Shigeko Orii -- Kuroyuri no Uta（黒百合の歌）

by Takeshiro Matsuura at the
Hakodate City Central Library

I don't know much about botany but that Kamchatka lily (or black lily)...she is scary!

At least, that's the impression which I got from Shigeko Orii's（織井茂子）"Kuroyuri no Uta" (Song of the Black Lily). I've mentioned Orii once before when I wrote about her very successful "Kimi no Na wa"（君の名は）, the theme song for the cinematic adaptation of the story of the same title in 1953. Her melancholy rendition reflected the plot progression which had viewers weeping into their hankies. 

1953 was also the year that Orii released a second theme song for the sequel movie for "Kimi no Na wa", "Kuroyuri no Uta", penned by the same songwriters behind "Kimi no Na wa": legendary composer Yuuji Koseki（古関裕而）and lyricist Kazuo Kikuta（菊田一夫）. Compared to "Kimi no Na wa", though, "Kuroyuri no Uta" has a much more haunting and otherworldly quality, similar to the songwriting duo's earlier classic, "Iyomante no Yoru"（イヨマンテの夜）. As Kikuta's lyrics span the three verses of the song, listeners get an increasingly more sinister image of the black lily (which is native to Far East Russia, northern Japan and the northwestern regions of North America), spanning from a flower of love to a flower of magic to finally a flower of poison. 

Kikuta expressed some of his knowledge of the indigenous Ainu people into "Iyomante no Yoru" and he also did the same in "Kuroyuri no Uta" with one line mentioning that the black lily is a deadly and therefore forbidden flower according to the Ainu god or gods. And the way that Orii delivers the song, I can't help imagine that there was something downright witch-like in her vocals. "Kuroyuri no Uta" was another massive hit for the singer as it sold over 1 million records and earned her another appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1955, a couple of years following her debut on the NHK special to sing "Kimi no Na wa".

Hisao Ito -- Iyomante no Yoru（イヨマンテの夜）

 

In recent years, I've been made aware of this particular kayo titled "Iyomante no Yoru" (The Night of the Sendoff Ceremony) sung by enka veteran Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし）. But this isn't an enka song. When I first heard Hosokawa perform it a few years ago, he didn't particularly sing it; it was actually more of a bellowing of what sounded like an incantation for something to happen at that ceremony of the title. It was raw, operatic and the rhythm felt like part of a soundtrack from an old 1940s adventure in Africa. What the heck was "Iyomante no Yoru"?

Well, we have to go all the way back to an old NHK radio drama called "Kane no Naru Oka"（鐘の鳴る丘...The Hill on Which the Bell Tolls） which had been broadcast between the summer of 1947 to the end of 1950. A story by playwright and lyricist Kazuo Kikuta（菊田一夫）, the plot featured a demobilized soldier who ends up living in a communal facility in a mountain village on a hill and becomes well acquainted with some war orphans.

Famed composer Yuuji Koseki（古関裕而）, who had worked with Kikuta before to create "Francesca no Kane"（フランチェスカの鐘）in 1948, came up with "Iyomante no Yoru" as the theme representing the woodsmen in the drama as he improvised something while performing on a Hammond organ. It was originally meant to be performed with just the "Ahhhhh..." bellowing, but singer Hisao Ito（伊藤久男）, who had recorded Koseki's iconic "Eikan wa Kimi ni Kagayaku"（栄冠は君に輝く ）, occasionally listened to "Kane no Naru Oka" and fell in love with "Iyomante no Yoru".

Both Kikuta and Koseki eventually got together with Ito and came up with the revised "Iyomante no Yoru". The lyricist had some experience with Ainu songs so he adapted some of the language of this East Asian ethnic group native to Hokkaido and added it to the lyrics for the song. In fact, the word iyomante is Ainu for a sendoff ceremony. A 45" single was sold in stores as of January 1950.

However, according to the J-Wiki article on "Iyomante no Yoru", despite the Ainu influence in the language, it was found that with the arrangements which included an African tom-tom drum and the fact that in spite of the title hinting at a night ceremony, any actual sendoff ceremonies in Ainu culture were almost always performed in the daytime, there were opinions raised that the song really didn't musically reflect the Ainu.

Another interesting point of trivia found in the J-Wiki article is that the NHK singing program "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）during the period of 1950-1952 found almost all of the male contestants asking to sing "Iyomante no Yoru" which put the judges in a bit of a tizzy. During the show in modern times, I've occasionally seen a few guys come up to perform the song, even high school boys.

But it hasn't been just the amateurs tackling the song. A number of singers have covered it, too, including tenor Masafumi Akikawa（秋川雅史）who gained national fame for his rendition of "Sen no Kaze ni Natte"（千の風になって）in 2006, as well as enka singer Aya Shimazu（島津亜矢）. I think with "Iyomante no Yoru", there is probably that "muscularity" in there that has attracted the kayo singers like a workout machine attracting the gym athletes.

Akiko Futaba -- Francesca no Kane（フランチェスカの鐘）

With the current NHK morning serial drama "Yell"（エール）being based on the life and times of songwriter Yuuji Koseki（古関裕而）, there has been a series of 10-minute vignettes focusing on key songs by the man. I already wrote about one song that I discovered through one of those vignettes, "Nagasaki no Kane"（長崎の鐘）.

