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.
On last week's extended "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode, enka singer and TV personality Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）appeared for the first time in a while. I'd wondered where he was all these months and I only found out right on the show that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's and made an announcement back last November. Up to this point, he'd been going through some grueling rehabilitation.
Aside from what he said on the program and that he accepted his friend Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子） assistance in being led to the stage and off, Mikawa didn't show his affliction too much at all which may be a good sign. He sang his classic "Sasori-za no Onna"（さそり座の女）and his vocals were just as fine as before. Then, he sang a song that I hadn't heard before called "Ikiru" which was his 101st single from May 2013.
And I ended up not hearing it. Jme and NHK made one of their not-so-smooth quick cuts which excised his performance of "Ikiru"(To Live). Why? Well, I quickly figured out that "Ikiru" was probably not a Japanese original. And as it turns out, it wasn't. But more on that later. Listening to it finally through the YouTube video above, it sounds like a chanson that has been given a pop arrangement thanks to Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）with new lyrics by Michikazu Yatabe（矢田部道一）.
"Ikiru" actually came from French singer-songwriter Alice Dona's 1981 song"Ma dernière volonté"(My Last Wish) which was written by Sylvain Lebel and composed by Dona.
Maybe Mikawa's appearances on TV or on stage will no longer be as frequent. But I hope that he will be able to get a good handle on his illness and that he will continue to have more years of peace and relative good health.
On the most recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた...Songs of Japanese Spirit）, veteran singer Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）appeared to sing a song titled "O-kane wo Choudai" (Please Give Me the Money) and from the arrangement, I figured that it must have been created decades ago.
And as it turns out, it was indeed made decades ago. It was released in November 1971 as Mikawa's 21st single and written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）. Based on conversations that lyricist Hoshino had overheard among hostesses (and perhaps clients) at a cabaret, the song deals with one hostess' final reluctant goodbye talk with a soon-to-be former paramour. The lady asks for money to deal with the expenses racked up because of her relationship with him, and the way Mikawa sings it, it sounds like her imploring him rather than threatening him, although in the end, she hints that's the only way he'll finally be rid of her.
My mother had never heard of the song either before that episode so she reacted with a bit of surprise and disgust at the title, and apparently "O-kane wo Choudai" did cause some controversy at the time that it was released. For one thing, because of the lyrics, it hadn't been allowed to be performed on NHK although over the decades, the network finally relented. Women had also complained to Mikawa or his representatives about showcasing such a supposedly grubby hostess but somehow the singer was able to convince the detractors that it wasn't the woman who was the villain here. "O-kane wo Choudai" reached No. 40 on Oricon.
Welcome to the third in the weekly series of "Go-Touchi Songs", those tunes that reflect a certain region or prefecture or city in Japan. Last week, I devoted the sophomore effort to the Kanto region, which includes Chiba and Gunma Prefectures where I lived at different times in my young life, and now we move further westward and southward to cover the Chubu region. Incidentally, this area covers Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama, and Yamanashi Prefectures, a whopping nine provinces. However, although I couldn't get go-touchi songs from KKP to represent all of the areas, there are some pretty famous kayo among the ones that I could find. Next week, I'll take care of the Kinki region.
1. Kenichi Mikawa -- Niigata Blues （新潟ブルース）for Niigata City in Niigata (1967)
2. Sayuri Ishikawa -- Noto Hanto （能登半島）for the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa (1977)
4. Shigeru Amachi -- Nagoya Blues（名古屋ブルース）for Nagoya in Aichi (1981)
5. Tetsuya Ryu -- Oku-Hida Bojou （奥飛騨慕情）for the Hida area in Gifu (1980)
6. Kiyoshi Hikawa -- Oi Okkake Otojiro (大井追っかけ音次郎) for the Oi River in Shizuoka (2001)
As usual, why don't we end this session with some regional delicacies? This time, we have sasa dango（笹団子）from Niigata Prefecture and then miso katsu（味噌カツ）from Nagoya.
I figured that I would be including the increasingly media-ubiquitous world of Marvel Comics into "Kayo Kyoku Plus" someday. After all, I have a hero of the DC universe already included here although not as a ROY article, so I gotta make mine Marvel! And why not start Marvel's entry into my humble little blog with a hero who's been quite close to my heart in terms of childhood and personality? Rather ironic considering that because of my first summer trip to Japan in 1972, I ended up with a years-long case of arachnophobia (them spiders are big in Wakayama).
Of course, true believers, I am talking about The Amazing Spider-Man. Yes, we all know about the various incarnations of Peter Parker and his alter-ego over the past 20 years on the big screen starting with Tobey Maguire, then Andrew Garfield and now Tom Holland, but for this Torontonian, it all began with the animated series that went from 1967 to 1970.
