I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
It was just last night when I posted Issei Okamoto's（岡本一生）"Moon Magic"（ムーン・マジック） as part of the Urban Contemporary lineup for Friday. And then, today I noticed that it was September 13th. For anyone who's into science-fiction, that date should be notable since it was on that day in 1999 when the Moon was blasted out of its orbit through magnetic radiation via the show "Space: 1999". Heck, I even devoted one ROY article to the theme song!
Well, in honour of September 13th 1999 (and thank heavens, we still have the Moon out there [although no Moonbase Alpha😢]) and the fact that all those moon-based traditions are happening this month, I've got another Author's Picks...this time, honouring all those songs that have something to do with the moon, and these definitely only represent the merest of a fraction because as I recall, kayo kyoku do love their moon tunes.
Well, a Happy New Year to everyone out there and welcome to 2023! 新年あけましておめでとうございます。
As would usually be the case in my family, we had the traditional o-zoni（お雑煮）breakfast this morning after the New Year's greetings. Because our ancestors originally hailed from western Japan, our o-zoni have round mochi in a miso soup. Folks in the Kanto area, however, tend to grill square mochi before putting the cakes into a clear soup. I've had both styles but in each case, I'm always careful to chew pieces of mochi well and over several seconds lest I end up a victim of choking. French kissing a vacuum cleaner isn't my idea of enjoying January 1st.
Anyways, getting onto the first business of KKP this year, 2023 is known as the Year of the Rabbit and I've illustrated that with the thumbnail of the cute little bunny at the top of the article. Not that I'm into astrology, but I did manage to find what Rabbit people are supposed to be like from the website Chinese New Year, although the paragraphs below don't tell the whole story:
To outsiders, the Rabbit’s kindness may make them seem soft and weak. In truth, the Rabbit’s quiet personality hides their confidence and strength. They are steadily moving towards their goal, no matter what negativity the others give them.
With their good reasoning skills and attention to detail, they make great scholars. They are socializers with an attractive aura. However, they find it hard to open up to others and often turn to escapism.
A plain and routine life is not their style. Though conservative and careful in their actions, they need surprises every so often to spice things up.
Just to let you know, I'm not a Rabbit but a Snake person, so it'll be a few more years before I commemorate that. However, as the first article for 2023 on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I thought I would pay tribute to the occasion by putting up some rabbit-themed songs or songs that have something to do with rabbits just for kicks.
Continuing on with today's Halloween theme, I started thinking about all of those cosplayers out there. I mean, I know that cosplaying has never been restricted to October 31st, but it is on that night that cosplayers can really go full out into the city at large instead of just cosplayer functions such as a ComiCon. Incidentally, yes, that is indeed a lady pretending to be Yuki Mori from the Space Cruiser Yamato. I took the photo at the Tokyo Anime Fair at Tokyo Big Sight back in 2009.
So, I thought what if I could give some tribute to those cosplayers and Halloween in general through my own Author's Picks of songs connected with costumes that I have seen such as the yellow-and-black uniform that I see on the aforementioned young lady above? As for me, I've been in costume but just for Halloween, and one costume that I did wear was the gold uniform for Captain Kirk way back when.
All these years, I've only seen folks in the Yuki Mori uniform, but I have yet to witness anyone in the other male crewmembers' uniforms. I have also never seen anyone dressed as good ol' Captain Okita.
In the few times that I did attend Fan Expo in downtown Toronto last decade, I always saw a Sailor Moon（セーラームーン）and a few of her fellow Sailors traipse about in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In fact, I'd say that it wouldn't be a Fan Expo without Sailor Moon.
I can't be absolutely sure that I actually saw anyone dressed up as Rei Ayanami or Asuka Soryu either in Japan or Toronto, but I believe that it's a given that have been cosplayers who were more than happy to dress up in their getups...and there were folks who were happy to see them dress up in their getups. Just ask Kohei.
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）did come to the Art Gallery of Ontario to perform a few nights there, but I never got the opportunity to go. I could probably say that she was the first cosplaying singing star that I ever saw.
This last one here is for the fact that my brother wore a Kamen Rider（仮面ライダー）costume for trick or treat when he was a very small kid back when we were living downtown. He may have scared one resident out of her wits, but she may have had a phobia against insects.
Well, first off, let me state that I am very well aware that "Sailor Moon" was originally marketed toward kindergarten and elementary school girls in Japan when TV Asahi broadcast its successful 5-year run in the 1990s. However, I think its popularity went way beyond its parameters and attracted not only the older girls but also anime-loving university dudes as well. I remember at one anime showing organized by my good friend 20 years ago at the University of Toronto; the main attraction wasn't due to be shown for another half-hour but the lecture hall had already become a full house, so he decided to slide in an episode of "Sailor Moon" as a pre-feature treat. The entire first row promptly stood up and started singing the famous theme song by Dali. Massively freaked out a couple of my Japanese friends who had been here in Toronto as working-holiday visa students.
