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 Tadashi Yoshida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tadashi Yoshida. Show all posts
I came across this quintessential song by Mood Kayo group Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）recently so of course, I was going to post something about it. But for whatever reason, I couldn't find any sign of it on the band's long discography originating from 1958 on J-Wiki. However, when I dug elsewhere, I found Mahina Stars' website via Japan Victor and found out that their discography goes back even further to 1953! Indeed, this particular song "Tokyo no Hito" (Man of Tokyo) was released in 1957.
"Tokyo no Hito", which was written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝雄）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, has that mournful arrangement that Mahina Stars were especially famous for, thanks to the delivery of the voices and the Hawaiian steel pedal guitar that seems to cry out its melody. Not sure if this is what the songwriters had had in mind, but in the immediate postwar era, a lot of young able-bodied people (perhaps as young as middle school graduates) were heavily encouraged to come from the countryside to the cities to man the engines to drive Japan back to economic prosperity. A certain genre of kayo kyoku played upon the homesickness that many of these urban workers in the factories and office buildings probably felt and perhaps one of those songs is "Tokyo no Hito". A good song to drown out one's sorrows, n'est-ce-pas?
When I heard this pleasant song on the most recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）the other day, I assumed that it was one of the veteran enka singers who had tackled this way back since it had that certain old kayo sound. Not surprisingly, I'm once again having crow for dinner.🐦⬛
Nope, when I looked up this tune via J-Wiki afterwards, I found out that "Shinchi Waltz", a laidback enka about the commercial area of Shinchi in Osaka, had actually been recorded by a comedy trio by the name of Let's Go Sanbiki（レツゴー三匹）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, "Shinchi Waltz" was released as the trio's second single in 1973. From what I can glean from Hashimoto's lyrics, it's all about love gained and lost in the titular neighbourhood. And with the titular dance, there is that rhythmical flow in the melody that almost approaches that of a lullaby. The song was a hit, selling around 100,000 records.
Despite the three fellows, Let's Go Shouji（レツゴー 正児）, Let's Go Jun（レツゴー じゅん）and Let's Go Chousaku（レツゴー 長作）, being shown on the single cover, I only hear one of them singing away. Maybe the other two couldn't sing a note to save their lives but they were there in the recording booth as moral support. Anyways, although I was surprised to find out the identity of the singer behind "Shinchi Waltz", I also remembered that comedy groups in Japan are not unknown to cut records. The manzai duo Saruganseki（猿岩石）and the group Imo Kin Trio（イモ欽トリオ）are just two examples I know that have had their hits.
Let's Go Sanbiki first got started in 1968 when Shouji, Jun and then-member Let's Go Isshuu（レツゴー 一修）had trained within a comedy troupe known as Rookie Bakusho Gakudan（ルーキー爆笑劇団）. Their name came about from a Nagoya yakitori restaurant called Sanbiki that they had frequented but added the phrase "Let's Go" for further oomph. Isshuu would leave the team a year later and was immediately replaced by Chousaku. Let's Go Sanbiki would last until the early 1990s when they would go on indefinite hiatus but with the passing of Jun in 2014, the trio would officially break up.
The above is a shot of a menchi katsu（メンチカツ）shop on one of the back streets of Asakusa in Tokyo. One of my friends had recommended it to me as one of the best in town. Considering how big Japan's capital is, that's saying quite a lot, but getting a freshly deep-fried one in that paper sleeve and taking a bite, I could understand my friend's endorsement. Basically, think of a croquette without the mashed potato and just a loose conglomeration of ground beef. It makes for a nice snack before dinner.
Now, this song's appearance on the blog all came about from a request from commenter YMOfan04 who had asked me whether I knew some 70s or 80s kayo kyokuwith an Eastern European flavour; perhaps something with a polka rhythm. I pointed her toward some of the Fashion Music and exotic kayo songs, but at the same time, I also plugged in a request into the Yahoo Japan search engine.
One of the songs that popped up was Koji Tsuruta's（鶴田浩二）"Uramachi Polka" (Backstreet Polka). Just from listening to it, I knew that this wouldn't fit into YMOfan04's parameters since it sounded quite old. And that was the problem there...I couldn't track down when this jaunty kayo was first released. My first attempt was met with failure since the song apparently didn't show up in Tsuruta's J-Wiki discography and the YJ search engine couldn't give me any answers either.
However, I wouldn't take NO for an answer and I gave it another go. This time, I could find out from the images shown in the search engine that "Uramachi Polka" had been the flip side to another Tsuruta song "Ame Shitatare Chanson"（雨滴れシャンソン...Raindrop Chanson） which had been released in July 1954. It isn't 100% proof but I'll take it. In any case, "Uramachi Polka" sounds like a 1950s kayo about the sweet magic of a polka to massage the spirit and soul of a person who's suffering from heartache. Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it certainly has that jaunty rhythm of a polka but also has that familiar kayo melody.
