Nobuyuki Hanawa & Okayu -- Ai no Michikusa（愛の道草）

 

Unlike "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, it's not as easy to catch "Hayauta"（はやウタ）on Jme since it seems to be thrown in anywhere on the schedule. Specifically in our case, it's scheduled at times when we are neither awake or otherwise available to watch it. 

But we finally did catch an episode last night after the usual "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, and it was quite a good one. Almost all of the guests were performing stuff that seemed to be arranged in the old kayo kyoku style including this one here.

We don't really hear much about Mood Kayo these days in contemporary Japanese popular music, and the duets are most likely even rarer than appearances of the typical Mood Kayo groups. However, there was one such couple on "Hayauta" last night and it was a combination that I wouldn't have imagined. Singer-songwriter Okayu（おかゆ）, who's been this beautiful nagashi（流し）, or traveling balladeer through the drinking establishment-lined avenues of Tokyo, paired up with the funny man of the comedic duo Knights（ナイツ）, Nobuyuki Hanawa（塙宣之）, to perform the song "Ai no Michikusa". Now, michikusa is defined as "loitering on the way somewhere" according to Jisho.org, but I think "Loitering of Love" loses a lot of its romantic appeal (and may actually hint at something illegal), and the feeling within Okayu and Yasunari Izuma's（出馬康成）lyrics is of a hand-in-hand congenial walk through the shitamachi area of the nation's capital, so why not go with "Love Stroll"?

This is the first time that Izuma's name has been mentioned within the pages of KKP but it should be remembered here because he also happens to be a movie director. In fact, he has directed the movie of the same title as the song of note which stars Okayu and Hanawa as a couple with the former playing the proprietress of a typically tiny nomiya（飲み屋）. According to J-Wiki, the movie "Ai no Michikusa" will be shown later this autumn. In any case, Okayu's melody strikes that Mood Kayo feeling of yesteryear with the frenetically plucked Spanish guitar leading the way. 

Okayu -- Shibuya Botchi no Kayo Kyoku（渋谷ぼっちの歌謡曲）

 

The two most recent songs that I had posted last year regarding singer-songwriter Okayu（おかゆ）are her 2019 "Yokohama Henry"（ヨコハマ・ヘンリー）and her 2023 single "Shibuya no Maria"（渋谷のマリア）. So it seems as if the Hokkaido-born chanteuse is not only providing her form of kayo kyoku to the masses but it's also of the go-touchi type (kayo kyoku featuring specific regions of Japan).

Her most recent single is "Shibuya Botchi no Kayo Kyoku" (Lonely Shibuya Kayo Kyoku) from May 2024 which is a pretty spicy number involving the ol' kayo kyoku, Latin, rock and Mood Kayo with some additional help from the synths. Written and composed by Okayu, the story seems to bring in heartbreak and the after relief of those old songs emanating from within the towers of Shibuya. Of course, being a go-touchi song, there are the shoutouts to certain establishments in Japan's Teen Mecca such as Shibuya 109 and the statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station.

I am hoping that sometime in the near future, Okayu will finally get her invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen. She's been a regular presence on the network's "Uta Con"（うたコン）which will finally come back onscreen probably next week.

Okayu -- Yokohama Henry（ヨコハマ・ヘンリー）

 

I've already put up a few of modern balladeer Okayu's（おかゆ）songs onto KKP, thanks to her appearances on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）over the past number of years. With her musical creations, it does have me thinking, though. As much as we have Neo-City Pop as an updated version of the groovy urban contemporary stuff from the 1970s and 1980s, do we also have a Neo-Mood Kayo, music surrounding the bars and other watering holes in 21st-century Japan? Or is it possible that there is a New New Adult Music in tribute to another subgenre which spanned that middle space between kayo kyoku and enka in those two decades mentioned for City Pop?

