Hibari Misora -- Tsugaru no Furusato（津軽のふるさと）

 

Almost two hours before this typing, we were watching NHK News when the announcers went to Red Alert to announce a major tremor hitting the Tohoku region, especially Aomori Prefecture which registered a Shindo 6+. Not sure how people and infrastructure are faring right now but daily commenter Brian Mitchell and his family live in Aomori, so I'm hoping that everyone there is doing OK.

Under the circumstances affecting Aomori Prefecture and to acknowledge the fact that the most recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）celebrated the 80th anniversary of the late Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）debut in the music industry, I'm bringing in a go-touchi (regional/local) song from the area as sung by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku, "Tsugaru no Furusato" (My Home, Tsugaru) which was originally released as a double-A-side single "Umakko Sensei"/Tsugaru no Furusato"（馬っこ先生/津軽のふるさと）back in January 1953.

Written and composed by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, the video above seems to have Misora singing it in her later years but "Tsugaru no Furusato" sounds like a very melancholy paean to the old hometown area of mountains and apples. I remember reading that in the postwar period, there was a massive movement of young people as young as junior high school graduates from the rural regions to the cities to help out in driving the Japanese economy back to prosperity. I'm sure that songs like "Tsugaru no Furusato" must have tugged on the heartstrings and tear ducts of all those from the Tohoku or even other regions who were toiling away in Tokyo.

Katsuhiko Miki -- Hana wa Osokatta（花はおそかった）

 

Whether it be a Mood Kayo, enka or even City Pop song, it's always sad when one of those numbers depicts someone trying to move heaven and earth to express their feelings to the one they love, only for them to be just that one second too late...sometimes as they see the target of their affections drive or walk off with their rival. It's enough for protagonist and listener to head for the nearest bar to get a drink...or ten.

For those who have wondered about a typical kayo of that sort, I have the perfect romantically down-and-out ballad for you. This is Katsuhiko Miki's（美樹克彦）"Hana wa Osokatta" (The Flowers Were Late) which was a hit single for him when it was released in March 1967. Written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, the setting is probably a bar of some sort where a guy is drowning his sorrows because he simply couldn't get those crocuses for Kaoru-chan in time and now she's gone. The seething frustration is clear to hear in Miki's vocals and the arrangement is dramatically sad.

I don't know how many records "Hana wa Osokatta" sold although I'm sure that it was a hit especially with the lovelorn because Miki did get his sole invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in 1967 to perform this very song. However, according to Miki's J-Wiki article, there was some quaint controversy accompanying him coming onto the New Year's Eve special since there was that final word of anguish: BAKAYARO（バカヤロー）! As Captain America has said: Language!

Back then, I guess that it was rather taboo to yell that sort of word on the national broadcaster, although perhaps Miki broke the mold. Afterwards, male aidoru have used bakayaro in their lyrics such as Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）in "Shiroi Kyokai"（白い教会...White Church） and Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）in "Blue Jeans Memory"（ブルー・ジーンズ・メモリー）. Mind you, when I wrote up the article for "Blue Jeans Memory" years ago, considering how strongly Matchy yelled that offending word, I did take it to mean the F word instead of what Jisho.org defines as "Damn it!" or "You moron!". Maybe listeners to "Hana wa Osokatta" also felt that it was that strong an epithet, but in the end, NHK still welcomed him to the Kohaku with his bakayaro intact.

One other surprise is that, as I already stated, Miki only had that one appearance on the Kohaku since many years later in the 1980s, he had that hit duet with enka singer Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）, "Moshikashite Part 2" （もしかして・パート２）, which was frequently performed on television and sung in the karaoke bars and boxes. I would have expected that with such a hit that Miki and Kobayashi appeared together on the Kohaku. But as it turned out, only Kobayashi got to appear to sing the Miki-penned "Moshikashite" as a solo participant.

Hibari Misora -- Ohkawa Nagashi（大川ながし）

 

Admittedly, I've never seen a Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）movie in its entirety but from her appearances on stage to sing, I had always seen the Queen of Kayo Kyoku as a classy entertainer who had more than enough polished charisma to intimidate even the most veteran of celebrities.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any video evidence of this particular movie that Misora had starred in called "Tokyo Beranmee Musume"（東京べらんめえ娘...The Tokyo Dame）. Released in 1959, the then-22-year-old star played a kanban musume（看板娘）or (according to the Jisho.org definition) a pretty girl who attracted customers to come inside a sushi shop but was actually quite the rough-and-tumble woman with a mouth to match.

