Kotaro Satomi -- Hohoemi wo Suteru Toki（微笑みをすてる時）

 

Whenever I think of the actor Kotaro Satomi（里見浩太朗）, I automatically think of the long-running "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）, the jidaigeki featuring a virtuous Vice Shogun and his special vagabond team traveling throughout Japan to right any wrongs. However, Satomi has apparently starred in other jidaigeki playing similarly heroic warriors. You might say that he's the historical equivalent of Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）cop characters in the 1970s.

One such show that I found is "Ōedo Sōsamō"（大江戸捜査網）that ran from 1970 to 1992 and had the English titles of either "Oedo Dragnet" or "Ōedo Untouchables", so there's no denying that the show had some love and respect for Joe Friday and Eliot Ness in terms of their granite-jawed relentless pursuit of justice. According to the Wikipedia article on "Ōedo Sōsamō", the team here consisted of ninja acting as skilled secret agents working under a samurai who supposedly had a direct line to the Shogun himself, and the head agent happened to be played by the stalwart Satomi.

As was the case with the famous theme for "Mito Komon", "Aa, Jinsei ni Namida ari" (ああ人生に涙あり）, Satomi also lent his baritone voice to the ending theme song for "Ōedo Sōsamō" which was "Hohoemi wo Suteru Toki" (When You Smile). I kinda found the title rather unusual for a historical drama with its regular katana slashes and shuriken flashes, but attempting to parse the lyrics by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）, the story of the song may be about treasuring those exchanges of pleasantries since they may be one's last, so perhaps leader Satomi may be warning one of his new young charges about the job.

Koji Ryuzaki's（竜崎孝路）melody isn't quite as strident as the "Mito Komon" theme but it's also very comforting to hear, which might strike some as being a rather strange way to describe a song for a jidaigeki. I'd say that it's even Mood Kayo in aspects because of Satomi's velvet vocals and an arrangement by Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）which sparks of nights in an Akasaka bar. Quite an interesting contrast between theme and content.

Kotaro Satomi & Tadashi Yokouchi -- Aa, Jinsei ni Namida ari (ああ人生に涙あり）

Ah, yes....my earliest memories of Japanese TV mostly consisted of this TV program, "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）. Heading to the old Toronto Buddhist Church basement on Wednesday nights to watch tapes on this newfangled machine called a Video Cassette Recorder (which was the size of a small coffee table in the 70s), the longest-running jidaigeki（時代劇...period drama) in Japanese TV history (it finished its run almost a year ago....43 years!) started out with the brass blast before going into a military march while the crest of Lord Mito was proudly displayed on screen.

Everyone who watched knew the story, and I'll let the Wikipedia entry help out with the explanation:

The title character is the historic Tokugawa Mitsukuni, former vice-shogun and retired second daimyo of the Mito Domain. In the guise of Mitsuemon, a retired crepe merchant from Echigo, he roams the realm with two samurai retainers, fun-loving Sasaki Sukesaburo (Suke-san) and studious Atsumi Kakunoshin (Kaku-san).

Each episode was about the same as every other episode. The trio, joined by reformed thief-turned-Edo Era foodie Hachibei and one other female character, travel through a particular region of Japan often famous for a particular dish (Hachibei must've been the planner), come across some form of injustice being perpetrated on a few of the locals which they resolve by stealth and an episode-ending sword-clanging battle. Of course, for boys like my brother and me, this was our favourite part of the show (although we appreciated the long talky portions to get some nap time), and of course, who can resist the scene in which seemingly frail Mitsuemon reveals himself as the mighty Mitsukuni when one of his two retainers flashes out the sign and everyone, enemies and allies alike, prostrate themselves in awe? (I wonder how Lucas came up with the character of Yoda.....hmmmmmm.)

But this is a kayo kyoku blog, after all, so back to the theme song. Written by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）and composed by Chuji Kinoshita（木下忠司）, the actual title is "Aa, Jinsei ni Namida Ari"(Ahh, There Are Tears in Life) and actually debuted on TV when the series did in 1969. Throughout the history of "Mito Komon", there have been 8 different "generations" or duos responsible for the singing of the famous song. The first generation had actor Ryotaro Sugi（杉良太郎） the very first Suke-san, and Tadashi Yokouchi（横内正）, who played Kaku-san, performing it.

However, it was the second generation that I remember the best. When Sugi left the role, the new Suke-san, Kotaro Satomi（里見浩太朗）, took on the singing duties along with Yokouchi. I think Satomi's rich baritone really made this song; this version was recorded in 1973.  In any case, this started the tradition of having mostly actors on the show (often Kaku-san and Suke-san) perform "Aa, Jinsei ni Namida Ari". Every time I hear the theme, I just feel like I should sit up a bit straighter.