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.
Showing posts with label Shinichi Sekizawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shinichi Sekizawa. Show all posts
My parents have been wondering about where enka legend Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）has been over the past few years. Well, through one newspaper and one magazine via J-Wiki, I found out that she's basically been retired from the geinokai over the past decade with her final concert being at the end of 2015. At last report, she was living with just-as-retired actor Shigeru Yazaki（矢崎滋）in a hotel somewhere in the Tohoku region.
Last night, while we were watching NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）, I encountered a song that I had never heard by Miyako (performed by someone else, of course) titled "Ara Miteta no ne" (Ah, You Were Watching Us) which was released as her 12th single in January 1966. Written by Shinichi Sekizawa（関沢新一）and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, it's a coquettish little enka featuring Miyako as this young lady in a small town who has been experiencing a thrilling affair with a guy. Unlike other couples who would want to keep their relationship on the QT, it seems as if young Harumi isn't exactly hiding her glee at being found out. The jauntiness of the melody hints pretty loudly that the revelation is just as thrilling as the affair.
Just before dinner tonight, TV Japan was showing the weekly episode of "Songs of Japanese Spirit" from NHK's satellite channel, and it's been a while, but singer-actor Akira Kobayashi（小林旭）appeared in a segment in his tribute. The veteran entertainer just turned 83 a few weeks ago but he's still looking pretty spry and plenty burly.
From www2u.biglobe.ne.jp
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of the above movie, "Nirenjuu no Tetsu"（二連銃の鉄）which has been translated online as "Tetsu's Shotgun" although I think that it sounds cooler literally translated as "Double-Barreled Tetsu". This April 1959 flick starred Kobayashi as Tetsutaro（鉄太郎）, a gun-for-hire who's fresh out of prison when he soon gets involved into another whirlwind of trouble and intrigue.
Anyways, one of the songs that Kobayashi performed on "Songs of Japanese Spirit" was "Dynamite ga Hyaku-go-juu Ton" (150 Tons of Dynamite) which wasn't the theme song for "Nirenjuu no Tetsu" but an insert song. Originally released as Kobayashi's 2nd single in November 1958, it's a pretty swinging kayo sung with plenty of brio by The Might Guy (his nickname) although the high pitch at which he sings out those first few words caught me off-guard. The melody by Toru Funamura（船村徹）is not quite jazz although it does sound jazzy and it's definitely not Mood Kayo but I gather that it is a tune that would be just great at a nightclub where Kobayashi is the featured performer. Shinichi Sekizawa（関沢新一）was the lyricist.
According to the intro given at the start of the video, the announcer states that "Dynamite ga Hyaku-go-juu Ton" may have been the first homegrown rock-n'-roll number to become a hit in Japan, although I'm still not quite sure whether I would consider this as such a tune from the rock genre (unfortunately, that video has been taken down).
Being just a wee lad at the time, whenever I did see some old footage of Kiyoko "Chiita" Suizenji（水前寺清子）singing her heart out on stage, I did wonder whether I was witnessing a woman or a man. Despite the cute face, Suizenji's short haircut and that forceful gravelly delivery of hers had me somewhat confused for a good long while. Of course, at the time, I also had little knowledge of Japanese nomenclature.
I listened to all four songs from the maxi-single at the top and the one that caught my ear the most was "O-shoubu" (Do-or-Die) which was Chiita's 36th single from November 1970. Starting off with a fanfare of traditional instruments and low horns that seem to portend a monumental storm or a major battle in feudal Japan, the singer proudly throws out with much brio a story of how men could win back in those days.
Listening to "O-shoubu", it is indeed a truly shibui enka ballad composed by Sanechika Ando（安藤実親）that I remember hearing as a kid, especially with the way those strings just bend and wail before Suizenji starts singing. Shinichi Sekizawa's（関沢新一）lyrics have her giving the rules for being a winner: 1) Men must win 2) Men must not fall in love and 3) Men must not cry. I can hear those katana or lightsabers being unsheathed right now.
