Kokoro Umetani -- Hoshizora no Ruby（星空のルビー）

By W.carter via Wikimedia Commons

 

It's close to the end of May so in Toronto that means that it's time for the annual Doors Open festival. This is where various establishments ranging from companies to private buildings with some style and history open up for a couple of days for the public to explore. The last time I was at Doors Open was a few years ago and since then, various things happened so that I couldn't attend, and so I was rather determined to go to the 2026 edition despite the warning of heavy rain and high winds. 

Well, my friend and I made it to one Heritage building which had also been converted into a food hall filled with various restaurants so I was able to take photos and have a nice hamburger lunch. However, after waiting over an hour to get into The Toronto Star newspaper company while the elements whipped the surprisingly long line silly, we gave up (it was still another hour to go before people could take the elevator to go up) and grabbed a coffee before heading back home. Ugh!

Anyways, the inclement weather is continuing tonight so we may be unlucky enough to get hit with a power outage in the middle of me writing so I apologize in advance. We've actually got quite a lot of outages happening throughout Toronto tonight so I shouldn't be surprised if my neighbourhood does get hit with one.

All the more to bring out enka singer Kokoro Umetani's（梅谷心愛）latest single from March 2026, "Hoshizora no Ruby" (Night Sky of Rubies). It has quite the pedigree of songwriters helping out here with lyricist Masao Urino（売野雅勇）, composer Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, and there is something about this song which feels rather nostalgic in a 70s or 80s kayo way. Perhaps there is a mixture of enka and kayo in here so the New Adult Music tag may apply. And in fact, it almost feels like an Aming（あみん）or Takako Okamura（岡村孝子）tune. "Hoshizora no Ruby" reached No. 21 on Oricon.

Kokoro Umetani -- Himitsu no Hana（秘密の花）

 

I heard this on a recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, and I found it quite lovely and old-fashioned. Teenage enka singer Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）is making her way up the ladder in the music world and she released "Himitsu no Hana" (Secret Flowers) as her 2nd single from April 2025 earlier this year.

Remembering her from her debut single "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori"（磐越西線ひとり）a couple of years back, Umetani was rocking an appearance that was a hybrid of traditional enka singer and 1920s flapper girl. So it's pretty refreshing to see her in the video looking like a typical young lady who's just celebrated her Adulthood Day ceremony (although she's still 17 as of this writing) and as someone in regular garb taking a walk along the beach. Speaking of mixing, what got my ears with "Himitsu no Hana" is not just the enka part but also the arrangement which comes across as being quite kayo kyoku, as if it were Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）singing back in the late 1970s. Maybe it has something to do with the songwriters. Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）was the composer and he's done plenty of contemporary enka but the arrangement was handled by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）who I've frequently associated with pop songs going back decades. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）was behind the lyrics for this one which managed to reach No. 13 on Oricon.

Kokoro Umetani -- Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori（磐越西線ひとり）

 

Garlic and pasta, Laurel and Hardy, cola and ice cubes...matches made in pop culture heaven. May I add one more? Enka and trains...a Japanese combination that generates the feeling of loneliness and longing as a person deals with romantic adversity. Over here, we seem to deal with breakups by meeting with friends or engorging oneself on a tub of ice cream. Over there, song protagonists seem to hop on a train for the north...probably because of the cold and the snow.

Anyways, I have another example of an enka-and-train song. This is "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori" (Alone on the Ban-etsu West Line) by 17-year-old enka phenom Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）. I've referred to her a couple of times on the blog including my recent article on a couple of tourist sites in Asakusa but had yet to actually put up a song by her. However, Umetani has been making an impression with a surprisingly mature voice and a standout look which strikes me as being Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）in her "Desire" appearance and Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.

But there is nothing rock in her debut single which was released in July 2023. It's very much an enka song with Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）providing words and music respectively. Very melancholy fare, it deals with a lady taking a lonely introspective ride on the titular JR line going from Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture to Niigata City in Niigata Prefecture. My good friend who's been going to the Tohoku region for the last couple of years can probably give me some more insight on how wintry the area gets. 

Considering her youth and her very oaken voice, I couldn't help but get some prodigy vibes from Umetani along the lines of a young Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）back in the day. "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori" reached No. 23 on Oricon. She has since released a second single in 2024 along with an album, so it'll be interesting to observe how her career develops in the years to come. Maybe in the near future, she will even show up on the Kohaku Utagassen.