Mako Ishino -- Nichiyoubi wa Stranger（日曜日はストレンジャー）

 

It's been a quiet Sunday today although there is a major golf tournament in Pebble Beach right now. However, we've got the Super Bowl next Sunday between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles which should have the American football fandom going wild as usual. I remember hearing a lot of American ex-pats in Tokyo trying to get Monday morning off to catch the game at a sports pub.

Perhaps 1970s aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）was thinking of stirring up her Sunday with her 4th single "Nichiyoubi wa Stranger" (Sunday is a Stranger) from January 1979. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it's quite the jaunty tune about a couple having the time of their lives on what is supposedly the day of rest. Nice to see Mako again, by the way, since the last time she appeared on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was back in the summer of 2021.

One interesting piece of trivia I picked up on the J-Wiki article for "Nichiyoubi wa Stranger" was the intro riff. And yep, there was something quite familiar about it. Well, it turns out that R&B-loving Tsutsumi opted to adapt a musical phrase that had been used in at least a couple of American songs: "It's The Same Old Song" by The Four Tops and "Time" by gospel group the Mighty Clouds of Joy. Ishino's single peaked at No. 19 on Oricon.

Mako Ishino -- Boushi（帽子）

 

It's been a while since I've seen Mako Ishino（石野真子）. Being the late 1970s aidoru and then going on to a career in acting and appearing as a tarento, I also have to realize that she also made a transition into straight pop going into the 1980s. Although a lot of folks on this side of the Pacific, which includes orthodontists, will not agree with me here, she was also known for having one of the cuter smiles due to her yaeba（八重歯）or what we would call a snaggle-toothed smile. Since then, Ishino has had that corrected.

Anyways, I have found this track from her October 1985 album "Saffron"（サフラン）called "Boushi" (The Hat). Even though I could find the lyrics by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）, I still couldn't quite understand them so I gather that this was more of an image-laden dreamscape that was being portrayed. It would seem that Mako-chan has found herself in a café and she takes notice of an enigmatic figure under a hat, rakishly slanted over the man's head.  

The composer for "Boushi" was none other than keyboardist extraordinaire Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, the man behind the City Pop/J-AOR classic "Awakening", and I'm pretty sure that he's also the one behind the keyboards in this particular song. His seemingly delicate playing (along with Ishino's vocals) also adds to the dream-like quality of "Boushi". It's kinda like the equivalent of a cup of chamomile tea.

Marcos V.’s Special Selection: Love Letter to Brazil

 It seems long ago, but I took this picture in Rio de Janeiro in February 2019.

Brazil is not in its strongest moment right now, since it’s going through lots of hardships, and I’m not talking only about the COVID-19 situation, which, per se, is already very worrisome. Anyway, even though things are bad and there’s little to nothing to celebrate, I still like to remember how my country is special, since it’s a good way to continue moving forward. Also, I believe music is a great way to celebrate different cultures, just like we usually do here on Kayo Kyoku Plus, so here’s my “Love Letter to Brazil”, which is basically a selection of Japanese songs somehow connected to Brazil, even if indirectly.

Mako Ishino -- Omoikkiri Samba (思いっきりサンバ)

There’s plenty to like in Mako Ishino’s (石野真子) discography. The cute crooked teeth aidoru from the very late 70s and early 80s even had her share of hits, like the aidoru-like “Haru La! La! La!” (春ラ!ラ!ラ!) – which, by the way, wouldn’t be out of place in Seiko Matsuda’s (松田聖子) discography – or the catchy unrequited love-themed “Shitsuren Kinenbi” (失恋記念日), but it’s the dazzling “Omoikkiri Samba” that fits this list with its mixture of samba, disco and aidoru pop. Released in February 1981, it may not be one of Ishino’s most noticeable singles, but I never resist how bouncy it sounds.

