Itsuro Takeyama & Ryoko Fujiwara -- Tsuki yori no Shisha（月よりの使者）

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

Yup, it's the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing on July 20th 1969. I was actually around on that day but being so young, I couldn't remember the event.😞 Still, I've been able to see the video of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon many times and uttering that famous declaration after which I got to watch the usually unflappable CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite have a rare loss of composure.

So, today in tribute to the great adventure of Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin Jr., I've decided to feature a few kayo or J-Pop tunes with the title of "tsuki" (moon). I've already got a few such songs up there over the years: a jazz standard-turned-anison theme, some bossa pop, an enka number by Noelle, a legendary anime heroine theme, and another romantic bossa-tinged ballad by a band from Hokkaido.

To start off, I'm going with an even older enka ballad from 1949 performed by the duo of Itsuro Takeyama（竹山逸郎）and Ryoko Fujiwara（藤原亮子）titled "Tsuki yori no Shisha" (Emissary from the Moon). This was the theme song of the second version of a movie of the same name. The movie was about a woman with a complicated past who tries to escape it by working as a devoted nurse in a Nagano Prefecture sanitarium on a highland where the patients become aware of her beauty and thus call her the title emissary from the Moon. And then comes that one special patient...

Written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Shunichi Sasaki（佐々木俊一）, "Tsuki yori no Shisha" has that gentle and wistful melody that could describe the pastoral life up in the mountains. What struck me was how both the voices of Takeyama and Fujiwara just sweep up in the first few notes of their singing as they relate the story of Nurse Nonoyama and Mr. Hirota.

It looks like the song has become one of those chestnuts to be covered over the decades. The above performance has Takeyama alongside Aiko Hirano（平野愛子）to perform "Tsuki yori no Shisha".

Then, we have original singer Fujiwara do a solo here.

Finally, singer/actress Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）provided a more contemporary cover of "Tsuki yori no Shisha" which seems to take the song a little closer to Mood Kayo.

Aiko Hirano/Kazuko Matsuo/Saki Takaoka -- Kimi Mate Domo （君待てども）

During last week's NHK-broadcast special charity concert in Shizuoka Prefecture, I did hear a lovely bluesy ballad called "Kimi Mate Domo" which was originally sung by Aiko Hirano（平野愛子）in 1948. Written and composed by Tatsuzo Azuma（東辰三）, it was a torch song about pining for that special someone who would probably never come or come back. The original recorded version has that old-fashioned stateliness.

However, to be honest, I have much preferred the later versions of "Kimi Mate Domo" since they have possessed more of that good time swing. And apparently it has been covered a number of times by a lot of different folks. Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）, for example, gave her cover of the song in 1963. And that picture of her above sums her stylings on the song perfectly: as someone who is by herself for another night at the bar while sucking back on that cigarette. Plenty of atmosphere there as she seems happily resigned to her fate.

The big surprise for me is that actress Saki Takaoka（高岡早紀）has given her own sultry take on the song with the added English title "I'm Waiting For You". When I first knew her, it was as the buxom tarento on the variety show circuit, and Marcos V. has written about one of her early tunes as an aidoru, "Nemurenu Mori no Bishoujo"（眠れぬ森の美女）from 1988.

But it's been many since that song. And in 2013, she performed "Kimi Mate Domo" as the ending theme for one of her movies from that year, "Monster" where she played a woman who had undergone serious plastic surgery to escape from a horrific childhood of being bullied due to her facial deformities. I'm actually quite impressed with her vocals here. The song itself was a track on her album of standards, "Sings-Bedtime Stories" from October 2014.

Aiko Hirano -- Minato ga Mieru Oka （港が見える丘）

Last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）had its tribute to the wonderful city of Yokohama and during its 45 minutes which I enjoyed thoroughly, there was also another song that I was happy to discover.

"Minato ga Mieru Oka" (The Hill Overlooking The Harbour) was sung that night by enka chanteuse Yukino Ichikawa（市川由紀乃）in this quiet nighttime jazzy tone which always has had a soft spot in my heart. So I was quite enchanted. And happily enough, in looking up this song online, I found out that there was an interesting story behind it.

The song was originally released in April 1947 as one of the early postwar ryukoka（流行歌...literally, popular song）by Victor. Sung by then-newbie Aiko Hirano（平野愛子）and created by Showa Era composer and lyricist Tatsuzo Azuma（東辰三）, the original version had that sweet music orchestra sound surrounding the lyrics regarding a young couple in love admiring the view of a harbour from the top of that hill. It became that huge hit for Hirano who followed up with a number of other hits and soon earned the title of "The Young Blues Queen".

However, after the sudden passing of her mentor, Azuma, in 1950, Hirano didn't enjoy another major hit and would change recording companies a couple of times. In her later years, she started a music school in her home before she passed away in 1981. She did appear in the 2nd and 3rd Kohaku Utagassen in 1952 and 1953 but not for the song of this article.

As was illustrated during the Yokohama tribute on "Uta Kon" last week, "Minato ga Mieru Oka" has been seen as one of those old songs celebrating the city of Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama Bay and Chinatown. Plus in 1962, the Minato-ga-Mieru-Oka Park was even opened with a stone memorial inside pointing out its musical lineage. However, there has been a tiny controversy over whether that was actually true. Apparently, Azuma may have created the song in tribute to his hometown of Kobe which also has that wonderful view of the port from up above. But his son, famed lyricist Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, calmed the few ripples that may have resulted and wondered aloud whether the song had been created in tribute to both cities, and for that matter, any of the port cities in Japan.

Nonetheless, it's a lovely song, and considering the melody, I believe it could have one of the great proto-Mood Kayo tunes. To cement its classic standard status, it's been covered by a whole range of singers/musicians (including City Pop maestro Toshiki Kadomatsu/角松敏生...too bad, his version isn't online). Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）is one of those artists and she gives a slower and slightly smokier jazz cover here.

Masako Mori（森昌子）provided her own mellow Big Band cover, and although the video footage looks a few decades old, her version is on a 2007 album titled "Ano Koro"（あのころ...The Old Days）.

And then there is Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）with a sunny and relaxed version that could have had her performing it from a chaise lounge on Long Island. Her take on "Minato ga Mieru Oka" is on her massive 2002 6-disc collection titled "Rumiko Koyanagi CD-BOX"....on CD 4, if you were wondering.

The one last piece of trivia that I found on the article for the song, though, is that "Minato ga Mieru Oka" had also been the inspiration for Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）to create The Peanuts' "Teami no Kutsushita"（手編みの靴下）which later became Mari Sono's（園まり）hit "Aitakute, Aitakute"（逢いたくて逢いたくて）in the 1960s. That would explain the Follow-Up tag in the Labels.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11250735@N07/8268716495/?ytcheck=1
Thank you, zaimoku_woodpile