I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Once again, Saturday is among us so it's time for the latest round of go-touchi songs, a series that I began about a month ago to commemorate some of the geographically based kayo depending on the official regions within Japan. Last week, we took care of the Kinki region including Osaka. This time, we're doing a two-for-one deal just like I did for the very first entry which looked at Hokkaido and the Tohoku region up in the north. Today, it will be the small island of Shikoku which consists of Ehime, Kagawa, Kochi, and Tokushima Prefectures and the westernmost Chugoku region on the main island of Honshu which has Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi Prefectures.
6. Angela Aki -- Home for Tokushima Prefecture (2005)
As usual, let's finish this off with some scrumptious dishes from the two areas. Today, we have Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki（お好み焼き）and then sanuki udon（讃岐うどん）from Kagawa Prefecture. Next week will be the final segment as we look at Kyushu and Okinawa.
With the changing of the seasons, NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）had its spring-themed show a couple of nights ago, and one of the guests, enka singer Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）, gave a lovely version of the kayo chestnut "Nangoku Tosa wo Ato ni Shite" (Leave Nangoku Tosa Behind).
The song had its origins in wartime Japan as something that had been sung by soldiers in a regiment, many of whom hailed from Kochi Prefecture (which was once known as Tosa) on the island of Shikoku. After World War II, the song was brought back to Kochi where it solidified as a hometown ditty, according to a 1997 Kobe Shimbun article (via J-Wiki). Songwriter Eisaku Takemasa（武政英策）from neighbouring Ehime Prefecture then transcribed and arranged this original song to write and compose "Nangoku Tosa wo Ato ni Shite", as a kayo of longing for the homeland of Kochi.
"Nangoku Tosa wo Ato ni Shite" was recorded and released in 1953 and 1955 by Kyoko Oka（丘京子）and Mieko Suzuki（鈴木三重子）respectively but neither version made much of a ripple. But then Peggy Hayama（ペギー葉山）was offered the opportunity to sing this very song on a special program commemorating the beginning of the Kochi branch of NHK TV in November 1958. Hayama had initially not been too interested since she considered herself a jazz singer rather than an interpreter of kayo, but she finally performed it in front of the audience and she was surprised due to the rousing reaction from them.
Hayama's version became known around the nation due to the spread of television and transformed into a huge hit, with the single released in April 1959 and sales reaching 1 million within a year, eventually selling 2 million records in total. Hayama would also end up performing "Nangoku Tosa" on the 1959 and 1989 Kohaku Utagassen broadcasts. On top of that, she became only the second person to be granted a honourary citizenship of Kochi in 1974.
The song also got transformed into a movie later in August 1959 with Hayama as part of the cast.
I caught "Uta Kon" (うたコン) on NHK for the first time in a couple of weeks since last week I had to put out a fire in terms of my work. The theme for the episode was songs of spring. However, I was surprised to hear the news right off the bat from the hosts that singer and tarento Peggy Hayama（ペギー葉山）passed away at the age of 83 last week on April 12th due to pneumonia.
Just late last month, I had put up my first article on her on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", "Gakusei Jidai"（学生時代）which was released in 1964. But she had actually been singing since 1952, and as was the case with other singers during those days, she sang a mix of kayo and covers of English-language songs.
One of the latter was the cover of what is arguably Doris Day's theme song "Que Sera Sera". The original, which was created by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and then recorded by Day in 1956 for the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Man Who Knew Too Much", was also given its Japanese version by Takashi Otowa（音羽たかし）for Hayama to sing. "Que Sera Sera" became another hit for Hayama who then sang it on the 7th Kohaku Utagassen in 1956, her 3rd appearance on the program.
Being somewhat of a sentimental softie deep inside, I chose "Que Sera Sera" for tonight since the song was one of the first I remember as a toddler. I distinctly remember seeing the opening credits for "The Doris Day Show" (1968-1973) on TV which featured the song as the theme. And my mother actually bought me a record of Doris Day songs for children.
Just to finish off, I discovered something rather interesting about Takashi Otowa. The name was actually a pseudonym of sorts used by directors at King Records whenever they translated a song into Japanese. However, unlike Hollywood directors who would use the name Alan Smithee to disown a movie they made but under duress, there was no intent of protest with the use of Takashi Otowa.
According to J-Wiki, the managing director for King Records, Go Makino（牧野剛）, was one of the staffers who took on the Otowa name to provide the Japanese words for Hayama's "Que Sera Sera".
On the heels of not only the graduation songs article I wrote about earlier today but also yesterday's article on Shoji Koganezawa（小金沢昇司）, I'm introducing veteran singer Peggy Hayama（ペギー葉山）to the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Like Koganezawa, I had assumed that Hayama was already here since again her name is one that I've heard for years via TV shows and the like but when I checked the Labels, I had to sheepishly admit to myself that there had been no representation of her.
Well, yesterday, she did show up on "Uta Con" (うたコン) last night, if just via old video tape, on a retrospective of graduation-themed songs. She sang "Gakusei Jidai"(Student Days) which was one of her singles from 1964, and sounding appealingly upbeat yet wistful, I decided to talk about this one tonight.
Written and composed by the late jazz musician Seiji Hiraoka（平岡精二）for Hayama, I think I actually like the version given in the very top video since it hews closer to Hiraoka's roots although I believe it's also a relatively recent take according to the arrangement. The performance video just here is probably close to what was actually recorded.
According to an NTT Docomo-sponsored radio show featuring guest Hayama back in 2012 (via J-Wiki), Hiraoka had initially meant the song to be titled "Daigaku Jidai"（大学時代...University Days） but Hayama insisted that it wouldn't be an appropriate title since she felt that the times back then were such that not everyone was heading to university. There was quite a back-and-forth between her and Hiraoka until Hayama won out so that "Gakusei Jidai" became the official title.
The lyrics were modeled on Hayama's own student days through the Aoyama Gakuin school system in Tokyo (the singer had attended the junior high and senior high schools there at least) that also happened to be Hiraoka's own alma mater. "Gakusei Jidai" also mentions about a chapel which actually refers to the Charles Oscar Miller Memorial Chapel in Berry Hall at the Aoyama campus of Aoyama Gakuin University. In fact, "Gakusei Jidai" has been called the second anthem for the university.
"Gakusei Jidai" was released in the pre-Oricon days so there were no rankings given but it did become a huge hit selling at least a million records and garnering Hayama her 12th straight appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1965.
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The song got its fair share of covers by singers over the decades including Masako Mori（森昌子）who seemed to specialize in school-based kayo in her early days. She provided her own version of "Gakusei Jidai" in her 1973 album"Chuugaku Sannen-sei"（中学三年生...Junior High School Senior）with a typically 70s arrangement of jaunty violins, flute and perhaps a vibraphone (xylophone?). Considering that Mori was only around 15 years old at the time, her performance was probably what Hayama had been insisting upon when it came to the title nearly a decade before...it wasn't just a song about university life but also of the life of any kid in the high school system.
Actress-singer Chieko Baisho（倍賞千恵子）gave a more near-operatic take on the song starting with a whirlwind of a string intro...perhaps reflecting the usual high-paced hijinks of students racing to school. Her version was recorded on her 1975 album"Baisho Chieko Best 20".
I'm sure there are generations of alumni who have heard the song and quickly reminisced back to those salad days in school. In any case, for all those in Japan who are making that big leap between levels in the education system, my congratulations!