Carlos Toshiki -- BRAZIL NIGHTS

“BRAZIL NIGHTS” is a song from Carlos Toshiki’s (カルロス・トシキ) “Emotional~Migigawa no Heart-tachi e” album (Emotional〜右側のハートたちへ), which was released in 1991 and marked the start of his solo work after the end of Omega Tribe (オメガトライブ). This jazzy tune is one of his solo highlights to me, and, even though Carlos was born in Paraná state, in Brazil’s Southern region, which is primarily known for German immigration (but also Polish, Italian, Japanese and many others) – therefore not a region with a strong samba tradition –, he ended recording some samba songs in Japan, like this one, probably because it’s Brazil’s representative music genre alongside bossa nova worldwide. The Portuguese lines in the chorus, though, are almost meaningless, but they’re charming in a strange way. Also, the energy is great (the pianist was on fire in the live performance above).

Hidemi Ishikawa -- Motto Sekkin Shimasho (もっと接近しましょ)

“Motto Sekkin Shimasho” is probably not directly related to Brazil or its music genres, but the title and how Hidemi Ishikawa (石川秀美) sings it, coupled with the Latin and almost Carnival-like rhythm, of course, is just something very Brazilian to my ears. I think what triggers this reaction are the “motto” and the “shimasho” words in the “Motto Sekkin Shimasho” title, which could be translated in a cold way as “let’s get closer”, in English, or “let’s get even closer” if we want to use and put some emphasis on “motto”. As I can see, and I can be wrong, since I’m not an expert in Japanese language, both “motto” and “shimasho” could turn this innocent, almost cold or neutral sentence, “let’s get closer”, into something not very innocent… and that’s how I always connect it with the Brazilian Portuguese. Let me explain: here in Brazil, we use a kind of baby talk and diminutive language (here’s a great BBC article discussing the subject), even in our daily life, to soften words, give them nuances and sometimes change their meanings. For example, Ishikawa’s “let’s get closer” means “vamos ficar juntos” in Portuguese, but for it to have the warmer meaning I think the “motto” and the “shimasho” are meant to in the original title, we would have to turn the “juntos” (together) into its diminutive version, which is “juntinhos”. It's a tender way of speaking, which shows affection and takes the load off some situations, even in serious talks. It's like the suffixes "-chan" or "-kun" in Japanese, or also a kawaii way of speaking that I know also exists in Japan, but here in Brazil we use for everything, not only for people, and in a very natural way. In the end, “vamos ficar juntinhos” (“let’s get together”, but using the diminutive version of “together”) would have a more romantic, and even sexier, meaning, just like I hear in the way Ishikawa sings it. Well, I ended talking more about language and my own interpretation of the song’s title in a confused way than of Hidemi Ishikawa herself, but that’s it. We all know she’s one of the quintessential 80s aidoru singers in Japan, and, regarding “Motto Sekkin Shimasho”, it was a single released by her in 1985.

Eliana -- Salsa Bonita (サルサ・ボニータ)

As the title already implies, this is obviously salsa, and not samba, bossa nova or any other Brazilian music genre, but the singer, Eliana (エリアナ), is actually Brazilian, according to the single’s liner notes, and she also mentions Brazil in the lyrics penned by Yukinojo Mori (森雪之丞). Anyway, “Salsa Bonita”, or “Beautiful Salsa” in English, is a very curious single released in 1980, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information on Eliana besides the fact that her family name is Freitas, she was born in Rio de Janeiro, recorded this single after winning the Brazilian leg of a tournament called Horipro Talent Scout Caravan (ホリプロタレントスカウトキャラバン), and is, apparently, already dead (here's the link for this info). However, is she the cute girl on the cover? I don’t know… there are still so many unanswered questions about this single, so I wish I could find more about it.