However, I did find the theme song for "Tokyo Beranmee Musume", "Ohkawa Nagashi" (Adrift in the Big River). Also released as her 152nd single in March of that year, this was another song written and composed by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）for Misora. My previous article on her had Yoneyama also creating a couple of songs for her 138th single in 1958, "Hanagasa Douchuu"（花笠道中） and "Rockabilly Kenpou"（ロカビリー剣法）.

"Ohkawa Nagashi" is a quintessential enka about the ever-flowing Sumida River in Tokyo which runs along areas such as Asakusa, and though I've never seen "Tokyo Beranmee Musume", I can imagine that Misora performed the theme in front of everyone in a pivotal scene. Pure speculation but perhaps the plot of the movie was similar to that of "My Fair Lady" in which a similarly rough-and-tumble Cockney flower seller gets transformed into someone to be presented proudly among the high class of London. Interestingly enough, "Tokyo Beranmee Musume" came out just a few years after the Broadway premiere of "My Fair Lady" and just a few years before the Hollywood release of "My Fair Lady" on celluloid. Then again, Misora's character could just be someone who had different sides to her right from the beginning.

Hibari Misora -- Hanagasa Douchuu（花笠道中）/Rockabilly Kenpou（ロカビリー剣法）

 

Today would have been Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）84th birthday today. This past week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode reminded me of today's special day in kayo kyoku history through a brief tribute involving a couple of songs.

In June 1958, Misora's 138th single, "Rockabilly Kenpou" was released but it was the B-side that was performed on last week's "Uta Con", "Hanagasa Douchuu" (Hanagasa Travels). From what I've read, a hanagasa is a conical straw hat that seems to be most famous now for its use in the midsummer Yamagata Hanagasa Festival. I don't know whether it had a specific purpose in ancient times so I can assume that it was basically just headwear to keep the sun off.

The words and music for "Hanagasa Douchuu" were provided by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, and it's a jaunty enka tune delivered with the singer's usual brio to reflect the mix of happiness and loneliness of journeying the byways of Edo Era Japan. Perhaps from the video above, the traveler was probably some sort of ronin as portrayed by Misora herself. 

The A-side, "Rockabilly Kenpou" (Rockabilly Swordsmanship), is indeed an interesting combination of Misora's pugnacious vocals for an enka tune and some happy-go-lucky rockabilly music. Once again, Yoneyama created words and music for this A-side as the singer gets into cocky form describing her finely-honed capabilities with the sword. As she mentions in the song, women can more than hold their own in a fight. Perhaps this is more Bill Haley and the Katanas rather than the Comets.

Hibari Misora -- Tsugaru no Furusato（津軽のふるさと）

NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）returned after a hiatus of several weeks due to the pandemic, and though it wasn't a complete comeback with the usual audience and participants in this most public of karaoke outings, it was still nice to see veterans such as Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）back on the show to talk about some of those highlights of episodes past. Of course, those highlights consisted of folks everywhere around the nation performing kayo kyoku and J-Pop galore in which one was an early Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）kayo titled "Tsugaru no Furusato" (My Home of Tsugaru).

There's something about that part of Aomori Prefecture which must be so profound to invite songwriters to create odes to the area. Naturally, one famous song is "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki" （津軽海峡・冬景色）by Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）. If and when I return to Japan once more, I will have to see if I can visit that area.

Anyways as mentioned, I heard one lady perform Misora's "Tsugaru no Furusato", and since it was a song by her that I had never known until last Sunday, I was instantly interested. According to the J-Wiki article for it, it was the B-side to the legend's January 1953 45" single "Umakko Sensei"（馬っ子先生...Umakko The Teacher）, and "Tsugaru no Furusato" serves as the thematic sequel to her more famous "Ringo Oiwake"（リンゴ追分）as both delve into life on that apple orchard, have a fairly melancholy melody and were created by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）.

Listening to the original version a few times now, I can't really say that it's an enka tune (although I've classified "Ringo Oiwake" as both enka and pop) and indeed the J-Wiki article has categorized it as a straight kayo. There's something about Yoneyama's melody that makes it sound even European operatic at points and it even comes across as a ballad that I could have heard in some film of nearly a century's standing.

