Mirei Kitahara -- Bara no Ame（薔薇の雨）

 

Yesterday, I wrote about enka singer Hiroshi Miyama's（三山ひろし）debut single "Hitokoi Sakaba"（人恋酒場）and the fact that I'd assumed that it was one of his newer singles when he performed it on NHK's "Songs of Japanese Spirit" last Saturday, only to find out it was released many years ago. Well, I had the opposite thought process when I saw veteran singer Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）on the same show.

Kitahara has been in the music business since 1970 when she came out with "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai" (ざんげの値打ちもない) so it's been well over 50 years now, and when she came out to perform her "Bara no Ame" (Rose Rain), I'd assumed that it was one of her older songs. Uh-uh. Actually, this is her most recent single, her 59th to be exact, released in January this year. But I can be forgiven for making that initial assumption because the blurb under this YouTube video describes "Bara no Ame" as possessing that nostalgic Showa Era dancehall sound.

I can certainly agree with that assessment. It's really quite the dandy piece of Mood Kayo with the spicy Latin horns and the jangly electric guitar. "Bara no Ame" does take me back to the 1980s at least and at the age of 73, Kitahara still can sing and twirl around like a lady half her age. Mami Takubo（田久保真見）was the lyricist here while Yoshitaka Higuchi（樋口義高）composed the snazzy melody.

Yumie Morita/Mirei Kitahara -- Shiokaze no Fuku Machi（潮風の吹く町）

My ancestors once lived in a small village along the southern coast of Wakayama Prefecture. During my very first visit to Japan, I stayed for several days in my grandfather's village and remembered how each night, the locals went out to the shore to haul in the nets with any catches of fish. One fish that I remember eating was something called kamasu. It was quite good after being grilled.

I found this kayo some time ago on YouTube and put it into the list of to-be-mentioned. It's "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi" (Town Where the Sea Breeze Blows) and was sung by Yumie Morita（森田由美恵）. Released in 1971 as Morita's debut, the words and music by Rei Nakanishi and Keisuke Hama（なかにし礼・浜圭介）respectively are very natsukashii since it wasn't too long after its release that I made that first visit to Japan to meet my grandparents for the first time.

Despite the nostalgia factor, the setting for "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi" is actually somewhere in the northern parts of Japan along the sea instead of the western parts of the nation where Wakayama is. Morita sings that well-worn theme of longing for the old hometown where the fishing nets, the old train and Mom are located.

There is no J-Wiki article for Morita but I was able to find a brief profile at WebKoo for the singer. She began singing at the age of 3 and then in 1969, she was a champion at the National Kayo Contest. After the release of "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi", which was deemed a hit since it sold around 300,000 records, there were four more singles released under the Polydor label. However, after that, it seems as if Morita retired, but she's currently and probably has been working as a vocal trainer for a very long time.

I then discovered that "Shiokaze no Fuku Machi" was covered by hearty-voiced Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）, and not surprisingly, her take on the song is a bit more in the Mood Kayo sphere of things. It took a bit of doing, but I was able to find out through a Goo Q&A that Kitahara's cover version had been included in a March 1985 BEST compilation.

Saburo Kitajima/Mirei Kitahara -- Gyouka（漁歌）

Man, I do love my sushi. What I have to remember then is the fishermen who go out into often stormy waters to get the necessary fish and other sea life.

"Gyouka" (Fishing Song) is the 78th single by enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）, released in 1983. True to his reputation of singing gutsy brio-filled enka tunes of folks working hard, this song pummels through your ears to send the message of the fisherman who won't let something as little as high waves or punishing storms deter him from providing for his family back onshore. I remember this one especially since it has Sabu-chan giving those high-pitched wails near the end. It's about as Kitajima-esque a song that I have heard from him.

One small note about the above video is that this was Kitajima's contribution to the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen and at the end of the performance, you might see the late supermodel Sayoko Yamaguchi（山口小夜子）as one of the judges for the contest that year. For those Steely Dan fans, she was the lady on the cover of the classic "Aja" album.

(cover version)

"Gyouka" was written by Takao Yamada（山田孝雄）and composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）. In the same year of 1983, Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）also released the same song as her 19th single. Not sure if the above performance has the same arrangement in the original recording but it seems like Kitahara's version has a slightly more folksy and romantic quality although it's no less gutsy.

Mirei Kitahara -- Ishikari Banka （石狩挽歌）

On that episode of "Itsuki Sensei no Utau! SHOW Gakko"（五木先生の 歌う！SHOW学校.）which featured Hokkaido kayo such as "Souran Wataridori"（ソーラン渡り鳥）, I also got re-acquainted with another tune that sparked my memory engrams due to the onomatopoeic lyric "Onbororo, onborobororo..."（オンボロロ、オンボロボロロー）. However, I couldn't just pay tribute to this song by simply calling it the "Onbororo" tune.

It is, in fact, titled "Ishikari Banka" (Ishikari Elegy). The song has been covered by a number of enka singers over the decades but ultimately, the most famous version is the first one as sung by Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）when it was released in June 1975. J-Wiki mentions it became a huge hit for her and arguably the most famous tune by the singer but I couldn't find out how it did on Oricon. She is also famous for an even darker ballad.

