Hiroshi Uchiyamada & Cool Five -- Futari no Midosuji（二人の御堂筋）

 

I haven't been to Osaka in many, many moons so my remembrance of the streets there is woefully lacking compared to my knowledge of some of the thoroughfares in Tokyo. However, Midosuji seems to pop up a fair bit especially when it comes to kayo kyoku. In fact, I'm wondering if I ought to provide an Author's Picks list of songs that pay tribute to what has been called Osaka's Champs-Elysees. But I'll leave that for further thought. Off the top of my head, though, there is Feifei Ouyang's（欧陽菲菲）"Ame no Midosuji"（雨の御堂筋）from the early 1970s. Anyways, the above video is provided by Japan Walking Tours on YouTube.

Well, yesterday, we were watching the weekend "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌...Songs of Japanese Spirit）as usual, and The Cool Five's Kiyoshi Maekawa（前川清）appeared to provide one of his old group's classics "Saikai Blues"（西海ブルース）from 1977. Since his Cool Five members have basically retired or passed away, some of the other male guest singers provided the backup chorus. I figured that I must have already written on "Saikai Blues", and sure enough, I had done so back in December 2023.

But I wasn't going to be deterred by that, and it didn't take me long to track down another Hiroshi Uchiyamada & Cool Five（内山田洋とクールファイブ）Mood Kayo song. That was their 26th single from December 1975, "Futari no Midosuji" (A Couple in Midosuji), and it fits the typical Cool Five Mood Kayo feeling of love gained and lost in a famous part of a Japanese city. Of course, there's plenty of rain and mournful chorus to emphasize the bittersweetness of romance. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and composed by Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）, it did OK by hitting No. 44 on Oricon.

Hiroshi Miyama -- Gion Yamizakura（祇園闇桜）

 

After all these years living in the Great White North with occasional trips back to the old country, my parents have still maintained their love for enka music. So it's not surprising that they do look forward to their episodes of "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, especially the latter.

But my mother can be very particular even within the enka genre. So it means something when she openly says that she likes a song. And so she has expressed her affinity for Hiroshi Miyama's（三山ひろし）latest enka tune "Gion Yamizakura" (The Dark Cherry Blossoms of Gion). Released in June this year as his 21st single, the title sounds like something that should be fronting a mystery novel but instead, this delicate traditional ballad talks of a tragic love affair that takes place in Kyoto. Miyama, who I usually think is more for the boisterously sung tunes, sounds almost like the bidanshi enka singer Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）with his own very sensitive and delicate approach to the genre. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, "Gion Yamizakura" peaked at No. 22 on Oricon. Methinks that this will get him back onto the Kohaku Utagassen in a few months' time.

Cheuni -- Narita Hatsu（NARITA発）/Park Junyoung -- Haneda Hatsu（羽田発）

 

For Japanese music listeners, especially those who like their Mood Kayo, enka and general kayo kyoku, you probably are well aware that airports have been the go-to settings for romantic endings and reminiscings, a place where songwriters have loved to establish their songs. I guess some broken hearts just need to go to their local terminals as much as they need to head out to the countryside resorts to drown their sorrows. Mind you, some of those airports have top-notch restaurants.

Strangely enough, in the past several weeks, I've been able to find a couple of songs with similar titles that are forms of airport kayo with the only difference being the airport in question. And the two airports are right in the Tokyo area.

One is "Narita Hatsu" (Departing from Narita) which describes one woman's wistful need to visit the international airport out in Chiba Prefecture (and it used to be the airport of choice whenever I returned to Canada on vacation) to remember the last time she saw her now ex-paramour. Sung by South Korean singer Cheuni（チェウニ）, this was her 13th single from January 2008 and it was written by Ichizo Fukuda（福田一三）and composed by Kazuya Amikura（網倉一也）. It's quite the classy and dignified example of New Adult Music or Mood Kayo; with those strings in there, I was almost convinced to even throw in the Fashion Music label. There was even something quite Teresa Teng（テレサテン）about the song.