Miyuki Utsumi -- Fire Dance (ファイヤー・ダンス)

Known for the hit song “Yopparachatta” (酔っぱらっちゃった), which I love in Ryuko Mizuta’s (水田竜子) voice, Miyuki Utsumi (内海みゆき) came to Rio de Janeiro in early 1990 to record an album called “Alô, Alô, Brazil!” (アロー,アロー,ブラジル!) under the wings of famous musician, and one of the founders of bossa nova, Roberto Menescal, probably trying to score a hit during the worldwide lambada fad. Released later in the same year as the coupling song to the “NASCI PARA BAILAR” (“I was Born to Dance” in English) single, and anticipating the aforementioned album, “Fire Dance” is a cover version of the Brazilian hit song “Fricote” (something like having a fit, or showing anger towards something/someone, in English), which was originally released by singer-songwriter Luiz Caldas in 1985. In general, when it comes to Brazilian music, international audiences are most familiar with samba or bossa nova, but not other music genres, so it’s surprising to see a Japanese artist recording an axé song, which comes from a specific region of the country, Bahia state, in the northeast region. In the end, since I already like the original version and its summery energy, this Japanese version with bits of Portuguese language sang by Utsumi and the background singers is really interesting to my ears.

Luiz Caldas -- Fricote

To finish, just out of curiosity, here’s the original version of Miyuki Utsumi’s “Fire Dance”, which is “Fricote” by Luiz Caldas. The video was shot in the beautiful Salvador, Bahia state’s capital city, and Brazil first national capital, from 1549 until 1763, when Rio de Janeiro took its place (since 1960, the national capital is Brasília) Like I said before, the song was originally released in 1985.

Mako Ishino -- Julie ga Rival（ジュリーがライバル）

Happy (to be alive) Monday! I'm exaggerating, of course, but we've been in the middle of a massive storm that has seen just about every form of precipitation known to Man: rain, snow, sleet, ice pellets. And things won't finally clear up until Wednesday. Joy...

Yesterday, I mentioned that it was veteran songwriter Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）who came up with the latest single by dancing Mood Kayo group Junretsu（純烈）, "Propose"（プロポーズ）. Today, I would like to introduce one of the songs from early in his composing career which turned out to be one of the final 70s aidoru singles since it was released back in September 1979.

"Julie ga Rival" (Julie's The Rival) was Mako Ishino's（石野真子）7th single in which the aidoru with one of the more winning snaggle-toothed grins sings about her "struggles" with Julie. And yep, for those already in the know about 1970s and 1980s Japanese popular music, Julie is indeed referring to superstar Kenji "Julie" Sawada (沢田研二...I think the above video shows her even wearing the fellow's garb). Reiji Matsumoto（松本礼児...and no, it's not the same guy who wrote the original manga for "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"） wrote the lyrics about a girl trying...figuratively, at least...to shoot down Julie into her waiting arms although on the outside, she might be trying to put on airs that she couldn't care about the pop/rock star in the slightest. We know the truth, eh, Mako?

The song finally punched her ticket for her first appearance on NHK's "Kohaku Utagassen" on New Year's Eve 1979. She was the top batter for the Red Team and she made the most of her 2 minutes while Sawada made the most of those 2 minutes as well by mugging for the cameras while giving off that "What? What did I do?!" look on his face. And yeah, the above video is of that performance. Incidentally, Sawada wouldn't do his contribution to the Kohaku until much later in the broadcast when he performed "Casablanca Dandy"（カサブランカ・ダンディ）.

Ishino would make one more appearance on the Kohaku in the next year, although it wasn't to sing her most successful single "Haru La!La!La!"（春ラ!ラ!ラ!）which came out in 1980. It was actually to sing "Heart de Shoubu"（ハートで勝負...Contest of the Heart）. "Julie ga Rival" was her 2nd-most successful single which peaked at No. 24 on Oricon.

Mako Ishino -- Ohkami nanka Kowakunai （狼なんか怖くない）

Hope everyone got through their weekend OK especially with the all of the craziness that's been going on in Canada and the United States over the past couple of days. And that includes the massacre in Quebec City. I can only give my condolences to those who were slain and their families. I've tried not to let too much of the horrors of the outside world seep into this particular nook over the past 5 years but this time I felt that I had to at least acknowledge what has happened.

To go on then to somewhat happier things, I discovered 70s aidoru Mako Ishino's（石野真子）debut single from March 1978, "Ohkami nanka Kowakunai" (I'm Not Afraid of Anything Like A Wolf). It's an adorable piece for Ishino that was written by the legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by folk singer Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）with the arrangement done by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）.