"Spider-Man" the cartoon was a joint production between the United States for the animation and Canada for the voice acting according to the Wikipedia article for the series. Every morning when I woke up at the bleary-eyed hour of 6:30 for school (ugh!), the TV would be on CHCH-TV on Channel 11 from the city of Hamilton, west of Toronto with "Spider-Man" beginning my childhood day. He'd be fighting folks like the Rhino, the Green Goblin and J. Jonah Jameson constantly.
What also greeted me was the finger-snapping vocal jazz of the theme song. Although I would later come to realize that jazz and standards were my musical companions for the early years of my life, at the time I was hearing the "Spider-Man" theme, it was just one catchy tune starting with the lyrics "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...". By the way, I have to mention that the song was created by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris.
Little did I know that the theme was actually recorded right here in my city by members of The Billy Van Singers and Laurie Bower Singers, and I was especially surprised by that first group since Billy Van was a Canadian comedian who was also a part of my TV experience as a kid through his appearances as a featured player on the old "Sonny & Cher" variety show, the local game show "Party Game" and the kids' series "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" where Van played a scion of Dracula. Maybe there was as much maple syrup flowing through Peter Parker's web shooters as there was web fluid!
It's a pity then to find out that the singers got paid for the recording session but never got any of the residuals, especially since that very theme has been used even in the latest movies with Tom Holland. When we caught "Spider-Man: Homecoming", the audience cheered the moment when Michael Giacchino provided an epic orchestral version during the introduction of the logo.
But even earlier in the "Spider-Man" franchise, there was an excerpt of Michael Bublé's even jazzier love letter remix to the theme in the ending credits of "Spider-Man 2" in 2004. Partnering with Junkie XL, the original song got fortified with warp engines, some amazing Big Band swing and Bublé's grand voice. My only regret is that it wasn't used in that final scene of the movie when Spider-Man got that kiss and approval from Mary Jane and flew out in joy while he was on his way to another rescue with police choppers accompanying him. Yup, I indeed bought the single!
March 12 2021: I received a tweet from Greg Oliver who has written a biography with Stacey Case on Billy Van. I would like to thank him for providing a clarification about what I've written above.
Cool article. It was quite common for arrangers like Billy Van and Laurie Bower to collect up friends to do jingles in that era. Billy Van, however, was NOT one of the voices on Spider-Man. His then-wife and sister-in-law tell the story in my book.
So, what was released in September 1967 in Japan when "Spider-Man" first made its way onto TV screens? Interestingly enough, the first entry here by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku is quite swingy (but in a 60s rock sense) in itself.
As I said in recent articles, pops lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was the guest of honour at last week's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）. However, there was one singer who kept up the enka side of things: veteran Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）.
Late in the broadcast, Mikawa came up with his most recent single, a gentle song of encouragement titled "Harumachi Zaka" (The Hill Waiting For Spring). The song was released in February this year and coming out on "Uta Kon" after the landslide of Matsumoto's works (which I did enjoy), it made for a nice contrast.
Written by Koyomi Asa（麻こよみ）and composed by Hideo Mizumori（水森英夫）, it struck me as being a good old-fashioned enka number, no particular whiz-bang arrangement or flashy fashion visuals included. Mikawa in the shortened video above comes out in traditional Japanese dress and despite the scenes of 21st-century Tokyo, the song seemed to take me back a few decades.
On a recent "Nodo Jiman", I heard one of the singing contestants perform what sounded like an enka called "Tokyo Hotel". Veteran singer Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）was one of the guests on that episode but at the time, I hadn't been aware that it was his song since my memories of his enka and Mood Kayo have been from decades back.
However, if I had paid more attention to the lyrics at the time, I would have quickly realized that "Tokyo Hotel" had actually been released in March 2000 as Mikawa's 83rd single which would be the only one he would release that year. Mitsuo Ikeda's（池田充男）lyrics talk about the woman still pining for her tryst partner a year following their encounter at that hotel by Tokyo Bay; Ikeda even places in a shoutout to Rainbow Bridge. I'm not sure how the respective management at accommodations such as the Hotel Nikko and the Hilton in Odaiba feel about possibly being the venue for an illicit affair but they would probably shrug their collective shoulders and remark that it's a typical Mood Kayo.
But that's the thing about "Tokyo Hotel". The lyrics might hint at a typical Mood Kayo theme of hotel trysting but Hideo Mizumori's（水森英夫）melody hints largely at a more enka sensibility. The music doesn't have a Latin twist nor does it have a horn section, and yet listening to the song, I feel like having a drink in a bar located inside one of those hotels that I have mentioned.
