Aming -- Kokoro Komete Ai wo Komete（心こめて 愛をこめて）

 

It's been a good long while since I last posted an Aming（あみん）tune, so it was rather fortuitous that commenter W was kind enough to leave some kind words regarding their song "Lover My Love" the other day. 

The article for "Lover My Love" was something that I had posted all the way back in May 2016, so a better part of a decade ago. And as it turns out, "Lover My Love" was the B-side for Aming's 3rd single "Kokoro Komete Ai wo Komete"（心こめて 愛をこめて...With My Heart, With Love） which came out in April 1983. The crazy thing was that I had never written about that A-side.

Well, it might be nearly ten years late, but I'm here to rectify that situation. Even crazier is that I can recognize that particular keyboard intro but couldn't remember the rest of it. Regardless, "Kokoro Komete Ai wo Komete", which was written and composed by Aming half Takako Okamura（岡村孝子）, has a pretty jaunty and folksy melody although her lyrics are a melancholy self-therapy session after major heartbreak. It's not a happy situation but at least by the end, there seems to be some shafts of light breaking through the clouds.

Adding some further details, the single peaked at No. 18 and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）and Ebako Jr. took care of the arrangement. Strangely enough, "Kokoro Komete Ai wo Komete" was never placed onto an original album, but it finally made it onto a 2007 BEST compilation "P.P.S. Anata e..."（P.P.S. あなたへ…To You）. Of course, thanks go to W for reminding me of the B-side which finally led to the article for this A-side.

Toshiyuki Nishida -- Jinsei Lullaby（人生ららばい）

 

It was less than a week ago that I paid tribute to seiyuu Nobuyo Ohyama（大山のぶ代）, the most famous voice actress behind anime icon Doraemon（ドラえもん）who had passed away on September 29th at the age of 90. Today, I discovered through NHK that another very familiar face on TV and movies has left this mortal coil. 

The national broadcaster devoted a quarter of its prime-time news broadcast today to the life and career of actor and singer Toshiyuki Nishida（西田敏行）who died earlier on October 17th at the age of 76. Nishida played a whole variety of roles from good guys to bad guys in historic and contemporary projects, with one of his most famous roles being Densuke Hamasaki, the central character in the comedic movie franchise "Tsuribaka Nisshi"(釣りバカ日誌....The Fishing Maniac's Diary [although the official English title was "Free and Easy").

Admittedly, I didn't follow his acting or singing career all that much but the one song in his discography that has stayed me with me since I first heard it over forty years ago was his big 1981 hit "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara"（もしもピアノが弾けたなら）. It was one of the songs that helped me get onto the track of enjoying kayo kyoku and I will always remember it for the elegant piano arrangement and his performance of the song on his first appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of that year.

I also remember Nishida for his contribution in singing "Hana wa Saku"（花は咲く...Flowers Will Bloom）, the tribute song to the victims of the March 11th 2011 disaster which also affected the entertainer's home prefecture of Fukushima. He wasn't a classically-trained singer by any means but for both "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara" and "Hana wa Saku", there was an enormous amount of tender heart and enjoyment of singing that he put into those songs and onto his sleeve. Anytime that he performed either number, I would expect him to burst into tears.

In a number of ways, although as I mentioned above he played a lot of different roles, Nishida will always appear to me as that jovial and comical older brother in the cap, loose jacket, T-shirt and jeans with the slightly longer hair. There wasn't any pretension there; he was just folks.

Nishida's 14th single from September 1986 was "Jinsei Lullaby" (Life Lullaby) which was used as the theme for his starring vehicle, the TBS-produced drama "Naite Tamaru ka"（泣いてたまるか...Can I Stand to Cry?）. Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）and composed by Hachiro Aoyama（青山八郎）, it's a jaunty and folksy pop song with a wonderful intro thanks to those strings and what sounds like a European string instrument.

My condolences to Nishida's family, friends and many fans. 

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Buenos Noches Tokyo（ブェナス・ノーチェス東京）

 

First off, my congratulations to Lionel Messi and the Argentinian team for winning it all at the World Cup earlier today. In addition, I also give my thanks to both Argentina and France for what could have been the best finale to a World Cup ever witnessed, and I'm not usually a soccer fan.