I guess the theme for this song would be one of redemption. The wolf that Mako-chan is referring to is a fellow who seems to have a reputation of being rather ravenous for the women but one lady can apparently see right through him and down to the decent guy he really is. As for whether love is putting blinders on the lass, I will have to let you decide on that one.

"Ohkami nanka Kowakunai" may have been released in 1978 but there's something about that says that it could have been something that a teenage Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）could have done back in her debut year of 1975. That bright and bouncy voice of Ishino also reminded me of the vocals of young Miss Iwasaki back then. And it was a nice touch on whoever choreographed Ishino's performance with the shadow puppet version of a wolf.

As a debut single, it didn't do too badly, getting as high as No. 17 on the Oricon charts. However, she would get her most successful song nearly a couple of years later with "Haru La!La!La!"（春ラ!ラ!ラ!）

The Top 10 (ザ・トップテン)

When it came to the two big music ranking shows of the 1980s that helped me get more and more into Japanese popular music, I always saw TBS' "The Best 10" (ザ・ベストテン) as the sempai over the kohai of NTV's "The Top 10". And the former was indeed the longer-lasting of the two (1978-1989) while the latter's reign was from 1981 to 1990. Plus, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi（黒柳徹子）who was one-half of the hosting team on "The Best 10" was really just larger than life itself....her hairstyle alone was larger than life.

Basically though, I saw the two programs as two sides of the same coin with their in-studio and onsite guest performances. Still, "The Top 10" which took over for the long-running "NTV Kohaku Uta no Best 10"（NTV紅白歌のベストテン...NTV's Red-and-White Songs Best 10）(1969-1981) had its differences from "The Best 10" in that it ran on Monday nights instead of the latter's Thursdays which kept the managerial teams for all those singers quite happy, I imagine. Also, instead of the mirror ninja wall and the clattering airport terminal-friendly ranking boards at "The Best 10", "The Top 10" had a glittering elevator and a computer screen with a smiling/pouty monkey face to show the rankings on that show.

And of course, there were the hosts. The aforementioned Kuroyanagi and Hiroshi Kume（久米宏）were the mile-a-minute emcees on "The Best 10" but "The Top 10" had the amiable and former Group Sounds cat Masaaki Sakai（堺正章）and perennially pixie aidoru Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）handling things. One thing that I hadn't known was that legendary lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）was the overall major domo of "The Top 10".

Another thing was that "The Top 10" actually ended its run in early 1986. But right there to take its place was "Uta no Top 10"（歌のトップテン...Songs Top 10）. With a change in set design and hosts, the show took the baton and continued until March of 1990 with a few other small adjustments here and there.

For the first year, the hosts were broadcaster Kazuo Tokumitsu（徳光和夫）and former aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）with singer/tarento Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）and comedian Shinsuke Shimada（島田紳助）taking over from 1987 onwards.

Beginning with all that VHS footage I saw at my classmate's house back in late 1981, I was hooked on both "The Best 10" and "The Top 10" so that I often would rent out videos of the two programs to catch up on my music. "The Best 10" finished its run in 1989 but I remember seeing "The Top 10" some months into my stay in Gunma Prefecture so when that final episode aired, I realized that an era just ended.

And totally off-topic here but since we are in Easter Weekend, I just wanted to give my tribute to the holiday with "Velvet Easter" and "Peter Rabbit to Watashi". Enjoy the ham and chocolate bunnies and eggs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/3470700850/?ytcheck=1

Mako Ishino -- Haru La!La!La! （春ラ!ラ!ラ!）

Well, I guess I should be yelling "Haru La!La!La!" today since all of us in Toronto celebrated our warmest day in 2015 so far. We got up to a torrid 18 degrees Celsius although it was mostly cloudy with the threat of some major precipitation. Still, Torontonians will be ecstatic to take that after a long hard winter. Mind you, the temps are gonna be dropping like a rock again over the Easter weekend.