It seems so long ago and yet it's only been a few months since enka singer and actor Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）left this mortal coil at the age of 82. I guess that the music that he provided fans were so imbued with the feeling of a long-ago era that it might be easy to assume that Hashi was someone from a very long time ago.
I was just scrolling through the Top 10 Songs of 1961 and it was evident that Hashi had a lot of hits during that time, including one that came in at No. 9,"Okesa Utaeba" (Why Not Sing A Traditional Folk Song?). Hashi's 3rd single was released in October 1960 and it's definitely an enka tune when compared to some of his later and more muscular rock kayo tunes such as "Zekken No. 1 Start da"（ゼッケンNO.1スタートだ）. Written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it's got that jingly and jangly festival spirit in there although according to the J-Wiki article on "Okesa Utaeba", there was no choreography particularly planned for it in performances of the song unlike some of Hashi's other fare. I certainly thought that there was something min'yo about it.
With the mention of Niigata Prefecture in Saeki's lyrics and perhaps other places within the province, I assume that "Okesa Utaeba" can also be considered to be a go-touchi song or a regional tune as Hashi sings about the one that got away. Maybe the song is supposed to be a salve for that broken heart. Listeners could sympathize because "Okesa Utaeba" managed to sell about 200,000 records and break the Top 10 list in the pre-Oricon era as mentioned above.
It's been a month since veteran singer and actor Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）passed away at the age of 82, and I think the kayo kyoku world has still been mourning his loss. One thing I've noticed as I've posted his music up onto the blog over the past several years, especially his hits from the 1960s is that at one point from the mid-1960s at least, the powers-that-be above and surrounding him seemed to have wanted to give him that tough athletic image in both music and movies. His 1964 hit "Koi wo Suru nara"（恋をするなら）had viewers imagining him hanging ten off of a surfboard and I think they saw him do just that, too, in the movie "Kodoku"（孤独...Loneliness） which had the song as the theme tune. The following year, there was also "Ano Ko to Boku ~ Swim Swim Swim"（あの娘と僕-スイム・スイム・スイム-）with an accompanying movie which had young Hashi hitting the pool.
In between those two examples of his discography, there was his 56th single"Zekken No. 1 Start da"(It's the Start of Racer No. 1) which has him in the milieu of a Grand Prix race although no movie was adapted from it. Released in September 1964, the song does literally bring in the sounds and imagined sights of race time. As with the above two songs, "Zekken No. 1 Start da" was written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）as an example of Rhythm Kayo（リズム歌謡）, perhaps a proto-version of Group Sounds and something that was used to perhaps shake up the career of Hashi a bit more after earlier sweeter hits such as "Itsudemo Yume wo"（いつでも夢を）.
This was still in the pre-Oricon age so no ranking information, although I think that considering "Zekken No. 1 Start da" sold 240,000 records by May 1965, Hashi probably would have scored a Top 10 ranking at least. His Rhythm Kayo material just adds another dimension to his discography when compared to the solemn "Muhyou"（霧氷）and the jaunty "Koi no Mexican Rock"（恋のメキシカン・ロック）. To add one more thing, "Zekken No. 1 Start da" also happens to be one of my long-lost songs from my early memories. I hadn't heard this one since I was literally a baby and what got me to remember it once again was the roaring tires and that accordion which signified the urgency of the race.
It's been several years since I put up the previous article regarding the late singer-actor Koji Tsuruta（鶴田浩二）. For me, the most recognizable song by him will be his most famous hit, the 1970 "Kizu Darake no Jinsei"（傷だらけの人生）.
Well, last night on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, one of the guests sang a moody kayo titled "Aka to Kuro no Blues"(The Red and Black Blues). Not surprisingly, it has been categorized as a Mood Kayo, probably one of the first of the genre, and it was indeed recorded by Tsuruta as a single in 1955. Tsuruta had already been making waves as a primo movie star who could sing; "Aka to Kuro no Blues" cemented that reputation as another hit.
Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it's also another ballad of woe as the protagonist of the piece is probably schlumping in some alley watering hole while bemoaning his lot in life with the hint that a lady in a red and black dress whirled him into a sucker's deal of romance. The horns are there of course, but I also picked up on a bit more jazz than usual in this Mood Kayo.
With "Aka to Kuro no Blues" becoming one of the first big Mood Kayo hits, it was inevitable that some of the other big singing stars would take a swing at the song. Frank Nagai（フランク永井）was one such person with another being the Tough Guy himself, Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）.
