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.
Another sign that autumn in Toronto is just around the corner: the annual Toronto International Film Festival. Depending on the weather, and they are saying that thunderstorms might be welcoming the stars, cinephiles and media, the first day of TIFF tomorrow may be a very soggy one which is too bad but the second day sounds far more promising. But I'm sure that the autograph hounds will still be out in force, rain or shine.
Under the circumstances, maybe I can put up a list of some of the songs that I heard on the big screen throughout my life.
(1970) Kiyoshi Atsumi -- Otoko wa Tsurai yo (男はつらいよ）from "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"
(1972) Mari Amachi -- Hitori Janaino (ひとりじゃないの）from "Aitte Nandaro?"（愛ってなんだろ）
(1997) Yuji Oda & Maxi Priest -- Love Somebody from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）
(1997) Akihiko Matsumoto -- Rhythm & Police from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）
One of those old...really old, as I was to discover...chestnuts that seems to pop up on Showa Era retrospectives or on kayo kyoku shows like NHK's "Kayo Concert"or "Nodo Jiman", "Futari wa Wakai" (Young Couple) is a classic that I've heard countless times.
The one time that I do remember hearing it very clearly was on the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen when a majority of the participants got together on stage for a medley of the really old kayo and, sure enough, "Futari wa Wakai" was on the singing menu. Written by Hachiro Sato （サトウ・ハチロー）and composed by Masao Koga （古賀政男）in 1935, it's a cute and playful ditty about the love that a man and woman have for each other, presumably while strolling in the great outdoors. The first known couple of singers to have a go at it was actors Dick Mine and Reiko Hoshi （ディック・ミネ・星玲子）when it was placed as a B-side song. Just from the way of their singing at that time and the overall theme of "Futari wa Wakai", I kept thinking that Mine and Hoshi could have been the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald of Japan.
As for how Mine got his stage name of Dick, it was when he was a university student in the sumo club. One time as he was changing into his fundoshi (loincloth), an American teacher who was present apparently took notice of the future actor's royal jewels and complimented Mine on the generous size. This information, by the way, is on J-Wiki but not on the English Wikipedia. In any case, when Mine entered show business, he was probably quite inspired by that incident. During the Second World War, though, he was forced to use his pen name of Koichi Mine（三根耕一）, but was more than happy to get his nom de genital back once hostilities had ended.
I'm not sure if the song gets all that much exposure nowadays outside of the Showa Era retrospectives and retirement homes (can't really see this being chosen at the karaoke boxes between AKB 48 and Arashi), but a number of singing celebs have covered it over the decades. Above for instance is one take by Tora-san himself, Kiyoshi Atsumi（渥美清）, and Ikuko Masunaga（増永いく子）. Still, I think for those from certain generations, the secret to the song's success is the same secret that a lot of the upbeat kayo kyoku had....it was just perfectly made for the singalong.
And for those who aren't familiar with Eddy and MacDonald, here they are.
Many was a Sunday afternoon in my childhood when my family went to Toronto's Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre to catch a Tora-san movie. The official title of one of world cinema's longest-running movie series (48 movies in all) was "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"(It's Tough Being a Man), but people on both sides of the Pacific can just mention the lead character by name for instant recognition.
For the uninitiated, the late Kiyoshi Atsumi（渥美清）played the short-tempered if kind-hearted traveling salesman Torajiro Kuruma（車寅次郎）who traveled the highways and byways of Japan while his family took care of a sweets shop in his hometown of Shibamata, Katsushika Ward. The plots (as well as the characters) were virtually identical throughout the series: Tora drops in unannounced at the shop, has a fight with the family, runs off in a huff, meets girl, loses girl, and heads back out to sell once again. Although my Japanese comprehension wasn't that sharp at the time, my brother and I just enjoyed Tora-san's bursts of temper and his awkwardness around the Madonna (the nickname for any of his 48 "romantic interests") of the movie.
As for the cookie-cutter nature of the series, I think a lot of the most famous series (TV or movie) happily follow this pattern (the long-running TV show "Mito Komon"is probably the other most famous example) since the Showa-era Japanese at least got a certain amount of comfort from knowing how their favorite characters would turn out. No M. Night Shamalayan-type twist endings here.
The theme song, which was just titled "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" and released as a single in 1970 although the first movie had been shown back in 1969, wasn't a hit at all but has become one of the most recognized theme songs. I think most people can still say the opening words before the song: "I was born and raised in Shibamata, Katsushika". And I think the theme fits the character of Tora-san: Showa-era, wistful and happy-go-lucky.
The video above has the full version of the theme.
The above video here shows a scene from the very first movie of the series, released in August 1969. The notable thing about Tora-san here is that he wore spats instead of his usual wooden clogs.
Tora-san welcomes visitors to Shibamata Station.
A mural wall devoted to Tora-san at the museum.
A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Tora-san museum...of course, in Shibamata, although it was quite a hike from the neighbourhood portrayed in the movies. Since Atsumi's passing in 1995, a statue of Tora-san has been erected in front of Shibamata Station. The museum itself has everything a Tora-san fan could ever want: posters of every movie, a wall with drawings of every one of the salesman's loves, and even a mockup of Tora's Shibamata, among other exhibits.
And just one more piece of personal trivia: in the first month of my long life in Japan, I lived in Shibamata before finding my apartment in Chiba Prefecture.