Not sure myself, but for the sake of argument, why don't we go with (Neo) Mood Kayo tonight since I've also used that Label to categorize other Okayu songs that I've written about? So, the song here is her major debut single "Yokohama Henry" from May 2019. Written and composed by the singer, it's all about falling in love and living life large in the famed international port; the melody is a bit tango-friendly and snazzy and the lyrics name drop some of the popular districts in Yokohama: Motomachi, Bashamichi, Isezaki and Honmoku...just like an old-fashioned Mood Kayo. Heck, even some of the back chorus is reminiscent of what groups like The Cool Five and Los Indios did back in the day.

Allow me to give my compliments on the music video director for those gorgeous shots of nocturnal Yokohama. It was almost a couple of months ago that I wrote about Okayu's most recent single this year, another song that pays tribute to a famous entertainment area.

Okayu -- Shibuya no Maria（渋谷のマリア）

 

One of my biggest fears with technology is that for whatever reason, the TV or the Internet goes out. It didn't get quite that bad but for a few hours until just 20 minutes ago, TV Japan had the equivalent of the hiccups. Our image was stopping and starting every several frames so it looked like we were getting our version of stop-frame animation. It was annoying as heck, and it went deep into tonight's episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）. I'd wondered about having to do another reset of the receiver when TV Japan pretty much proved the problems were on their end by suddenly switching to another device broadcasting smooth-flowing television once again but at a slightly lower resolution. I'll take that.

But one happy observation is that it looks like "Uta Con" is almost truly back to its old pre-pandemic self. The audiences have been returning to the two venues in Tokyo and Osaka for a while now but it's been evident for the past couple of shows that all of the guests are appearing en masse with the hosts once again as opposed to the plastic barriers that had been splitting them apart for a couple of years and going further back, when they had to sit in completely separate audience seats in empty halls a couple of folks at a time. I hope that it never goes back to that again, and perhaps the producers can return some of the more ambitious sketches that the guests performed before early 2020.

Singer-songwriting balladeer Okayu（おかゆ）was on the show tonight and she spoke about her younger self whose dream was to be a Shibuya gyaru. She even showed everyone what she looked like back then, and she was just like you see in the above video supplied by egg Channel. Wow! 

Then, she performed her most recent single "Shibuya no Maria" (Maria of Shibuya) which may be somewhat autobiographical, although the singer herself actually hails from Hokkaido. Released last month with words and music by Okayu, she sings about Maria, born and raised and perhaps raising hell in the Youth Mecca of Japan as she sees her friends gradually finding life outside of the neighbourhood while she seems to remain the stalwart resident.

Okayu's music has been interesting because her songs have been categorized as contemporary types of enka, kayo kyoku and pop. Just for the dramatic "Shibuya no Maria", I can hear aspects of rock, Mood Kayo (which includes the lyrical tradition of giving shoutouts to landmarks in the area such as Spain-zaka and Dogenzaka) and simply kayo kyoku. Maybe it can even be called Neo-Kayo. I can also vouch for it possibly being considered to be a modern form of New Adult Music which, according to J-Wiki, lies somewhere between kayo kyoku and enka. 

Regrettably, her performance tonight on "Uta Con" was in the stop-frame animation zone but the audio was still perfectly fine so it got me to write about her. 

Okayu -- Hoshitabi（星旅）/Downtown

 

Still digging out of the mess that Monday's storm left us although things are definitely improving. It continued to be a trek just getting the newspaper and some lunch today for everyone. At least, it was sunny out there. ☀

Months ago in August 2020, "Uta Con"（うたコン）introduced me to balladeer and songwriter Okayu（おかゆ）, and in her "Aishite yo"（愛してよ）, she was seen as this new talent for some of the old enka and Mood Kayo. However, her J-Wiki file also lists her as a pop singer/musician, and with her third and latest single from June 2021, "Hoshitabi", her words and melody take her completely out of those traditional genres and into J-Pop/rock.