Considering how much George Lucas dipped into Japanese historical culture for "Star Wars", I'm now kinda wondering whether he had discovered this Suizenji song and used the verse to concoct those Jedi rules. I also scrolled down the list of her singles and found out that she had been releasing six to seven singles a year at one point, including 1970, with "O-shoubu" being her 6th single for that year. She must have already achieved the level of Jedi Master with that sort of energy and stamina.
On last week's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, enka singer Yukino Ichikawa（市川由紀乃）sang a tune in tribute of the late composer Shosuke Ichikawa (no relation, I believe) who had passed away some 12 years ago. And it was one of those songs that I hadn't known the title or the original singer but knew by one particular part in Ichikawa's melody. I think, like a lot of other people, there are certain hooks in songs that activate those memory engrams. Certainly for me, there are plenty of those melodies whether it be the rousing intro for Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）"Aoi Sangoshou"（青い珊瑚礁）or the bass twang and horns that start off the classic Mood Kayo by Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）"Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）.
The song that Yukino Ichikawa had sung last week was Harumi Miyako's（都はるみ）"Namida no Renrakusen" (Ferry of Tears), and I recognized it when I heard the repeated phrasing of "Kon'ya mo kiteki ga, kiteki ga, kiteki ga..."（今夜も汽笛が、汽笛が、汽笛が...The steam whistle, steam whistle, steam whistle tonight as well...）with that blast of horns going higher in pitch each time.
What I hadn't known was that "Namida no Renrakusen" was Miyako's 11th single from October 1965. As I mentioned, this was created by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）with lyrics by Shinichi Sekizawa（関沢新一）, and it became her 2nd million-seller hit after "Anko Tsubaki wa Koi no Hana"（アンコ椿は恋の花）in 1964. Another thing that I was surprised about when it came to "Namida no Renrakusen" was that the gradual blast of horns whenever the mention of steam whistles was sung had not initially been part and parcel of the song's experience, and even listening to some of the other videos with Miyako singing it, sometimes that hook wasn't even there.
Miyako's first appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen in 1965 was for this very song, and in fact, she would also sing it on the 1973 and 1982 broadcasts of the New Year's Eve special. The single would sell about 1.5 million records.
Welcome to October! It's a brisk one out there and there's quite a cooling breeze flowing through home right now. Hopefully folks in Tokyo and the rest of Japan have been recovering from the latest typhoon to whoosh across the archipelago.
The samurai dramas of my childhood were "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）and "Kozure Ohkami"（子連れ狼）, so my brother and I were often enthralled when the good guys flashed their swords and made mincemeat out of the enemy, although gore and blood were thankfully absent in the shows.
I never caught "Zenigata Heiji" in any of its incarnations over the decades, though. Apparently, the title character was an Edo Era policeman in Edo itself whose claim to fame was nabbing criminals by flinging coins with incredible accuracy. Perhaps he was the equivalent of Batman and his batarangs.
Last Tuesday on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）one of the guest singers provided the theme song from the 1966 show on Fuji-TV. The original singer was Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）, who I've always known as the earnest fellow behind the kayo classic "Koukou Sannen-sei"（高校三年生）and some other young student-based tunes from the 1960s. But he also started tackling the more shibui musical material of the historical dramas.
While Shinichi Sekizawa's（関沢新一）lyrics gave a straight-ahead account of the heroism of Heiji (at first glance, I thought Zenigata Heiji was the full name of the hero, but actually it's a nickname of sorts with the first word referring to those weaponized coins), Sanechika Ando's（安藤実親）melody has got quite the jazzy swing to it although I still recognized it as an enka number. I wonder if Ando had been watching some of the detective shows in America from the same decade and had gotten some inspiration to infuse the usual historical drama theme song with some of that Henry Mancini stuff.
"Zenigata Heiji" was first sold in the record stores as part of Funaki's 38th single"Atsumori Aika"（敦盛哀歌...Atsumori Elegy）, released in May 1966.