In tribute, I was actually looking all over YouTube for a kayo kyoku that would have something to do with Argentina or Buenos Aires, but I couldn't find anything. I wasn't even able to track down a tango kayo. Eventually, though, I could find "Buenos Noches Tokyo" (Good Evening Tokyo) by Mood Kayo group Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica（鶴岡雅義と東京ロマンチカ）, just because of the Spanish used in the title; my apologies but that was the best that I could do under the circumstances. I realize that it has nothing to do with Argentina or soccer.

Still, Argentinian nationals living in the Tokyo area probably did or do have the need to celebrate their nation's win (although the final game was held overnight according to Japan Standard Time), much like the couple in "Buenos Noches Tokyo". The pair are painting the night red in all of the fun areas of Akasaka, Aoyama and Shinjuku. I wouldn't think that either of the lovebirds would be carrying credit cards back in those old days; cold hard yen was probably stuffed solid in their wallets.

"Buenos Noches Tokyo" was the follow-up single to Tokyo Romantica's September 1967 hit, "Otaru no Hito yo" （小樽のひとよ）, and this particular record was released just a couple of months later in November. As was the case with "Otaru no Hito yo", band leader Tsuruoka was behind the bouncy Latin melody while Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）took care of the lyrics for "Buenos Noches Tokyo" with Masato Sanjo（三条正人）as the vocalist.

Aki Yashiro -- Ai wa Shindemo（愛は死んでも）

 

On last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, veteran singer Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）appeared on stage and we all found out that it was her 50th anniversary this year in show business. Well, I wasn't about to let that opportunity go to waste.

(2:00)

There were her big hits at the turn of the decade into the 1980s with "Funauta"（舟唄）and "Ame no Bojou"（雨の慕情）, but Yashiro's debut was in 1971 with her September debut single "Ai wa Shindemo" (Even If Love Dies). Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎眞一）, it's one of those songs that I'm not sure whether it's an enka or a Mood Kayo. The arrangement in the above video has plenty of the latter with the trumpet. But I would love to hear the original recorded version about the exquisite pain of knowing that a romance is about to come to its end. It's made more exquisite through Yashiro's smoky vocals.

Yujiro Ishihara & Aki Yashiro -- Wakare no Yoake（別れの夜明け）

Of course, the NHK music shows are in reruns and we got to see the final "Songs of Japanese Spirit" for 2019 earlier this afternoon. I heard a lot of good kayo and was hoping to write about some of them, only to find out that I had already written about them. When I've been writing articles on the blog for over 8 years, some of them will eventually slip my mind. That included Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）"Kita no Tabibito"（北の旅人）; wrote that all the way back in 2014.

However, I really wanted to get The Tough Guy back up and running on the blog once more, so I went to a source on J-Wiki. There's a list there which originated from the August 2005 issue of "Kamzine" magazine and it gives the Top 20 Ishihara singles in terms of sales. No. 16 happens to be a duet between him and enka singer Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）called "Wakare no Yoake" (Parting at Daybreak) from 1974.

Once again, this is one of those kayo that to me kinda straddles the line between enka and Mood Kayo as Ishihara and Yashiro lovingly exchange those final words of tender love before making that necessary separation. Something about that arrangement and the fact that it's Ishihara singing has me thinking the quintessential Mood Kayo scenery of a lonely guy in a bar, and yet, the tenderness of the bare melody by Yukihiko Ito（伊藤雪彦）reminds me more of an enka ballad. Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）provided the bittersweet words. I don't know how "Wakare no Yoake" did on Oricon but it did sell 620,000 records, around the same amount as his earlier hit as a much younger man "Arashi wo Yobu Otoko"（嵐を呼ぶ男）from 1956.

(empty karaoke version)

Ryuko Mizuta -- Uwasa no Minato (噂の港)

Ever since Noelle Tham introduced Ryuko Mizuta (水田竜子) to this blog through her cover of Miyuki Utsumi’s “Yopparacchatta” (酔っぱらっちゃった), I became a somewhat distant fan, following her singles releases and even listening to her back catalogue in the attempt of knowing her better. Now, thanks to some nice shopping points I had accumulated on CDJapan, I decided to buy one of her yearly best selections and finally have “Yopparacchatta”, among other great songs from her catalogue I discovered, in my collection. The bad thing is, since I’ve bought the CD very recently, and it didn’t leave the warehouses yet, it’ll certainly take some time until it finally arrives in Brazil.

