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.
I was once asked by one of the commenters about an Author's Picks regarding airports. After all, in terms of an old kayo kyoku, the airport serves as a setting for romantic farewells and (rarely) greetings. Plus, they can also be the launching point for adventures abroad. Now, I believe that I had yet to post such a list of airport-themed songs so I'm going with this one today to finish my trio of articles.
It's been a few years since I've featured a Kye Eunsook（桂銀淑）song on the blog, and my impressions of her music involve the high-class side of New Adult Music, that Japanese music area ranging between straight enka and (sophisticated) pop music. Just taking a look into her J-Wiki article, I found out that in her native South Korea, she's known for her country's genre of trot（トロット）which is similar to enka.
Her second single as an artist in Japan was "Suzume no Namida"(A Sparrow's Tears) from April 1987. Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）, composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）and arranged by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）, it starts off slow and elegant before going into a jaunty rhythm reminiscent of Mary Hopkin's"Those Were The Days". Araki's lyrics talk of a strong-willed woman who's reluctantly letting go of the man she loves but covering her true feelings with shallow words that would come across as "Hey, later, eh?" in English. The title refers to the fact that she's not shedding too much lachrymal fluid for the guy...at least not in public. Hama's and Wakakusa's melodic creation certainly doesn't paint a picture of the breakup happening at a McDonalds...probably an expensive restaurant many floors above a McDonalds.😁
Along with a few awards, "Suzume no Namida" reached No. 32 on Oricon. Kye Eunsook also received her first invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1988 to sing the song.
All these years, I'd known Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）as a composer of enka and Mood Kayo songs but according to his J-Wiki biography, he had been a singer under a number of stage names between 1964 and 1970.
Well, he came out of retirement, so to speak, to perform anenka/Mood Kayo duet that he himself composed with Kye Eunsook（桂銀淑）. In November 1987, the two of them released "Kita Kuukou" (Northern Airport), and it's an interesting one since as someone who has been accustomed to the kayo idea that airports were the setting for the end of romances and the beginning of a new chapter in life, "Kita Kuukou" is actually the reunion of a couple in Sapporo.
Yep, Sapporo is up there with Tokyo and Yokohama as the ideal city for old-style kayo affairs and with the setting of Shin-Chitose Airport, the happy duo is now free to have a romantic night out on the town, maybe in the area of Susukino. The J-Wiki article for "Kita Kuukou" even mentions that a 2-metre tall stainless steel monument with the lyrics by Yo Yashiro（やしろよう）was put up on the 2nd floor at Shin-Chitose back in 2004 but with restoration work being done between 2010 and 2012, it was moved over to a food court on the 3rd floor.
The article also mentions that during recording, the duo wanted to capture that feeling of a Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）ballad, and when I first heard this one, I thought of that very person. Hama's delivery and that haunting background chorus nailed the feeling of a Tough Guy song, just like his classic "Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）. "Kita Kuukou" managed to reach as high as No. 87 on the Oricon weeklies.
I saw "Tokai no Tenshi tachi" (Angels of the City) performed on a recent episode of "Uta Kon" (うたコン) and rather enjoyed its somewhat nostalgic mood music harking back to the 1980s. It was originally sung by Takao Horiuchi（堀内孝雄）from 70s folk group Alice and Korean enka singer Kye Eunsook（桂銀淑）. Over the past few decades, Horiuchi has been transitioning from the folk genre into general kayo genres such as enka and Mood Kayo. As for Unsuku, I had always wanted to include her in the blog so I had been rather surprised that I had yet to find the proper introduction for her but luckily I found this smooth tune.
In researching for "Tokai no Tenshi tachi" which was released as a single in March 1992, I found out that the two singers were now entered in this Japanese pop music genre that I saw on J-Wiki known as New Adult Music (ニューアダルトミュージック) along with other artists such as Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）and Masatoshi Nakamura（中村雅俊）. Perhaps I could relate it as the Japanese version of Adult Contemporary, mixing together Mood Kayo and City Pop. But I'll muse on that for now.
Still, I did enjoy this song since it has that modern take on Mood Kayo. It has that City Pop musical arrangement but I can only envision the Mood Kayo environment of a well-stocked bar when I listen to this ballad of lonely strangers in the metropolis dreaming back to happier days. Horiuchi came up with the cool melody while Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）provided the lyrics.
"Tokai no Tenshi tachi" peaked at No. 33 on Oricon and won the Golden Disc Prize at the Japan Record Awards among a few other accolades. It also got Horiuchi and Eunsook onto the Kohaku Utagassen. My impression was also that the arrangement was lush enough that it could have made for a nice enough theme song. Well, sure enough, it was one of the many theme songs for a detective series titled "Hagure Keiji Junjoha"（はぐれ刑事純情派...The Pure Clan of the Wandering Detective）.
As for Kye Eunsook, she was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1961 and made her debut as a model during her high school years after which she then made her debut as a singer in 1979. Then in 1984, she was invited to come to Japan by composer Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）. The following year, she debuted with her first Japanese song "Osaka Boshoku"（大阪暮色...Osaka Twilight）. Since then, she has become known for that husky and slightly halting voice.
Well, "NHK Kayo Concert"came back tonight after a few weeks off....perhaps on summer hiatus, and the theme for that show was "Dramatic Kayo". This time, the producers decided to take that theme and bring a bit of "Enka no Hanamichi"（演歌の花道） to the proceedings on the big Shibuya stage by having some of the performers play it up some on a set which was supposedly an intimate restaurant/bar (but looked more like a set-up in a food court). One of the performers covered an old song from 1964, "Tokyo Blues".
Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）, who was famous for "Coffee Rumba", that Latin-infused kayo from 1961, went more Mood Kayo/Big Band here. Written by Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる） and composed by Hideyuki Fujiwara（藤原秀行）, "Tokyo Blues" has that nighttime downtown Tokyo feeling from way back led by that trumpet and Nishida's singing of how she can't help but be twisted around every paramour's finger. When I heard the song tonight, I got the feeling of those legendary jazz orchestras from the 40s with a featured female singer.
The song was released in January 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics. In reflection of that fact, using the word "Tokyo"for the titles of songs and for commercial products was the "in"thing. "Tokyo Blues", in fact, was one of four songs with the metropolis' name to be featured in the 1964 Kohaku Utagassen. For Nishida, it was her 4th straight appearance in the New Year Eve's special.
Its nostalgic value was also not lost on the people of Studio Ghibli. The song was used during the animated feature "Omohide Poroporo"（おもひでぽろぽろ....Only Yesterday）, starring Miki Imai（今井美樹） back in 1991.
Here is an even jazzier version of the song by singer Kye Eunsook（桂銀淑）.