Now, the whole reason that I decided to do this double take on airport kayo with two different South Korean singers was that I saw Park Junyoung（パク・ジュニョン）on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）several weeks ago as he sang his 6th single from August 2016, "Haneda Hatsu" (Departing from Haneda). Haneda Airport, right in the middle of Tokyo, has been my airport during my visits to Japan in the 2010s, and yep, they've got some pretty fancy and delicious fare in those restaurants.

But getting back on track, Park's song, which hit No. 21 on Oricon, has the protagonist taking a somewhat more disdainful and embittered view as she is the one who's getting on the plane and taking off forever. Her old boyfriend hasn't even shown up to say goodbye so she's giving him the kiss off in absentia. The music by veteran Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）is pretty folksy and whimsical considering Shinichi Ishihara's（石原信一）lyrics, and listening to that mandolin-esque instrument playing throughout the song, I was rather wondering about it being a modern-day Exotic Kayo. 

Yukino Ichikawa -- Inochi Sakasete（命咲かせて）

 

The last time I wrote about enka singer Yukino Ichikawa（市川由紀乃）was back in May 2024 for what was her most recent single at the time "Nocturne"（ノクターン）which had come out a couple of months earlier. Some months after that, Ichikawa was unfortunately diagnosed with ovarian cancer. We hadn't heard or seen her on any of the kayo-based shows on NHK for months so we were wondering about what had happened to her, and well, we finally found out some time afterwards.

Happily though, Ichikawa has recovered and she has resumed her career after her hiatus of many months of treatment. She recently appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）and last night, she also showed up on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）to the encouragement of her fellow singers and fans and a lot of hearty yells of "Welcome back!". Not surprisingly, a lot of tears were shed as well.

For her return performance, Ichikawa sang "Inochi Sakasete" (Let Life Blossom) which was released as her 25th single in April 2015. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and composed by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）, it's an enka tune about coming back from turmoil and accepting love once again. Considering the circumstances, it wasn't surprising that Ichikawa sung that one, and hopefully she'll continue to progress in her health and career. The song managed to reach No. 25 on Oricon.

Kokoro Umetani -- Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori（磐越西線ひとり）

 

Garlic and pasta, Laurel and Hardy, cola and ice cubes...matches made in pop culture heaven. May I add one more? Enka and trains...a Japanese combination that generates the feeling of loneliness and longing as a person deals with romantic adversity. Over here, we seem to deal with breakups by meeting with friends or engorging oneself on a tub of ice cream. Over there, song protagonists seem to hop on a train for the north...probably because of the cold and the snow.

Anyways, I have another example of an enka-and-train song. This is "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori" (Alone on the Ban-etsu West Line) by 17-year-old enka phenom Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）. I've referred to her a couple of times on the blog including my recent article on a couple of tourist sites in Asakusa but had yet to actually put up a song by her. However, Umetani has been making an impression with a surprisingly mature voice and a standout look which strikes me as being Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）in her "Desire" appearance and Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.

But there is nothing rock in her debut single which was released in July 2023. It's very much an enka song with Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）providing words and music respectively. Very melancholy fare, it deals with a lady taking a lonely introspective ride on the titular JR line going from Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture to Niigata City in Niigata Prefecture. My good friend who's been going to the Tohoku region for the last couple of years can probably give me some more insight on how wintry the area gets. 

Considering her youth and her very oaken voice, I couldn't help but get some prodigy vibes from Umetani along the lines of a young Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）back in the day. "Ban'etsu Sai Sen Hitori" reached No. 23 on Oricon. She has since released a second single in 2024 along with an album, so it'll be interesting to observe how her career develops in the years to come. Maybe in the near future, she will even show up on the Kohaku Utagassen.

Chieko Tani -- Hana no Joshikou Kazoe Uta（花の女子高数え歌）

 

Dang! This song really gets funky considering that it has nothing to do with the cops or any street-level shenanigans in Shinjuku. "Hana no Joshikou Kazoe Uta" (Flower Girls' High School Counting Song) is the first single for late-70s aidoru Chieko Tani（谷ちえ子）which was released in June 1977. It's all about a teenaged girl who's grumbling in envy about specific classmates and then entire grades getting to enjoy the metropolitan life out there while she herself has to be the good girl stuck in the library. With that funky melody by Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）which was then massaged by arranger Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）, I'd probably think that the heroine was also thinking about hitting the mean streets herself. Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）took care of the lyrics.