From what I’ve heard so far, Ryuko’s work can be separated into two categories: the first, with a more Kayo Kyoku flavor, covers her first years; and the second, in which her true enka tunes shines, is something she’s been into since the mid-00s. Personally, I enjoy the first category a lot more, but some of her enka tunes have gradually grown on me, which is the case of “Uwasa no Minato”, a single released back in February 2015.

When I started searching for Ryuko’s live performances on YouTube, the one song that constantly appeared to me was “Uwasa no Minato”, and that’s probably because it was one of her newest songs at the time. So, after watching a lot of different live performances of it, I ended liking it a lot more than other similar songs she’d released in the past. I don’t know, maybe the melodic shifts were interesting enough to my ears, or it was simply the result of repeatedly listening. It also helps that, besides the usual heavy singing, “Uwasa no Minato” isn’t overdramatic as some other songs in the genre.

Aside from the music… oh, boy, I do love Ryuko Mizuta’s figure. If her singing talent wasn’t enough, she’s so classy and sexy that I can watch her sing even the most boring enka songs and still be fascinated.

Lyrics were written by Mitsuo Ikeda (池田充男), while music was composed by Hideo Mizumori (水森英夫). As for the arrangement, Toshiaki Maeda (前田俊明) was the responsible.

Source: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71W8Fdd5MTL._SL1261_.jpg

Yujiro Ishihara -- Futari no Sekai （二人の世界）

I think I deserve to slap myself with a Mood Kayo CD. It's been 30 years since Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）passing and I forgot to mention something back on July 17th which was the date that he died at the age of 52 (which is what I will be in a few months). To be honest, for some reason, I had thought that he left this mortal coil on the 21st.

Well, allow me to make amends. Here is The Tough Guy's 2nd-most successful single of his career, "Futari no Sekai" from 1965. A very classic Mood Kayo with that hint of Latin, I would translate it as "Our World" instead of the literal "A World for Two" since the lyrics by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）definitely have Ishihara crooning in the first person as he lovingly praises his lover in that expensive nightclub. Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）took care of the music. The interesting thing is that although it is the familiar Yujiro voice, it has yet to take on that baritone rumble from the 1970s. In fact, he even has a bit of a falsetto at the end of each verse.

The song also begat a movie of the same title the following year starring Ishihara and Ruriko Asaoka（浅丘ルリ子）. It is described as a "Mood Action" flick which I think might be the same as a hard-boiled thriller. He certainly rocks those sunglasses in the karaoke video above. As I said, "Futari no Sekai" is the No. 2 song in his long discography as it sold about 2.8 million records. His No. 1 record, which sold well over 3 million records can be found here.

I'm sure in a number of bars, izakaya, nomiya and even karaoke boxes in Japan, this week has probably seen quite a few tributes to the The Tough Guy. Although I'm no whisky drinker, I will hold up a tumbler in his honour.

Aki Yashiro & Yujiro Ishihara -- Yoru no Meguriai （夜のめぐり逢い）

Don't those two above make a nice couple? I can envision them easily spending the night hours at a swanky nightclub sharing martinis.

I saw "Yoru no Meguriai" (An Evening Affair) performed on last week's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）between Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）and Keisuke Yamauchi（山内恵介）. If I'm not mistaken, I think the performance was part of a "lightning round" medley of songs that the guests did...which actually did work for me in that the songs intrigued me enough for me to take a search on YouTube. And glad I did, too, for "Yoru no Meguriai", since it was The Big Man who originally handled the other half of the duet with Yashiro.

Up to this point, the veteran Yashiro has performed 10 duets in her enka career, the first three being with Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）. "Yoru no Meguriai" was the middle Yashiro-Ishihara collaboration released in November 1979. Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎真一）, the ballad spoke of that nighttime tryst in the bar areas of Tokyo. Being a geek, and never being particularly endowed with money, I've never experienced the night life that I've seen portrayed on old episodes of "Enka no Hanamichi"（演歌の花道）or the karaoke videos for the enka tunes, and I have a feeling that scenes of well-to-do couples drinking and dancing the light fantastic in areas like Ginza or Akasaka have become rather rare in the last few decades. So I think listening and envisioning songs like "Yoru no Meguriai" rather evoke a time long past, even before the Bubble Era.

