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.
Look at all those abbreviations in the United States. Makes things rather compact, don't they? Well, it's time for a bit of whimsy here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" today as this thought came to my mind for the latest Author's Picks. I think they're rare enough but there are some Japanese songs that have two-letter abbreviations in their titles, so why not give a few out?
I was only informed about this just some minutes ago, but one of the commenters let me know in my previous article that the guitarist for the band Pink Sapphire,Takako Suzuki（鈴木孝子）, had passed away on December 12th 2023 at the age of 56 from cancer. The commenter left me a Facebook link but I also have a link to "Sports Hochi" which posted the obituary on December 22nd.
Over ten years ago, I posted the first Pink Sapphire article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to talk about this female rock band that I had first noticed through their music video for the zooming "P.S. I Love You" from over thirty years ago. The song and the band provided me with one of my tentpoles of music during my time on the JET Programme in Gunma Prefecture.
I'd like to then post this coupling song to "P.S. I Love You", "Go-banme no Kisetsu" (The Fifth Season) which was composed by Pink Sapphire bassist Miki Ishida（石田美紀）and written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）under her pen name of Airin（亜伊林）. It's a song of trying to cure oneself of a heartache by finally coming through with those feelings. I'm not 100% on my interpretation of Miura's lyrics but I think the couple involved here had been going through some inevitable sturm und drang before the emotional floodgates finally burst.
My condolences go to Suzuki's family and friends as well as the fans of Pink Sapphire.
Well, here I was thinking that I had basically exhausted all of the possibilities on the Gosanke（御三家）file, true and imagined which explains why nothing from that Label was posted over the weekend. And I was wrong, so perhaps there may be some hope to squeeze out a few more trios.
And yep, sticking with my JET days between 1989 and 1991, I remember that the massive blossom of diversification in Japanese popular music at that time included the proliferation of female pop and rock bands. So, when I look back on my two years in Gunma, the following three groups are who I think about.
After all these years, I'd thought that I had already put up an article on this special Pink Sapphire Christmas song but evidently I have not. Ironic since I did include it in a mixtape of J-Xmas tunes decades ago.
"Pink/White X'mas" was the coupling song for the rock band's 2nd single, "Dakishimetai"（抱きしめたい...I Want to Hold You）, which was released in November 1990. It may be a Pink Sapphire rocker but the lyrics by Yoshihiko Ando（安藤義彦）describe a common theme in Japanese Xmas songs: that of the big lovers' spat on Christmas Eve and how to resolve the situation. Composer Toshihiko Shibaya（柴矢俊彦）of the band Juicy Fruits（ジューシーフルーツ）and arranger Takayuki Hijikata（土方隆行）took care of this one as if they were channeling some Van Halen.
For those who want something a little different in their J-Xmas tunes, have a go at "Pink/White X'mas". As for the single, "Dakishimetai" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon, but "Pink/White X'mas" also ended up on Pink Sapphire'sBEST collection, "BEST FOR YOU〜Single Collection" which came out in December 1992. I'll have to talk about "Dakishimetai" itself sometime soon.
Hard to believe that the female rock band boom in Japan happened so long ago but indeed it's been over 30 years now. Indeed, there were Princess Princess and NORMA JEAN, and there was also Pink Sapphire.
After seeing Pink Sapphire's hit song "P.S. I Love You" through their music video a number of times, I did pull the trigger and bought the CD single of the song. What I didn't know was that there was also an EP with the same title that came out in September 1990.
One of the songs there is "One Step Up" which I heard for the first time last year and hearing those particular guitar chords, I got rather nostalgic for my JET days again. I haven't really heard any contemporary mainstream rock bands in the last little while through the Kohaku or any of the regular music shows, so it was rather refreshing again to hear Pink Sapphire again. While the band provided the melody, Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）wrote the lyrics.
