Mariko Tone -- Setsunai Yoru（せつない夜）

 

When I think of singer Mariko Tone（刀根麻理子）, I usually think of her as a 1980s artist but she was releasing singles into the 1990s. In fact, I encountered this single which is her third-last entry to date from November 1993.

"Setsunai Yoru" (Restless Nights) is a pretty sultry song which was written by Sakiko Masano（政野早希子）of the funk-rock band JAGATARA and composed by the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）of the City Pop duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）. I probably would have preferred a real piano behind the bossa nova melody rather than the keyboard here, but I love the percussion and it's still a good nighttime listen. Plus, I'm assuming that it's Narumi behind the guitar noodling there.

I've often come across the word setsunai when it comes to Japanese song titles and strangely enough, the definitions that I've seen on Jisho.org include tough adjectives such as oppressive, miserable and painful as if the person in the song is going through one of the worst attacks of gastrointestinal gas in human history. I don't think the song with that title quite reflects anything that visceral which is why I've settled for restless. But we can see what people think.

Judy and Mary -- Power of Love

 

It's been a long time since I did a Judy and Mary tune. Plus, for all of the big hits that represented the band in those 1990s such as "Sobakasu"（そばかす）and "Hello! Orange Sunshine", it's always good and interesting to find out who they were when they first showed up all the way back when.

Well, in Judy and Mary's case,  it seems as if their style of hale and hearty pop/rock with YUKI's high and crystal-clear vocals was always there from the get-go. Their debut single was "Power of Love" from September 1993. And as much as I'm tempted to be reminded of that 1980s power ballad of the same name, J&M's "Power of Love" is a totally different animal. As I mentioned, it's some happy-go-lucky J-Pop that is so recognizably Judy and Mary. 

Wow! That's quite the debut music video for "Power of Love" which got no higher than No. 95 on Oricon (but bigger and better were on the way). YUKI is just strutting around the floor like a petite Mick Jagger with Betty Boop looks. The single was included on Judy and Mary's debut album "J・A・M" from January 1994. It did much better than the single by placing in at No. 23.

Akira Jimbo -- Unforgettable Summer

 

Although I've had my fill of Lemon Meringue Pie since that's the one dessert that my parents love, I've only had a few tastes of Key Lime Pie. From what I remember, it's also darn tasty.

Speaking of which, I haven't spoken on Casiopea drummer Akira Jimbo（神保彰）in some years as a headliner on KKP. I think the last article that I did on him was his "Red Lotus Man" all the way back in 2020, so it's time to rectify the situation here by bringing a track from his 6th album "Lime Pie" which was released in July 1993. The track here is the jazzy "Unforgettable Summer" which feels like it belongs to a whirlwind montage of enjoying a walk through a Caribbean paradise on a gorgeous summer day. Sounds like all of the major instruments have gotten their time in the sun here. 

I also chose this particular track because it's indeed been an unforgettable summer both here and in Japan. Unfortunately, it's often been unforgettable over there because of what the torrid heat and bands of torrential rains have wreaked. As for Toronto, it's been one of our warmer summers so a lot of our sun worshippers have been quite happy and even today, it sure doesn't feel like autumn.

WANDS -- Toki no Tobira（時の扉）

 

If I'm not mistaken, September 6th this year was the 59th anniversary of "Star Trek" so I'm hoping that 2026 will be a fine 60th diamond anniversary for the franchise. The above scene features the ancient and wise Guardian of Forever, a portal into all time.

Well, by coincidence, commenter Fireminer asked about this particular song by the rock band WANDS the other day. He had also provided his own KKP article regarding DA PUMP's "Corazon". "Toki no Tobira" (Time Portal) was the band's 4th single from February 1993 and the follow-up to their big hit which was the collaboration with the late Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）, "Sekaijuu no Dare yori Kitto"（世界中の誰よりきっと）. Probably buoyed by the effect of that song the previous year along with this single being a pretty catchy tune on its own, "Toki no Tobira" was also a million-seller hit for WANDS as it reached No. 1 on Oricon and eventually became the No. 7 single of the year.

Written by vocalist Show Wesugi（上杉昇）and composed by Kousuke Ohshima（大島康祐）, "Toki no Tobira" comes across as if it was channeling a bit of B'z. Considering all of those orchestra hits filling up the arrangement, I can only speculate that WANDS was showing a transition between B'z's early days as a synthpop duo and their very familiar sound as a pop-rock dynamo. The song was also the title track for their second album which was released a couple of months after the single, hitting No. 1 for four straight weeks and becoming the No. 2 album of 1993.

Kei Ogura -- Yama ni Dakarete（山に抱かれて）

 

Japan has yet another long weekend for vacationers to savor during the holiday month of August. Monday August 11th is officially Mountain Day so perhaps citizens can watch in awe at Mt. Fuji or any of the local mountains...or simply climb them, if possible.

I was looking to see if I could find another mountain-themed kayo kyoku and it didn't take long for me to find this one by venerable and venerated bank employee-turned-singer-songwriter Kei Ogura（小椋佳）. If there's one thing that Ogura can do very well, it's wistful and beautiful and he did the same thing with his very short-but-very sweet "Yama ni Dakarete" (Surrounded by Mountains).

Created by Ogura specifically for the 1993 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, he came in as a special guest to perform his paean to mountains with the entire Red and White teams joining in. In the recorded version, he's accompanied by Algo Gasshoudan（アルゴ合唱団...The Algo Choir）. "Yama ni Dakaraete" would also be the song for the month of June 1994 on the network's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series. And then, Ogura would return to the 1994 Kohaku Utagassen to perform it once more...this time as an official White team member.

Those sudden rivulets forming at the peaks that year must have been tears of joy from the mountains. Yep, that's real corny!😛

Miho Nakayama -- Keep Awake

 

The above is a shot of the interior of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. Can't quite believe it's already been 22 years since construction had been finished on this project. I remember when it first opened, it was absolutely flooded with interested folks trying out its restaurants and shops. 

Keeping awake is one of my problems after lunch now. Right after having the sandwich and stuff, I always plunk myself into the armchair and then end up dozing off for several minutes. My encroaching age is a factor and when I eventually wake up, I gotta shake off the grogginess because I have to get back to the computer and take care of "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

But ironically enough, I have a 1990s Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）song titled "Keep Awake", and if she were right beside me saying this into my ear, I would go "YES, MA'AM!!". The second track from the late singer's 15th studio album from June 1993, "Wagamama na Actress"（わがままな あくとれす...Selfish Actress）, this was another example of Miporin exploring various aspects of Latin or R&B going into the final decade of the 20th century. Smooth with some funky notes, I think some of that percussion kinda goes into the New Jack Swing of things. Nakayama herself came up with the lyrics while Julia provided the melody.

Riho Makise -- Osoi Santa Claus（遅いサンタクロース）

 

Yes, it is indeed a bit unusual for me to put up a Christmas song only a few days into June but I've been known to leave a J-Xmas tune during the summer months before so that we can be reminded that the Yuletide is only half a year away.

Anyways, this year's candidate for the Christmas song in June/July is Riho Makise's（牧瀬里穂）"Osoi Santa Claus" (Late Santa Claus). Her penultimate single from November 1993, it's a kid-friendly number due to that children's group helping her out, the adorable synths and the cute bouncy chorus; it was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with the melody and arrangement provided by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. In it, Makise sings about some kid getting rather impatient for Kris Kringle to arrive because he wants his presents yesterday. Apparently, "Osoi Santa Claus" was used as a commercial jingle for Japan Postal Savings.