Officially, we are nonetheless in spring, so allow me to put up a similarly-themed aidoru tune from 1980. This is Hyogo Prefecture-born Mako Ishino's（石野真子）bouncy 8th single "Haru La!La!La!" (Spring La La La) which came out on New Year's Day...I guess folks really wanted March 21st to come as soon as possible.

Written by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）and composed by Koichi Morita（森田公一）, Ishino's most successful song has that feeling of a 70s aidoru tune. It has that happy-go-lucky sound that reminds me of some background music that would have been featured on an old comedy-drama from that decade. And the lyrics have Mako-chan trilling happily about being that linchpin in a potential love triangle. To her, it isn't about taking off the petals of a flower while saying "He loves me, he loves me not..."; it's more like "He loves me, he loves me, too...". The situation looks win-win for her.

"Haru La!La!La!" got as high as No. 16 on Oricon, and finished the year as the 93rd-ranked song overall, selling around 160,000 records.

This was actually March 26 2015.
Snowy.
More like Fuyu La!La!La!

Tetsuji Hayashi/Mako Ishino -- Glass no Kanransha （ガラスの観覧車）

One of the most famous legends in recent Japanese history has to do with the story of Hachi, the country's most loyal dog who had always waited for his kindly master, a university professor, at Shibuya Station in Tokyo in the early part of the 20th century. This was a daily tradition for the Akita dog, and even with the passing of his master, Hachi resolutely continued to wait at the station every day until his own death some years later. Even now, one of the most popular meeting spots in the metropolis is by the statue of Hachi at that same station.... mind you, I used to find it way too popular when I was waiting for my friends to show up there; basically, so many people surrounded the statue that cellphones were pretty much a necessity to track people down, especially on a Friday night.

Now, I need to back up several years...back to my own university days at U of T. I first became aware of the legend of Hachi through a movie that our professor for our 4th-Year Japanese Language class had brought for us to watch. It turned out to be "Hachiko Monogatari"（ハチ公物語...The Tale of Hachi）, the greatly melodramatized motion picture about the dog with some A-list thespians such as Tatsuya Nakadai as the professor. I'll tell ya...once Professor Ueno went to that lecture room in the sky a little over half way into the movie, it was pretty much downhill for the poor pooch from there and pretty much uphill for viewers to refrain from grabbing the Kleenex. The last few minutes made up for the final dam burst of lachrymal fluid as Hachi made his final trip to Shibuya Station and then went into the eternal dream of meeting his beloved master in a pink-toned cherry blossom heaven through a slow-motion sequence of the two running joyfully toward each other before the camera returned to the final scene of the dead dog in front of the station as the view slowly panned away. Not a dry eye in the classroom, and being the only guy in the class, I had to come up with some lame excuses such as "Darn my hay fever!" and "Oh, I got something in my eye....gotta head to the washroom".

Still with that final scene and the weepy orchestral music mourning the loss of Hachi, it was somewhat jarring when a modern pop song suddenly revved up. It all felt surreal as if I had just watched the ending to a weekly suspense drama and then the Top 10 ballad started playing. Well, the song turned out to be sung by prolific songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, "Glass no Kanransha" (Glass Ferris Wheel), who, up to now, has been posted in this blog solely as the maestro behind the melodies of so many popular tunes such as Anri's "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai" （悲しみがとまらない）and Mariya Takeuchi's "September". Hayashi was indeed behind the melody for this one as well but Masao Urino（売野雅勇）was the lyricist.

Hayashi has been releasing singles and albums since 1973 in the soft rock/City Pop vein, and "Glass no Kanransha" has that sound of the former genre. It's a bit of an odd choice from which to begin talking about his sung discography but since there was quite a personal story behind it in terms of my own experiences with it, I just felt that I should go with this one. The singer was also behind the tearjerking scoring for "Hachiko Monogatari", so people who were ticked about having to go through so many boxes of tissue probably sent him part of the bill.