Tani, whose real name is Chieko Sasaya（笹谷智恵子）, hails from Hokkaido and made her appearance on the NTV audition show "Star wa Tanjo!"（スター誕生!）. Including "Hana no Joshikou Kazoe Uta", she released four singles and one album up to the middle of 1978. She basically retired after that, but in 2012, when she held a reunion concert, she started up her singing career again with four more singles up to 2020. The singer also has experience in Japanese dance and min'yo, and her favourite singers are Shinichi Mori（森進一）, Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）and Tanya Tucker.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Ima Mezameta Kodomo no You ni（いま目覚めた子供のように）/I Came From Yokosuka（I Came From 横須賀）

 

Happy Monday! Although Sunday was close-to-record-breaking warm at about 16 degrees C if windy, today is dreary and back to 0 degrees with some snow on the way. Yep, that's the weather story in predictably unpredictable Toronto.

About 10 days ago, I wrote on Disc 1 of "Yokohama Fantasy"（横浜幻想）, that double-CD compilation of Yokohama-themed kayo that I got recently. That first disc contained a couple of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）songs that I promised that I would cover in their own article, and that article is now here.

The first of those two songs happens to start off Disc 1, but "Ima Mezameta Kodomo no You ni" (Like a Child Whose Eyes Have Opened) was originally a track from Yamaguchi's 9th studio album "Yokosuka Story"（横須賀ストーリー）from August 1976. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）, composed by Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）and arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, this is a bright and vivacious number with some of that disco vibe. 

And true to the vivaciousness of the song, Momoe sings to a former lover (and perhaps teases him good-naturedly as well) that she's going to be OK after all without him and has turned a new leaf. She's also thrown away the high heels and the clothes that she wore during their relationship. Perhaps it's still a little too soon after the breakup though since one line in Ishihara's lyrics refers to all of those lovers in the café as being naïve so she's stuck a slice of lemon into her mouth. Although the lyrics don't do a heavy promotion of the port city through namedropping, the proof that it is indeed Yokohama comes from a reference to the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery.

The album "Yokosuka Story" hit No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 43rd-ranked album of 1976. Of course, it also has the famous title track.

The second song "I Came From Yokosuka" originates from Momoe's 11th album "Momoe Hakusho"（百恵白書...The Momoe Report） which was a May 1977 release. This time, the songwriters are husband-and-wife songwriting duo composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）behind the arrangement which is somewhat reminiscent of the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive" in the level of guitar funk and disco. There's also some notable plinky honky-tonk piano which starts the proceedings. 

In terms of Aki's lyrics, they seem to be the opposite of those of "Ima Mezameta Kodomo no You ni". This time, Momoe is on the hunt for that specific guy taking the train all the way from her hometown of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture to Shinagawa in Tokyo (Yokohama's involvement seems to be more of a passing through thing this time, though). And true to the songs that Uzaki and Aki crafted for Yamaguchi in the latter half of her singing career, the lass isn't taking NO for an answer. She was definitely one headstrong 18-year-old. "Momoe Hakusho" peaked at No. 3.

Kotaro Satomi -- Hohoemi wo Suteru Toki（微笑みをすてる時）

 

Whenever I think of the actor Kotaro Satomi（里見浩太朗）, I automatically think of the long-running "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）, the jidaigeki featuring a virtuous Vice Shogun and his special vagabond team traveling throughout Japan to right any wrongs. However, Satomi has apparently starred in other jidaigeki playing similarly heroic warriors. You might say that he's the historical equivalent of Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）cop characters in the 1970s.

One such show that I found is "Ōedo Sōsamō"（大江戸捜査網）that ran from 1970 to 1992 and had the English titles of either "Oedo Dragnet" or "Ōedo Untouchables", so there's no denying that the show had some love and respect for Joe Friday and Eliot Ness in terms of their granite-jawed relentless pursuit of justice. According to the Wikipedia article on "Ōedo Sōsamō", the team here consisted of ninja acting as skilled secret agents working under a samurai who supposedly had a direct line to the Shogun himself, and the head agent happened to be played by the stalwart Satomi.