Another episode that I've recently seen is the one for a 1948 song composed by Koseki, "Francesca no Kane" (The Bells of Francesca). Kazuo Kikuta（菊田一夫）was the lyricist for this particular kayo which dealt with a woman experiencing a variety of emotions such as shock, rage and mourning since he was losing the man that he loved to a higher power. He was breaking things off because he was entering the monastery. "Francesca no Kane" is the musical equivalent of that bitter pill to swallow as Akiko Futaba（二葉あき子）sadly relays the woman's feelings. There was also a spoken verse provided by actress Taeko Takasugi（高杉妙子）, the wife of lyricist Kikuta, who effectively spat out her mocking disdain for her soon-to-be former beau while undergoing what sounded like delusional denial about her plight.

Through the J-Wiki article on "Francesca no Kane" with the original sources being a 1980 autobiography about Koseki and a 2019 book on the songwriter called "Koseki Yuuji ~ Ryuukou Sakyokuka to Gekidou Showa"（古関裕而～流行作曲家と激動昭和...The Popular Composer and The Turbulent Showa Era）, I got one answer on my question on "Who was Francesca?". Apparently, Koseki asked Kikuta about the name, assuming that it was the monastery where the young man was heading for. The lyricist simply replied that he had no idea; he picked the name because he liked the sound of it!

In later recordings of "Francesca no Kane" following the release of a movie filmed based on the kayo, the spoken verse was taken out of the song for some reason, so a lot of that feeling of a romance gone bitterly south was eliminated. In its place, the song took on the atmosphere of a requiem for all of those lost in the Hiroshima bombing via the wartime experiences that composer Koseki and singer Futaba had undergone. According to that 1980 Koseki autobiography, Futaba had also said that when she sang "Francesca no Kane" at the Nihon Gekijo in Tokyo in the summer of 1949, she saw the images of those high school friends whom she had lost. She then resolved that she would always sing the song until her own death. Futaba passed away in August 2011.

The J-Wiki article also mentioned that singers such as Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）and Tokiko Kato（加藤登紀子）have covered it. I managed to find Julie's performance above, and it's definitely more of a sultry and sullen rock thing here. 

Shigeko Orii -- Kimi no Na wa （君の名は）

OK, first off... this article isn't about the anime "Kimi no Na wa"（君の名は。...Your Name） from this year that has been apparently getting some acclaim. I'm talking about the romantic drama from decades back that had originally been broadcast as a radio drama all the way back in 1952.

As you have probably guessed, I'm not a huge drama watcher although I did have my moments in the 1990s starting with "Tokyo Love Story"（東京ラブストーリー）. However, even I knew about this famous drama titled "Kimi no Na wa" (What's Your Name?) that had its origins on NHK Radio and then was adapted into a movie, a TV drama and even a stage play over the decades.

There's a far more polished article on the drama itself along with similar examples of the weepy sure-chigai (two ships passing in the night...the classic analogy for a romance never meant to be) sub-genre from "The Japan Times", but I can provide the brief synopsis here. A woman, Mariko Ujiie（氏家真知子）, and a man, Haruki Atomiya（後宮春樹）, try to find refuge during the night of the Tokyo Air Raid and spend a brief time together ultimately ending up on the Sukiyabashi Bridge in Ginza. They have to part but promise each other that they will meet again on the same bridge in 6 months' time. Of course, that doesn't come to pass and they don't even give each other their names (D'oh!). In the interim, Mariko and Haruki have to overcome their own surrounding trials and tribulations.

Being a buff of the ancient age of Hollywood, "Kimi no Na wa" reminded me most of "An Affair to Remember" (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr although the structure of this movie was flipped...not to say that this flick was connected with "Kimi no Na wa" in any way. I'm sure that the final scene for "An Affair to Remember" had the viewers pulling out the hankies, though.

Although the radio broadcast had another singer performing the theme song, it sounds as if "Kimi no Na wa" became famous from the singer performing it for the movie version from 1953 and then recording it onto vinyl, Shigeko Orii（織井茂子）. Orii was born in 1926 in Tokyo's Meguro Ward and became a singer of children's songs while in her teens. Coming under the tutelage of composer Nosho Omura（大村能章）, she graduated into the world of kayo kyoku under the stage name of Yoshiko Miyako（都能子）debuting in 1947 at King Records. However with no hits during that time, the singer decided to start over again in 1949, this time under her real name at Columbia.

In 1953, with her rendition of "Kimi no Na wa", Orii's ship didn't pass her by, it came into port for her. The mournful theme song written by Kazuo Kikuta（菊田一夫）and composed by Yuuji Koseki（古関裕而）struck a national chord and sold anything between 1.1 million to 2 million records. A number of Orii's succeeding singles didn't quite get the same amount of business but still sold very successfully.

Orii would also appear on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen 6 times between 1953 and 1989, each time when the Kohaku was staged at a different place including its current venue of NHK Hall in Shibuya. Two of those times, her first and final appearances, had her singing "Kimi no Na wa".

Orii would continue to work right up until her passing at the age of 70 in 1996. She even ran a nightclub in Tokyo for many years until the Bubble burst.