I would probably have to listen to a number of interviews about why "Ishikari Banka" has been so popular with the kayo artists. However, I can speculate that it could be the power of the arrangement (pride mixed in with tragedy) including the trumpet intro and the personal story permeating the lyrics that have probably attracted so many to sing it.

Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）was the composer behind "Ishikari Banka" but the lyrics belong to longtime lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）. And Nakanishi based the words on his seemingly cursed ne'er-do-well older brother who just couldn't get his life together. One incident involved his brother managing to get a huge catch of herring one time but instead of getting his money in Hokkaido, he decided to roll the dice and move it down to the main island of Honshu where he could potentially get even more money. Instead, his bountiful haul ended up rotting on the way and he was left owing a ton of money. It's from here that Nakanishi came up with the song although his lyrics state that the poor fisherman here lost his catch due to a torn net.

As for the "Onbororo, onborobororo...", I'm not completely certain what it is referring to, although I think it is the audio equivalent of that crushing feeling of disappointment.  In any case, the song generates that power from the synergy of two enka sources, the manly-man out-on-the-sea music and the overall woe-is-me theme.

Mentioning above all those singers who have covered "Ishikari Banka" since the Kitahara original, Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）is one of them above. And then there is Kouhei Fukuda（福田こうへい）below. But looking at the list of videos on YouTube, there are quite a few covers available so you can choose which one you really like.

Mirei Kitahara -- Zange no Neuchi mo Nai (ざんげの値打ちもない)

As I mentioned in an entry for Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）last night, the latest "Uta Kon"（うたコン）was mostly based on the works of legendary lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, so it was no wonder that the episode went a full half-hour extra beyond the usual 45 minutes. Not surprisingly, it was quite the satisfying effort by everyone and personally I was left wanting more. I also gave my due to Aku via a two-part article almost a couple of years ago so you can take a look at that after this article.

The Aku songs were passing by and I just kept saying in my little head that I had already written about that so I was starting to get only a little disappointed that I didn't yet come across a tune by the man that I hadn't yet heard. But then, by the time the show was over, I did discover a couple of "new" entries.

One of those entries is this debut single by enka and kayo singer Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）. The lady herself appeared last night on the show to perform this song titled "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai" (No Longer Any Value in Repentance). As soon I heard and read the title, I thought that this would have been a good name for some organized crime flick and when I heard the 68-year-old Kitahara sing it in her raspy voice, my feelings were further enhanced.

The song concierge, Shosuke Tanihara（谷原章介）, gave an introduction referring to the mysterious lyrics, something that was repeated in the short graphic at the upper-left of the screen when Kitahara came on stage. At the time, I didn't quite know what that was all about. However, I was drawn in by this song that Aku had written for Kitahara's debut in October 1970. First off, although there were some enka-like elements at the very beginning, I pegged "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai" melodically as a song straddling the line between Mood Kayo and a dramatic urban pop song reflecting that age with the strings and the drums. That music, by the way, was provided by Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）, and I give him kudos for his work; this is just the type of kayo that I like....truly moody.

Kitahara's performance on "Uta Con" last night had her singing while in the back, some dramatic silhouettes of a man and a woman were acting out the drama that was coming out in "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai". And from there, I started figuring things out about an innocent romance that gradually went dark with Aku's lyrics even providing a timeline at 14, 15, 19 and 20 years of age. Basically, a poisonous love triangle developed and one of the angles got rubbed out rather violently. The final verse had the protagonist many forgotten years later reflecting on that fateful decision, and I initially thought that there was a flicker of hope. It was quite the song by Aku and quite the debut by Kitahara.

There was also that one part in the performance when for one verse, Kitahara went epic acapella with no musical backing at all, and even the graphic of the lyrics suddenly changed into a harsher font and was written down in the vertical Japanese style. And that is where the mystery of the lyrics came in. I had to look it up in the singer's bio on J-Wiki but that particular verse is the oft-missing 4th verse. The entire song is actually 5 verses long but for Kitahara's stage performances and even the recorded versions (as at the very top), that 4th verse had often been omitted like an old building's 13th floor since apparently the protagonist was saying this behind bars, presumably after murdering the rival. At the time, it had been considered too controversial to include. But it looks like the 4th verse has been incorporated into the song for perhaps the last 10 years.

So now I'm wondering whether that hope I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago was really there. Perhaps the protagonist is in for life, resigned to eventually dying in prison. And although it isn't even mentioned in the J-Wiki article, I'm wondering if the protagonist is either a man or a woman. I couldn't really tell from the lyrics or from Kitahara's delivery.

However, in any case, this is truly a fascinating Aku song, about as dark a creation that I have heard by the man. I don't know how "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai" did on Oricon...maybe not all that well at the time considering the controversy. And yet, Kitahara has been able to have a flourishing career. The Aichi Prefecture-born singer has released 51 singles with the most recent one coming out in September 2014.