As was the case with the famous theme for "Mito Komon", "Aa, Jinsei ni Namida ari" (ああ人生に涙あり）, Satomi also lent his baritone voice to the ending theme song for "Ōedo Sōsamō" which was "Hohoemi wo Suteru Toki" (When You Smile). I kinda found the title rather unusual for a historical drama with its regular katana slashes and shuriken flashes, but attempting to parse the lyrics by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）, the story of the song may be about treasuring those exchanges of pleasantries since they may be one's last, so perhaps leader Satomi may be warning one of his new young charges about the job.

Koji Ryuzaki's（竜崎孝路）melody isn't quite as strident as the "Mito Komon" theme but it's also very comforting to hear, which might strike some as being a rather strange way to describe a song for a jidaigeki. I'd say that it's even Mood Kayo in aspects because of Satomi's velvet vocals and an arrangement by Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）which sparks of nights in an Akasaka bar. Quite an interesting contrast between theme and content.

Takeshi Matsubara -- Saihoku Cinema（最北シネマ）

Last week on another episode of "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）, I was introduced to another enka singer that I hadn't encountered before.

I was a bit surprised since the song "Saihoku Cinema" (Northernmost Cinema), though sung by enka singer Takeshi Matsubara（松原健之）in the usual yukata, actually doesn't sound either like a conventional enka tune or a Mood Kayo for that matter. If anything, the elegant arrangement reminds me more of that area of traditional Japanese popular music that could be called European enka (one typical singer was Teresa Teng), and now come to think of it, perhaps it could even fall under that mini-umbrella of music known as Fashion Music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The elegance of "Saihoku Cinema" is what caught my attention. Supposedly the story of Matsubara's 16th single from November 2018 centers it as a love song set in the city of Wakkanai, Hokkaido according to the description of the shortened version of the official music video from YouTube at the top. The lyrics by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）has the protagonist not only involving a movie theatre for the two lovers but perhaps an ardent scene that seems to come out of a movie. Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）provided the tenderhearted melody.

Matsubara, who hails from Shizuoka Prefecture, has been singing professionally since 2002 with his first-ever single being an indies production before going with a major label in 2005. In addition to those 16 singles, he also has recorded 6 original albums. According to his profile at J.P Room, his catchphrase has always been "The Miracle Crystal Voice".

Yukino Ichikawa -- Kokoro Kasanete（心かさねて）

As I mentioned last night in Kiyoko Suizenji's（水前寺清子）"Arigato no Uta"（ありがとうの歌）, I did say that I would give a proper introduction to enka singer Yukino Ichikawa（市川由紀乃）.

Ichikawa was born Mari Matsumura（松村真利）in Saitama Prefecture and at the age of 16, she won a karaoke contest sponsored by Saitama Shinbun after which she was scouted by a production company and in 1993, she made her debut as an enka singer with "Onna no Matsuri"（おんなの祭り...A Woman's Festival）.

I think Ichikawa has become one of the mainstays of the current generation of enka singers alongside folks like Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）and Aya Shimazu（島津亜矢）. She has certainly been a fairly regular presence on the kayo shows such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）. However, it wasn't until her 26th single in April 2016 "Kokoro Kasanete" (Give Me Your Love One More Time) that she finally got the nod from NHK to come on board the Kohaku Utagassen. I saw the moment on TV when her manager rushed into her dressing room to give her the good news; I thought she was going to end up creating her own lake from her tears.

Shinichi Ishihara and Kohei Miyuki（石原信一・幸耕平）were responsible for words and music respectively. What kinda surprises me about "Kokoro Kasanete" is how it starts off with a bang with that wailing electric guitar and then goes into a really blowsy saxophone solo that had me thinking either a Mood Kayo or a Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）number. Then it goes into its main melody of gentle enka as Ichikawa sings about a woman who is begging for some of that love back from her paramour who has gone cold.

"Kokoro Kasanete" has got quite that interesting balance of oomph with the guitar and sax and gentility with the usual instruments plus Ichikawa's voice. The song managed to get as high as No. 19 on Oricon, a personal best for the singer but on the enka charts, it reached No. 1 for the fifth consecutive time for her releases.