Another oldie but goodie...it's rather sad that I'm saying that about the 90s, but that's the way the cake crumbles. In any case, this is "Happy no Jouken"(A Happy Condition) by Pink Sapphire...hadn't heard this in a long while. It has that happy pop/rock sound from the times that reminded me of Princess Princess'"Diamonds" from a couple of years earlier. I was trying to remember whether the band's 4th single from May 1991 was a theme for some trendy drama or a commercial tie-in tune. It turned out to be the latter when I checked the J-Wiki article; it was the song used for Recruit, the human resources company that had gotten itself into some trouble due to some insider trading back in the late 80s.
The song was written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed by Hiroyuki Miyaguchi（宮口博行）and it peaked at No. 10 on Oricon. Along with the Princess Princess comparison, that guitar riff at the beginning of the album version had me thinking B'z as well. My compliments to Takako Miyagawa,（宮川孝子）the guitarist.
"Happy no Jouken" was released just a few months before my departure from the JET Programme so it was one of the songs that rather accompanied me during my travels through western Japan before I took off for home in Toronto. That was a pretty torrid time through Kumamoto Prefecture, especially.
Their debut of "P.S. I Love You" may have been the most successful single by rock band Pink Sapphire , but I also enjoyed their 3rd single, "Hello, Goodbye". Having nothing to do with The Beatles, this was a song that came out in January 1991 with music by Hiroyuki Miyaguchi （宮口博行）and lyrics by 美遊砂. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite find the proper pronunciation for the lyricist although the last two characters read out as Yusa according to jisho.org.
In any case, "Hello, Goodbye" has a similar sound to the aforementioned debut but there is that wonderful guitar riff in the refrain and lead vocal Aya's voice is a bit more toned down with this one. I caught the official music video on one of the early morning video clip shows as my eyes were opening up; I definitely made sure the volume button was kept somewhat low to be kind to my neighbours (apartment walls are notoriously thin in Japan), but, yeah, quite the aural way to wake up. The song managed to peak at No. 8 on Oricon.
In terms of Japanese all-girl bands during my time in Gunma, I have to admit that my allegiances were slightly torn between Princess Princess and Pink Sapphire. When I first touched down, the former was the one that was all the rage all over the country, including the two schools that I was teaching at. Heck, "Diamonds"quickly became the go-to song to be played at the school sports festivals.
But then, out of nowhere, I just saw this video for another female rock band with this really hot lead singer (aw, hell, they were all hot). And they were Pink Sapphire, a band that had its heyday in the early to mid-90s. That singer was Ayako (Aya) Tsukada（塚田彩湖）, and when they debuted, she was joined by bassist Miki Ishida（石田美紀）, guitarist Takako (Taka) Suzuki（鈴木孝子） and drummer Harumi Kikuno（菊野晴泉）. The name for the band came about from Harumi's favourite colour and the decision to go with a birthstone as the second name. Sapphire sounded the coolest, so they went with that (apparently, diamond came in 2nd). Pink Sapphire had its genesis from the Band Boom of the late 80s, and had its very first appearance on the representative TV show of the musical trend, "Ikasu Band Tengoku" （イカすバンド天国）back in May 1989 although Aya and Taka were not involved at that time.
The video I saw was the one for their debut, "P.S. I Love You", released in July 1990. I think as much as "Diamonds" by Princess Princess was one of the theme songs for my 2 years in Japan at that time, this song could also be included. Written by bassist Ishida and composed by Takashi Oji（小路隆）, the song was also made the theme song for one of those Fuji-TV Monday-at-9 trendy dramas, "Kimochi Ii Koi Shitai!"（キモチいい恋をしたい！） Aya's vocals seemed to be soaring above the layer of electric guitar ripping like a hang glider on steroids, and it certainly sounded like everyone was having a grand ol' time recording it.
"P.S. I Love You" peaked at No. 2 and was the most successful of their 8 singles. They also released 8 albums until their breakup in 1995. However, just a few months ago, Aya and Taka got on the stage of a Tokyo dining bar for the first time in 20 years to perform the hit that launched Pink Sapphire. Since the get-together was a very hastily planned event, Miki and Harumi couldn't actually perform with their old bandmates, but they were there at the bar as well, and apparently the members and fans greatly enjoyed each other's company.