In the annals of anime, "Sailor Moon" was a fun show, and that friend and I (we still get together once every couple of weeks for lunch/anime/dinner) often touch upon the series nostalgically. But I always thought that the theme song was a notch above the usual happy-happy-joy-joy theme for a Japanese cartoon. It was something about the lusher arrangements with the tinge of a South American tango.
As I've been filling this blog for about half a year now, I've started to think of myself as a bit of an explorer for my motley cyber-museum of Japanese pop music. And "Moonlight Densetsu"(Moonlight Legend) has been one of the more interesting digs I've come across. Composed by Daria Kawashima（川嶋だりあ） (under the pseudonym of Tetsuya Komoro) and written by Kanako Oda（小田佳奈子）, it was sung by a four-person aidoru unit known as Dali. The unit broke up soon after the song's release and two of the women continued on as the 1990s pop/rock duoManish.
Although the link isn't mentioned at all in the J-Wiki writeup on "Sailor Moon" or "Moonlight Densetsu", there are a couple of lines in the English writeup that state that the song may have been inspired by this 1965 single, "Sayonara wa Dance no Ato ni", by actress Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）. Baisho is famous for her role as the kind-hearted but ever-worrying sister of Tora-san, Sakura Suwa, in the long-running movie series "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"（男はつらいよ）. Since there was no mention of the connection on the Japanese side of things, I can't really be sure if Daria Kawashima really did base "Moonlight Densetsu"on an old cha-cha kayo kyoku, but after listening to it a couple of times, I can say that there is a resemblance. You can judge for yourselves. The title is translated as "Let's Save The Goodbyes For After The Dance".
Then, my research got even more curiouser and curiouser. Some months after the first release of "Moonlight Densetsu", a duo known as Key West Club performed "Yume wa Majorica Senorita"(夢はマジョリカ・セニョリータ....My Dream is Majorica Senorita） which was basically the same song with different lyrics. The song was indeed by the same composer for "Moonlight Densetsu" but this time she went under her real name of Daria Kawashima. Key Club West consisted of Keiko Azuma (東恵子）and Miki Nakatani（中谷美紀）. Nakatani is now well-regarded as a major TV and movie actress in Japan although she's also had a solo singing career in the past.
All this information about a cute and catchy anime tune....Wow!
July 23rd 2023: I received a comment from Daemonskald who's been very helpful over the history of KKP with their ability to dig up some information on songwriters and the like when I haven't been able to do so. This time, I've discovered via Daemonskald that there has been a misunderstanding on who the actual composer behind "Moonlight Densetsu" was and it's not Daria Kawashima as was first thought, and it's been backed up by a new section inserted into the J-Wiki article for "Moonlight Densetsu". Have a read of the comment below and many thanks once more to Daemonskald!
Hi J-Canuck!
Don't know if you are aware of it but there was a recent development in "Who is Tetsuya Komoro?", the famous "Moonlight Densetsu" composer.
For years it was speculated to be Daria Kawashima because she wrote the Key West Club (KWC) song and it shares the same melodies/structure. For the record, it was already performed live before the Sailor Moon single went on sale but due to some strange circumstances the KWC single went on sale after it with re-arranged lyrics. And in people's mind, KWC was a copy of Moonlight Densetsu but in reality it was the other way round instead.
But enough of that, in a radio program in 2021, Daiko Nagato said Tetsuya Komoro was in fact Kazuo Yoshie（吉江一男）who produced a lot of Being (and its subsidiaries) artists and was the head of Mister Music, a company that writes a lot of music for commercials (they did the ones for Pepsi-Man).
So, in a way it makes sense because he also had a band named CM Network and gave himself the name Tetsuya Komoro (there is at least one or two compilation CDs out).
Nagato also confirmed the inspiration from Chieko Baisho song, "Sayonara wa Dance no ato ni". It was settled with Hirooki Ogawa and JASRAC so royalties are paid whenever Moonlight Densetsu is played now. Funny thing is Chieko Baisho 45th single ("Doyoubi wa Watashi to"/ "土曜日は私と", 1968) shares similarities with her 25th single and is written and composed by the same pair: Hiroshi Yokoi / Hirooki Ogawa.
In the end, something is still not very clear this story. Knowing that KWC song was written before Moonlight Densetsu and even if it is sure the inspiration comes from the same Chieko Baisho song, Moonlight Densetsu came after the KWC song is taking everything from it. So, we could say Moonlight Densetsu was more inspired from the KWC song (Daria's composition/arrangement) than the original Chieko Baisho song...