Actor-singer Masaharu Fukuyama（福山雅治）covered "Zenigata Heiji", and he gives his unplugged performance of the song above. The song was included in "Tama Riku"（魂リク）, his April 2015 album of cover songs. The album hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 20th-ranked album of the year, going Platinum and winning Album of the Year honours at the Japan Gold Disc Awards.
I was wondering about what "Tama Riku" meant, but it's actually a shortened form of "Tama's Requests" which was a segment of Fukuyama's radio show "Masaharu Fukuyama's All-Night Nippon Saturday Special: Tama Radio"（福山雅治のオールナイトニッポンサタデースペシャル・魂のラジオ）with those last two words referring to "Soul Radio". The show had a long run of 15 years from 2000-2015 on Saturday nights from 11:30 to 1:00. I'm pretty sure that fans flocked to the speakers or headphones to listen to Fukuyama's dulcet tones.
Happy Labour Day to you folks out there, and my sympathies to the kids who will be heading for their first day of school tomorrow.
I was doing a bit of cleaning in the middle room of our place since I will be placing a homemade 2nd computer in there the day after tomorrow thanks to my old friend. Lo and behold, I was surprised to find a couple of 45"s behind the desk! Apparently, they must have fallen out of the plastic bag filled with my Dad's collection of ancient kayo records. One of those 45s is as you see in the photo above.
To divert briefly, I remember reading on "TV Tropes" regarding Alan Silvestri's amazing theme song for Marvel's "The Avengers" (2012) that listening to it, one would be so pumped up that he/she would be more than willing to head into battle against the monstrous Chitauri that invaded New York City. And I gotta say that I can totally understand that feeling. That scene where the camera rotated around the team as they readied themselves for the final fight as the theme was playing? I was squeeing inside.
Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand, that 45" is one of the many singles by the late Hideo Murata（村田英雄）, "Sugata Sanshiro" (Sanshiro Sugata). This one was released in January 1964 for one of the TV versions of the depiction of the fictionalized character who helped launch the martial art of judo in the late 19th century.
The reason I brought up a superhero team and its theme song is that I think Murata and his work here may have had the same effect on his fans. When it comes to the late singer and his arrangements, Murata introduced a lot of masculine brio into the subjects of the songs whether it be the game of shogi or the martial art of judo. I'm convinced that he could have pumped up tiddlywinks into something epic and ancient.
Murata's "Sugata Sanshiro" is another musically grand entrance into the world of judo composed by Sanechika Ando（安藤実親）and written by Shinichi Sekizawa（関沢新一）. Sekizawa would also write another pomp-filled song about the martial art for Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）a year later called "Yawara"（柔）. In his lyrics for "Sugata", he would relate about the hardships and hell of going up the ranks of not only judo but also life itself. Sentimentalism is one of the quintessential Japanese things that I've referred to now and then on the blog; suffering for one's art is another such feature. The way Murata sings it, it is truly an honour to feel the pain over and over again to finally achieve that well-earned success.
As I mentioned before, Murata's song was the theme for the Fuji-TV drama that lasted from November 1963 to May 1964. However, the adventures of Sanshiro Sugata, who was based on one of the earliest disciples of judo Shiro Saigo, have been shown repeatedly over the decades through 9 movies and 6 TV dramas. There have even been 2 anime versions based on the character.
The first movie was made in 1943 as the directorial debut of the legendary Akira Kurosawa（黒澤明）. According to the article on the movie, Kurosawa applied "....many of his directorial trademarks such as the use of wipes, weather patterns as reflections of character moods....", so all of you "Star Wars" fans may want to watch this movie if you can track down a copy. The above video has scenes from the 1943 film although the uploader has thrown up a wall of Japanese script.
The video here may be from the 2007 TV drama. Apparently, the producers thought that Sanshiro should have been a recruit for The Avengers. No, we're not talking about Kurosawa here.