According to the uploader msk for the above video (that video has been replaced), this performance is from 1985 and just from the stage and the subtitles, it was probably on some NHK stage somewhere. Of course, more than thirty years on following its release, Misora's voice had deepened and become more complex, plus the arrangement for this performance had become fancier but the innate sadness of the original song still remains. Once again, the lyrics seem to suggest perhaps a form of survivor's guilt by the young Misora and others back then as they live and work in the postwar idyllic Tsugaru while remembering those who didn't make it through the war years.

Osamu Komatsu & His Dark Fellows -- Kosame no Amour（小雨のアムール）

Writing my fourth and final article tonight, with the first two being City Pop in nature, I decided to finish up with a song from the older urban genre, Mood Kayo.

Encountered this video purely by happenstance but it does fit the bill when it comes to Latin-enhanced Mood Kayo. I had never heard of this group before but Osamu Komatsu & His Dark Fellows（小松おさむとダーク・フェローズ）give this somewhat tender and mournful ballad called "Kosame no Amour" (Amour in a Rain Shower) from June 1968. As with a number of other examples of Mood Kayo I've heard over the years, "Kosame no Amour" is something to be savored while sitting at a table in an old-fashioned supper club in Ginza while the band is playing up front.

There's very little information about the group except that they debuted in 1967 with "Shounai Blues"（庄内ブルース）. As for "Kosame no Amour", it was composed by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）and written by Yukiko Marimura（万里村ゆき子）who also provided the lyrics to the more famous "Sumire Iro no Namida"（すみれ色の涙）as originally performed by Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets in the same year.

Kiyoko Suizenji -- Shinjitsu Ichiro no March （真実一路のマーチ）

As I've mentioned before, anyone who knows veteran singer Kiyoko "Cheetah" Suizenji（水前寺清子）but isn't a huge fan of hers will know that one trademark song she first sang in the 1960s "Sanbyaku Rokujuu Go Ho no March"（三百六十五歩のマーチ）. With that crowd pleasing kayo and her short haircut, the singer became kayo kyoku's proud majorette.

What I didn't know was that almost a year after that hit was first released, Cheetah came up with another happy march. This time, it was "Shinjitsu Ichiro no March" (The Straight Road of Truth March) which came out as her 29th single in October 1969. Written and composed by the same duo for "Sanbyaku Rokujuu Go Ho no March", Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）and Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）, Suizenji was no longer just exhorting the working class; it was now everyone. As Hoshino's lyrics put it, it's not so much about the length of that road of life but how you walk upon it.

And according to Suizenji, that road should be trodden on proudly and assertively with no regrets. Plus, having a tambourine to tap wouldn't hurt. I thought she would have made a fine pastor by this point.

I couldn't find out how "Shinjitsu Ichiro no March" did on the charts but it did win Suizenji a Japan Record Award and her 5th appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen in 1969. Ironically, she wouldn't actually sing her more famous march on the annual NHK special event for the first time until 1980.

Hibari Misora -- Kanto Harusamegasa （関東春雨傘）

One of the other songs that was featured at my friend`s dance recital the other Saturday was an old Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）enka ballad titled "Kanto Harusamegasa" (Umbrella for a Spring Rain in the Kanto) which was originally released in December 1963.

Composed and written by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, it`s a tribute to old-time feistiness and no one can do enka feisty better than the Grande Dame herself. If I have got the meaning to the lyrics correctly, Misora is virtually daring a suitor to take her out for a stroll in that titular spring rain, the impression being that the lady has a certain intimidating reputation. Then she exhorts the fellow that if he`s gonna court her, then he'd better be ready to live life large since that's what she does.

Yoneyama's music also has the raucousness of a summer festival, perhaps for listeners to even better understand the force of nature that the woman is. It strikes a contrast with the title depicting a gentle stroll with that demure young lady. If anything, the poor guy will probably have to run to catch up with the strutting woman while sporting the brolley.

Y'know...if Madonna had started life a few decades earlier and decided to go into enka, "Kanto Harusamegasa" would have been right up her alley. I've got no idea how well this song did in terms of sales and no Oricon existed at the time to chart its success, but it's hard to imagine it being forgotten even among Misora's huge discography. To me, this song is another illustration of the phenomenon that was Hibari Misora.

"Kanto Harusamegasa" has been covered a number of times in various TV performances over the years. Here is veteran Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）.