I had no idea that former aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子） did a cover of "Glass no Kanransha" but when I saw her video on YouTube, I also decided to put this in as well. Ishino, incidentally, also had a role in the movie. Basically by the late 80s, she was more of an actress and TV personality than a singer, although her version of Hayashi's song was her 20th single, released in July 1987 just several days before the release of the movie itself. Her delivery was certainly more forceful and self-assured here, and I think it was even a bit stronger than Hayashi's own vocals.

The Japanese absolutely ADORE a good cry, and so it is perhaps with no surprise that "Hachiko Monogatari" was the No. 1 movie of 1987. It made 2 billion yen....a lot of dog chow.

Hachiko still keeping watch
at Shibuya Station.

P.S. I believe there was that Hollywood remake of the movie with Richard Gere and Joan Allen titled "Hachi: A Dog's Tale".

Hiromi Iwasaki/Mako Ishino -- Watashi Tachi （私たち）

It's been a while since I put up my last Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）posting, and a commenter for that last posting mentioned about this song, "Watashi Tachi"(Us). I refreshed my memory by playing the song on YouTube....and it was immediately familiar to me. However, I had to wonder a while where I had first heard it. Going through my discs of the singer, I realized it wasn't in there since my earliest CD of hers was from 1978. Actually, I first heard it on an old audio tape of her best hits that my Mom had gotten me back in 1985.

As I mentioned in my reply to my guest, hearing "Watashi Tachi" again was an evergreen pleasure. It was actually the B-side to her 2nd single, "Romance"（ロマンス）, released in July 1975, but I think it sounded wonderful enough to have earned its own place on the A-side. And as my commenter noted and as it has been pointed out in the J-Wiki article on "Romance", the production staff behind the single rather hemmed and hawed over which song would get that A-side, until they went with "Romance". However, according to Iwasaki herself, she also pushed for "Romance". The reason went something like this: a new aidoru back in those days often had to sing on the morning wide shows (news/entertainment programs), and the singer felt that belting out "Watashi Tachi" in the AM would have been more taxing; "Romance" was the easier choice for her.

"Watashi Tachi" was written and composed by Yu Aku and Kyohei Tsutsumi,（阿久悠・筒美京平） the same dynamic duo behind "Romance". And perhaps it was the Tsutsumi approach, but when I listened to "Watashi Tachi" again, I came to the realization that a number of Iwasaki's early uptempo songs reminded me of some of the disco hits that I used to hear as a kid, because of the trumpet-and-strings arrangement. As would be the case for a young teenager, the lyrics focus on a girl's ever-hopeful dream of getting that guy she's fallen head-over-heels for.

My guest also mentioned that although "Watashi Tachi" had been a favourite of the fans at her concerts, Iwasaki decided to retire the song from the arenas for almost 3 decades. This is a video of her performing the song in concert...probably sometime in the 80s judging by the length of her hair, so I gather that it hadn't been time quite yet at that point. I got a kick watching Iwasaki kicking it up a notch here since my image of her on the stage or on TV has always been of a solemn stillness as she sang her later hits such as "Sumire Iro no Namida"（すみれ色の涙）and "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby"（マドンナたちのララバイ）. I think with all of the songs I've mentioned by her, you may as well just hit her name in the Labels section.

Mako Ishino（石野真子）was an aidoru I used to know just through her pictures in some of the kids' magazines that I had bought (or more accurately, my parents bought) at the Japanese food store, Furuya, in Chinatown. I remember her for her rather snaggle-toothed smile, or yaeba（八重歯）. Back in those days, having a grin that only an orthodontist would love here was one of the greatest features that an aidoru could have since it was seen as a major charm point. In fact, when Ishino debuted in 1978, she was labeled as the aidoru with "the million-dollar smile", and having slightly droopy eyes also helped enhance her popularity.

Ishino's years as an aidoru were just from 1978 to 1981. However, sometime during that period, she did a cover of "Watashi Tachi"; the arrangements were pretty much identical to the ones for the Iwasaki original. It was never released as an official single and although I looked around the Net, I couldn't find out when and on which album it was released.

As with a lot of former aidoru, Ishino soon made that transition to acting, commercials and appearances as a tarento on TV.