The Grand Pacific Hotel in Odaiba.
Would you like to check in under separate names, sir?
Another rustle through the 33s and 45s produced a most interesting discovery. I came across an old Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）single...well, actually I guess if I were using more updated terminology, I would say it was a maxi single: two songs per side. The surprising thing is the cover which showed a quite bidanshi young Mikawa looking pretty dapper.
The first song on the 33.3 was "Onna no Asa" (A Woman's Morning) which was Mikawa's 18th single from Christmas Day 1970. Compared to some of the Mood Kayo that he had sung in the past, this particular song was absolutely jaunty. Masao Yoneyama's（米山正夫）melody has a bit of a skippy Latin beat which puts "Onna no Asa" right on the line between enka and kayo pop, and although the song has a triumphant feeling, the lyrics by So Nishizawa（西沢爽）relate about a secret tryst that has to come to an end. Still, it seems like the protagonists involved are parting without too many regrets...and I'm sure the hotel staff didn't seem to mind the business.
I don't know how "Onna no Asa" did on the charts but in 1971, it won a prize at the Japan Lyricists Awards.
And unfortunately, I also don't know when Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）performed her cover of "Onna no Asa", although it is on "Cover Song Collection - Hibari Enka wo Utau"（カバーソング・コレクション~ひばり演歌をうたう...Hibari Sings Enka）, a 2-CD set which came out in 2008. Her version sounds like a more conventional enka take with the sound of the saxophone hinting that the affair was taking place more in the shitamachi neighbourhoods of the city. Still, the happy-go-lucky feeling is still very much in place.
I only got as far as Sapporo when I made my trip up to Hokkaido several years ago. In fact, I think a good chunk of Kenichi Mikawa's（美川憲一）music made more headway throughout Japan than I ever did unfortunately. But then again, wanderlust was never a strong point with me. In any case, I'm in a bit of a Mood Kayo mood tonight and just felt like adding another one of Mikawa's geographical songs onto the blog.
So far, I've got "Yanagase Blues"（柳ヶ瀬ブルース）and "Niigata Blues"（新潟ブルース）covered, so here is "Kushiro no Yoru" (Night In Kushiro) giving tribute to that other city in Japan's northernmost prefecture. Hideo Usa（宇佐英雄）, who had also taken care of "Yanagase Blues" for Mikawa, was also responsible for the music and lyrics of his 11th single from July 1968. That languid melody with the melancholy sax and the deep voice of the singer are back but lyrically unlike those two aforementioned ballads, "Kushiro no Yoru" doesn't have Mikawa languishing over a lost love but has him taking the woman's role as the resentful heroine alternately admonishes and pleads for her lover to show a little more caring and a lot less coldness.
By the time "Kushiro no Yoru" came out, it looks like Oricon had just been born, so the song managed to get as high as No. 5 and sold about 445,000 records. More importantly, Mikawa got his first invitation to appear on the Kohaku Utagassen with Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）doing the introductions of this "new face". It was interesting watching the above video as a very serious-looking Mikawa stepped up to the mike to perform the song in a tuxedo considering all the years that I saw him unhesitantly unleash his often snarky remarks on television.
I never got to head into Niigata Prefecture although I lived pretty close to the province as a temporary resident in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture. And it wasn't too difficult to get there even a quarter of a century ago since there was the Joetsu Shinkansen that launched from Ueno Station in Tokyo and cut right through the middle of the country. My biggest impression of Niigata, though, is the huge amount of snow that it gets every year...enough to make those huge 3m-high walls alongside the roads. And here I thought Toronto gets whacked with the white stuff.
Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）and his associates made an impression of Niigata for everyone back in the 1960s with "Niigata Blues". Released in August 1967, it's about as bluesy as one can get. I practically crave for something alcoholic when I hear this one...preferably in a nice little nomiya in a narrow alley somewhere in Japan. Not only is the song one of Mikawa's "Blues" tunes but it's also categorized as one of his geographical songs alongside his earlier hit of "Yanagase Blues"（柳ヶ瀬ブルース）from 1966.
Written by Kazumi Yamagishi（山岸一二三...I'm not 100% sure about the first name since there are quite a few readings for it）and Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）under his pseudonym of Keigo Mizusawa（水沢圭吾）with Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）composing it, the song is another one of reminiscing over a past love as would be fitting for a Mood Kayo with shoutouts to Niigata incorporating place names such as Niigata Station and Bandai Bridge.