Ikuzo Yoshi -- Koibito wa Kimi Hitori （恋人は君ひとり）

I gotta say that I was quite surprised to find out that veteran enka singer Ikuzo Yoshi（吉幾三）is 178 cm/5'10" in height! He doesn't exactly tower over me but still he's taller; but then again I saw the cover for his very first single, "Koibito wa Kimi Hitori" (You Alone Are The One For Me), and noticed those very long legs when he was far younger.

Speaking of that song, for a guy like me who has been used to the oft-comical Yoshi crooning his enka for decades such as his famous number of "Yukiguni"（雪國）, I was also caught off-guard to realize that he started show business in the aidoru genre under his first stage name, Eiji Yamaoka（山岡英二）. But there was good buddy Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）on stage with Yoshi telling the tale of that debut single in March 1973. Yoshi has always had a good sense of humour, and so he was alternately giggling in embarrassment and knowing wisdom about those early days.

Hikawa did the rousing number as Yoshi grimaced good-naturedly. And for those who can access the video site Niconico, there is the original version below. "Koibito wa Kimi Hitori", which was written by Hideo Nose（能勢英男）and composed by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, has that bright and brassy "Hi there, world!" arrangement which I've usually heard in some of the female aidoru tunes from those early 70s. Young Eiji is exhorting all the guys out there to make that declaration of love to the girls, and as he does so, I can hear that zesty vibrato which would later serve him in the enka sphere. As Eiji Yamaoka, he didn't do too well as an aidoru but he eventually did find his footing as Ikuzo Yoshi with vibrato and brio intact.

Hibari Misora -- Hitori Bocchi no Christmas (ひとりぼっちのクリスマス）

Well, this is quite the revelation. A week ago, I introduced this blog's tribute to Japanese Christmas songs with what I had thought was the first domestically produced Xmas tune, Yuming's "Lodge de Matsu Christmas". To be honest, there was a small part of me....under layers of unnecessary fat...that wondered if there couldn't have been an earlier musical tribute to the Yuletide. After all, Christmas was being celebrated to a certain extent even in the postwar years in Japan.

Just on a whim, after writing my entry on Naomi Sagara, I just threw in the name Hibari Misora（美空ひばり） and Christmas into the YouTube engine, and immediately I got this song called "Hitori Bocchi no Christmas" (A Lonely Christmas). At first, I thought perhaps this was one of the Queen of Kayo Kyoku's later songs that hadn't been released as a single in the 70s or 80s. Then, I listened to it. It was definitely something from much earlier. Although "Jingle Bells" bursts in the middle of this short song, the overall feel is somewhat sad as the title suggests.

I decided to dig a bit deeper about this song. And I quickly found a blog that had an entry on it. From that entry, I found out that Misora was all of 15 years of age when she sang it...incredible, considering how she sounds in this video...in 1952. The song was written and composed by Masao Yoneyama(米山正夫）. Recording Xmas songs in Japan was not a common occurrence at the time and the actual thought of picking up a barrel of Kentucky Fried Chicken for December 25 was non-existent when the people there were still picking up the pieces from the Second World War. Misora was singing this song for all of the boys and girls growing up at that time, according to the blog entry, to warm up their hearts and give them hope for the Christmases yet to come.

The blog can be found here: http://88123516.at.webry.info/200612/article_7.html

courtesy of macmagocha70
from Flickr

Kiyoko Suizenji -- Sanbyaku Rokujuu Go Ho no March (三百六十五歩のマーチ）

In my infancy, I remember the old RCA Victor stereo and with it, the LP rack filled with Japanese enka record albums. One of them had a picture of someone that I couldn't distinguish between a boy or a girl. There went my fragile little mind. Anyways, the one who ruined me was Kiyoko Suizenji（水前寺清子）, a singer who hails from Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu.

Even today, she still has that very short haircut, and unless you are a very hardcore fan of hers,  you know her for one song and for one song only. "Sanbyaku Rokujuu Go Ho no March" (The 365-Step March), Suizenji's 13th single since her debut in 1964, is one song that everyone of all ages can identify from the opening brassy notes and the timpani stomps, and whenever she appears on a music show, it's pretty much a given that she will perform that song.

The song is a rallying cry for all those workers getting through the days, weeks and years of hard toil, as Suizenji encourages everyone to get off their duffs in her half-gravelly, half-helium voice. And if one is going to be known for just one song, why not a song that can get the population working and productive?

Soon after its release in November 1968, it peaked at No. 12 and became the 36th-ranking song for 1969. Not surprisingly, it has been used as theme songs at events such as baseball tournaments.