In fact, with some of that arrangement, I was even reminded of the late trumpeter Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and his project Tokyo Ensemble Lab, especially via their "Lady Ocean". In accordance with release date of "Hoshitabi", there is something naturally very let's-hit-the-surf summery about the song which I could translate as "Star Trek" but I think that a certain sci-fi franchise has already taken that title so I'll go with "Star Voyage" instead. Anyways, the song also comes across as a tune that could even fit in as a theme song for any of the more dynamic anime, strangely enough, as Okayu and her guitar demonstrate. I think part of it is because her lyrics talk of a couple taking on the challenge of taking that big leap forward together despite any and all obstacles.

Also on the single is Okayu's take on the City Pop classic "Downtown" originally by Sugar Babe, and yep the arrangement follows the band's style. At this rate, the song will end up earning its own Label.

Okayu -- Aishite yo（愛してよ）

I saw this lady perform a few weeks ago on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）and the three things that struck me about the enka singer-songwriter Okayu（おかゆ）were: 1) How did she get that name?, 2) She has a pretty deep voice and 3) Her singing is a pleasant throwback to some of the enka/Mood Kayo from the 1980s.

2) and 3) I will address right away. Okayu's voice is the deepest female voice in enka and Mood Kayo that I've heard so far, and in terms of general J-Pop, I could compare her vocals to those of Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）. For 3), the song that she performed on "Uta Kon" was "Aishite yo" (Love Me) that is her second major single released in May 2020. Okayu indeed created this song, and although I think that electric guitar is perhaps a more recent phenomenon in enka music, the rest of the arrangement has that sort of decades-ago feeling. Basically, I'm reminded a tad of the late Teresa Teng（テレサテン）. Plus, I can't be totally sure if this would be purely an enka ballad or a Mood Kayo tune which makes me wonder if the line between the two traditional genres in Japanese popular music has blurred or even faded in the last twenty years.

Okayu was born Yuka Mutsuki（六月ゆか）in 1991. She hails from Sapporo in Hokkaido, and when she was a kid, she was given her current stage name as a nickname back in junior high school according to a 2017 article in the "Nikkan Gendai"（日刊ゲンダイ）newspaper. Her mother, who also had dreams of becoming a singer, often took young Yuka to the various drinking establishments in Sapporo's entertainment district of Susukino and those were the places where she learned about the old kayo kyoku through the singing of her mother and other patrons. Her mother was also a huge fan of Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）and her daughter would also grow to admire her as well, which might explain Okayu's singing style and vocal depth (since I'm also a big fan of Takahashi, too).

As a 17-year-old, Okayu wanted to become part of the gyaru culture so she went all the way down south to Tokyo to Shibuya which is still the Teen Mecca of the country to have her fun. Tragically in the same year, her mother died in an accident and in tribute to her, the daughter decided to follow the music path. She paid her dues along the way as she worked part-time in a trading company, became a magazine model, and tried and failed at a number of auditions. She even became part of a group of singers known as Ugal Ongakubu（ウギャル音楽部...The Fishing Girls Music Department） which was an official project by the national government's Fisheries Agency to support the fishing industry where she further honed her abilities as an enka singer.

In 2014, Okayu became a nagashi balladeer with her guitar to make the rounds around the various bars to sing kayo kyoku but on her very first night, thirty-two of those establishments in a row declined her request to pop on in for a song, according to a "Sankei Shimbun"（産経新聞）article via J-Wiki. Undaunted, she started with Ichiro Toba's（鳥羽一郎）"Kyodai Bune"（兄弟船）and made her rounds as a nagashi not just within Tokyo but also in some of the other regional areas. The following year, she got some media attention through the magazine "BRUTUS" which helped spread the word about her. Finally in 2017 (by that point, her repertoire had grown to more than 200 songs) , Mantell Nonoda（野々田万照）, a saxophonist who has worked with Mariko Takahashi's band (much to her and her mother's joy, I'm sure) produced her first indies album, "Onna Nagashi no Blues"（おんな流しのブルース...Blues by a Female Nagashi） with her major debut happening a couple of years later. Along with her own songs, Okayu has also provided a few songs for some other enka singers under her real name.