Heck, even Nozaki's melody seems to paint all of the twirling on the dance floor that Yashiro and Ishihara could have done way back when. I definitely would love to hear this played on the in-house speakers if I were back in an established izakaya or bar. The accompanying sound of a bartender shaking a martini to fruition would be perfect.

"Yoru no Meguriai" made it all the way up to No. 51 on the Oricon charts, and I'm sure it's still a favourite on shows like "Kayo Concert". Not sure how long it will stay up, but here is the performance of the song with Yashiro and Yamauchi. I have no particular problems with Yamauchi being the partner but I think Ishihara will still be the definitive half for this duet.

Speaking of which, for many years, I've often come across Mood Kayo tunes with "meguriai" included in the title so I'm glad for starting this blog since it finally forced me to find out what it meant.

A local pub near Ebisu Garden Place

Ken Matsudaira -- Sapporo Aishuu （札幌哀愁）

On the final "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）of the year last week which had the appropriate theme of the bonenkai (year-end party), singer/actor Ken Matsudaira（松平健）showed up to perform the appropriate song "MatsuKen Samba"（マツケンサンバ）with all of the heart-pumping excitement.

However, he also showed up later on in the program looking relatively less glittery (although he would still be a standout in any regular year-ender) to perform a much more traditional and sober-sided enka/Mood Kayo. Looking at his discography on J-Wiki, I just saw a long line of variations on the MatsuKen theme over several years so it was refreshing to see and then hear "Sapporo Aishuu" (Sapporo Sorrow).

It's a very regular enka tune that was released in 2014 and created by Mitsuo Ikeda and Tetsuya Gen（池田充男・弦哲也）, with Matsudaira warbling about the one he lost in Sapporo. After listening to the melodic tropes for "Sapporo Aishuu", I suddenly had a craving for a Sapporo beer and I'm still not much of a drinker.

Kenichi Mikawa -- Tokyo Hotel （東京ホテル）

(karaoke version)

On a recent "Nodo Jiman", I heard one of the singing contestants perform what sounded like an enka called "Tokyo Hotel". Veteran singer Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）was one of the guests on that episode but at the time, I hadn't been aware that it was his song since my memories of his enka and Mood Kayo have been from decades back.

However, if I had paid more attention to the lyrics at the time, I would have quickly realized that "Tokyo Hotel" had actually been released in March 2000 as Mikawa's 83rd single which would be the only one he would release that year. Mitsuo Ikeda's（池田充男）lyrics talk about the woman still pining for her tryst partner a year following their encounter at that hotel by Tokyo Bay; Ikeda even places in a shoutout to Rainbow Bridge. I'm not sure how the respective management at accommodations such as the Hotel Nikko and the Hilton in Odaiba feel about possibly being the venue for an illicit affair but they would probably shrug their collective shoulders and remark that it's a typical Mood Kayo.

But that's the thing about "Tokyo Hotel". The lyrics might hint at a typical Mood Kayo theme of hotel trysting but Hideo Mizumori's（水森英夫）melody hints largely at a more enka sensibility. The music doesn't have a Latin twist nor does it have a horn section, and yet listening to the song, I feel like having a drink in a bar located inside one of those hotels that I have mentioned.

The Grand Pacific Hotel in Odaiba.
Would you like to check in under separate names, sir?

Aki Yashiro -- Ai no Shuuchaku Eki （愛の終着駅）

It's becoming a Tuesday night ritual with me as I pick out another old kayo from "Kayo Concert". The theme tonight was on love letters, and one of the songs was "Ai no Shuuchaku Eki" (Love's Last Station) by Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）. Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田光男）and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎眞一）, this was one of Yashiro's original singles from September 1977. It peaked at No. 13, and although it wasn't the song she sang at the 1977 Kohaku, she did get her chance to sing it on the 1992 show.

Yashiro's performance tonight was a bit growly so I actually preferred her earlier takes. Right from the title, "Ai no Shuuchaku Eki" sounds like it was created for its own segment on that old show "Enka no Hanamichi"（演歌の花道）, and I have no doubt that it most likely did make it onto TV Tokyo. I'm sure there was a set of a passenger train heading up north with the snow steadily coming down as Yashiro sadly sings her ballad of heartbreak as she writes her letter pleading her paramour to return.