About a month earlier from Mikawa's release, the Mood Kayo group, Los Primos（ロス・プリモス）, had released their version of "Niigata Blues" as the B-side to their 4th single, "Shinanogawa Bojou"（信濃川慕情...Yearning for Shinanogawa）. Strangely enough, Mikawa's B-side to "Niigata Blues" was that same song....maybe the producers had a confab at a nomiya about this. As for the video above, Los Primos' version comes in at the very end at the 5:07 mark following their other hits of "Love You, Tokyo" and "Tasogare Ginza".
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Enka chanteuse Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）also provided her own cover version of "Niigata Blues" although it wasn't an official single and I don't know when it was recorded. In any case, no matter who sings it, it makes for a nice accompaniment for barhopping.
Ah, yes....the flamboyant Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一） with the song that has made him the target of tons of impressionists, professional or amateur. "Sasori-za no Onna"(Scorpio Woman) is therefore not surprisingly his trademark tune when it comes to his appearances on TV. It's how I know him best....aside from the affected speech, the tart tongue and the over-the-top fashion.
And "Sasori-za no Onna" goes all the way back to December 1972 when it was released as his 25th single. Composed by Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之） and written by Ritsuko Saito（斎藤律子）, the lyrics talk of the titular woman, nonchalantly boasting of her Black Widow nature and ability to wrap her male victims around her little finger....elegantly manicured, I'm sure. Considering the Mood Kayo melody, I can only imagine her inhabiting the most exclusive hostess clubs in Ginza as perhaps the No. 1 woman.
It only got as high as No. 23 on Oricon, but in the years and decades hence, the song and singer have become permanently intertwined. Mikawa has sung "Sasori-za no Onna" 7 times amongst his appearances at the Kohaku Utagassen which is second only to Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり） 8 renditions of her classic "Amagi Goe"（天城越え）at the NHK year-end event.
Another case in point...as I pointed out at the top, Mikawa and this particular song have been a bountiful harvest for monomane tarento known in English as the professional impressionist. In North America, folks like Rich Little had their heyday in the 60s and 70s copying the popular celebs of the day such as Dean Martin, President Richard Nixon and Bing Crosby. Now, you might see that just on episodes of "Saturday Night Live" on NBC in the US or if Robin Williams or Jim Carrey are in the mood.
However, the monomane tarento in Japan are still popping up in routines all over TV, and there are even seasonal 2-hour monomane specials in which not only the professional impressionists, but even other types of tarento and TV announcers, mimic their favourite celeb targets through song. The most famous impressionist is Corocket （コロッケ）who's been entertaining folks since 1980. Amongst his impressions is the one for Mikawa and "Sasori-za no Onna"; in fact, he should be paying copyright fees to his buddy in gratitude. Fortunately for him, the singer has been quite generous. Woe betide Corocket if Mikawa hadn't.
I experienced another one of those smack-me-in-the-head moments when I heard "Yanagase Blues" for the first time in years. The haunting saxophone, guitar and the chorus immediately set off those neurons in the medial temporal lobe....yep, this was another song from my toddler days. But the head smack occurred when I realized who sang it....Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）!
All those years in Japan and I knew Kenichi Mikawa for being that enka singer with the effeminate style and a tart-tongued tarento on TV (alliteration, gotta love it!). And even for his enka career, I had only known that one song that has become his trademark, "Sasori-za no Onna"（さそり座の女...Scorpio Woman） which he occasionally sings on screen. Little did I realize that he had also sung this tune long ago in my memories.
The above is another video for "Yanagase Blues" but with photos of Mikawa back in the early days. The Hideo Usa（宇佐英雄）-penned song was his 3rd single, and it marked his direction away from the teen pop of his first 2 singles and toward the genre of enka/Mood Kayo. And boy, is it Mood Kayo! The right instruments, the right type of melody and the lyrics of crying into one's sake over another lost romance are all in there. It not only made the 19-year-old Mikawa into a star but it also put the commercial district of Yanagase, an area within Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture, on the map. People came from all over the nation to check out the area just because of the song.
Released in April 1966, since there was no Oricon at the time, the success of "Yanagase Blues" couldn't be measured in terms of rankings (and the song didn't show up in the very first yearly rankings for 1968). However, in terms of sales, there was no doubt that it was a hit. It sold over 1.2 million records and probably could have been in the Top 3 if Oricon had existed back then.
Mikawa would continue to score hits with his brand of geographically based enka. He also sang "Niigata Blues"（新潟ブルース） the following year and then "Kushiro no Yoru"（釧路の夜...Night In Kushiro） in 1968. Incidentally, he was born in Nagano Prefecture in 1946 as Yoshikazu Momose（百瀬由一）.