The song is listed as a straight kayo kyoku. And I guess I can't be that surprised since I'm not quite sure whether to place it solidly as an enka ballad or as a Mood Kayo tune, although I'm tending more toward the latter genre since I think this could be sung easily by the late Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）. And perhaps she did.

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ）

I heard "Otaru no Hito yo" (Man of Otaru) the other night on NHK's "Kayo Concert", and as with a lot of the other songs from the genre, I started getting images of a heartbroken man sitting by himself at some small bar while the bartender is shaking a cocktail or heating up a ceramic bottle of sake. It starts off as something of a more traditional enka in the first few bars with that guitar and flute, but then the light Latin rhythm comes in and the sweet, sorrowful tones of lead vocal Masato Sanjo（三条正人） then reassure me that this is indeed a Mood Kayo song.

Although I was able to get up to Sapporo in Hokkaido for a few days of R&R, I didn't get a chance to head over to the port city of Otaru not too far away. That earned me some half-joking reprimands from a few of my students when I got back since, as they told me in no uncertain terms, the place boasts of having some of the best sushi and sashimi in the entire nation. That struck me as high praise indeed considering that I have yet to remember a bad sushi place wherever I went in Japan (well, there was one kaiten sushi restaurant in Asakusa in which some of the fish was partially frozen...nice crunch, though).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4oBlv6V20c

Composer Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）started up the Tokyo Romantica vocal group in 1965 and in the first couple of years, he filled in as a "guest" vocal (his official position is guitar) since there was no official lead vocal. Then, when "Otaru no Hito yo"became a hit when Sanjo performed with the group, he was made the official lead vocal.. Tsuruoka, by the way, was behind the creation of the melody for this song with Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）writing the lyrics.

"Otaru no Hito yo" was the group's 5th single which came out in September 1967, but it wasn't until May 1968 that it finally cracked the Top 10 of the then-embryonic Oricon charts. It peaked at No. 2 and became the No. 4 song for that year, selling about 1.5 million records.Their newfound hit status got Tsuruoka and Tokyo Romantica onto the Kohaku Utagassen, a show that would invite them back for the next 6 years during the time when Mood Kayo was at its peak.

There was a bit of history behind the song.. At first, a song titled"Denwa de Ai wo"（電話で愛を...Love By Phone） was created, but Tsuruoka nixed it as having very little punch, so he asked Ikeda to take over on the writing of the words. From that collaboration, "Kona Yuki no Love Letter"（粉雪のラブ・レター...Powder Snow Love Letter）was the result, but then the people representing the city of Otaru asked whether a song couldn't help sell their city as a tourist spot, so "Otaru no Hito yo" was made. The requisite Otaru sites were incorporated into the lyrics while the usual Mood Kayo trope held firm about lamenting that lost love. And several decades later, the song is still seen a representative anthem of sorts for the northern Japanese city.

As for me, I'm currently lamenting that lost opportunity for great raw fish!

Yujiro Ishihara -- Yoake no Machi （夜明けの街）

Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）"Yoake no Machi" (Sunset City) was one of the first enka songs that I actually started to listen to instead of just hearing it after my musical epiphany in 1981. Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男） and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎真一）, the song just seems to sum up Ishihara in his later years: cool, austere, wistful and urban(e). A good two fingers of Old Parr would go well with this song. "Yoake no Machi" was the 2nd ending theme for Ishihara's old police series, "Seibu Keisatsu"（西部警察....Police: Western Division）, and it was first released as a single in October 1980.

Although the ending credits for "Seibu Keisatsu"didn't go this way, I could've imagined seeing the end of each episode with The Big Man himself as the veteran seen-it-all, done-it-all cop, walking down the cold lonely evening streets of Tokyo wrapped up in his trench coat just heading over to his favourite watering hole for a slug of whiskey and a comforting chat with the Mama-san. As for my initial listen to this Mood Kayo, it was actually on that tape that I'd brought from Japan after my 1981 trip there. Didn't know at the time that it was an ending theme to a classic cop show, but I just remembered it as a night time enka tune right alongside with Ishihara's other more famous song, "Brandy Glass". "Yoake no Machi" is quieter and more contemplative, and I just love the strings and the soprano saxophone. It strikes the right mood to bring out the ice and tumblers.