When I was a kid hearing some of my parents' old records on the RCA Victor, there was one brand of Japanese music that would have me much later think about what kind of music it was. It definitely sounded Japanese so the kayo kyoku was in there but there was some really frenetic rock drumming thumping away. At the same time, though, I could also remember hearing some jazzy horns blaring as well.
Well, thanks to last night's edition of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, the mystery has been solved. NHK brought out the really veteran kayo singers who had hits from half a century to 60 years previously and that included singer and actor Akira Mita（三田明）. The 78-year-old Mita, who wasn't quite an adult yet at the time he had released his 24th single in August 1966, "Koi no Ameriachi" (Ameriachi of Love), performed that very song last night.
The performance rang some memories including that interesting brand of kayo music from my childhood and that also brought a second question: what the heck was an ameriachi? Well, it is written up on J-Wiki but the best source is none other than "TIME" magazine which explains it as a form of 1960s fusion music bringing Mexico's mariachi and squirting it with a healthy dose of American jazz and/or rock n' roll. Apparently, Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass were some of the best practitioners of the genre.
However, Herb didn't have anything to do with Mita's song. For this one, Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）was the composer and arranger to get the kids back then to move their feet and snap their fingers to the beat. Meanwhile, Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）came up with the lyrics about a year before he had his first major hit as a lyricist when he wrote for Naomi Sagara's（佐良直美）"Sekai wa Futari no Tame ni"（世界は二人のために）.
One of the earlier posts on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was for the classic kayo "Itsudemo Yume wo"（いつでも夢を）by entertainers Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）and Sayuri Yoshinaga（吉永小百合）, a huge hit that also reached my ears early in life.
Well, that was all back in September 1962. But I'm sure that everyone involved was thinking about whether lightning could strike twice with Hashi and Yoshinaga. Sure enough, going into 1963, the songwriters for "Itsudemo Yume wo", lyricist Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composer Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, went to work and created "Wakai Tokyo no Yane no Shita"(Under the Roof of Young Tokyo) for recording and release in April of that year.
Not surprisingly, "Wakai Tokyo no Yane no Shita" was another big hit, officially known as Hashi's 34th single, as it sold a million records. It continues the same sort of happy-go-lucky beat from "Itsudemo Yume wo" as youth enjoy life in an emerging and vibrant Tokyo. A few months later, a movie was concocted based on the song. Yoshinaga starred in it and Hashi was supposed to have been in the film as well, but an incident involving him and others had landed the singer in hospital and so he wasn't able to fulfill the role which was then taken over by actor Mitsuo Hamada（浜田光夫）.
Last night's broadcast of NHK's morning show "Asaichi"（あさイチ）was once again truncated because of the government deliberations program, so what's a family to do? Instead of trying to search for stuff on Jme, I opted this time to look for something on YouTube because I've found that a lot of long-playing kayo kyoku programs have turned up on the platform. And sure enough, I hit the jackpot since there was a program titled "Jinsei, Uta ga Aru"（人生、歌がある...There's Music in Life）.
A show that's been on TV Asahi's satellite channel since 2020, it's been hosted by a mixture of TV Asahi announcers and enka singers, and at the time of the above video, it was the debonair veteran Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）and the lovely Natsuko Godai（伍代夏子）on hosting duties. That video was the one that we caught and it happened to be a 2023 episode commemorating the supposed retirement of kayo kyoku singer and actor Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）who was 80 at the time. I'm surprised that I never mentioned it in any of past articles in 2021 or 2022 but Hashi actually announced back in 2021 that he would be retiring from the spotlight on his 80th birthday on May 3rd 2023 after decades of entertaining the masses.
What looked like the Avengers of the current group of kayo kyoku-singing professionals all assembled to pay tribute to Hashi through covers of his old hits ranging from the haunting "Muhyou"（霧氷）to the jaunty "Koi no Mexican Rock"（恋のメキシカン・ロック）. And it was indeed quite the show for me because I realized that a majority of the songs by him were ones that I had first heard as a diaper-wearing toddler. I repeatedly internally remarked "I know that song!".
However, there were a few songs that had escaped my ears with one being "Wakai Yatsu"(Young Guy) which was Hashi's 23rd single from June 1962. A proud and brassy kayo march, the song was created by the famous songwriting team of lyricist Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composer Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）. It was also used as the theme song for the TBS drama of the same title "Wakai Yatsu ~ Hashi Yukio Show"（若いやつ〜橋幸夫ショー〜）. As shown, Hashi was the main star of the series which featured him as the young son in a wealthy family heading to a Tokyo university to learn about life and academics in the big city.
Singer Yukino Ichikawa（市川由紀乃）provided her version of "Wakai Yatsu" for him on "Jinsei, Uta ga Aru". The tribute ended with both Itsuki and Hashi tearing up a bit at the significance of the event. However, the brine was rather wasted when several months later in 2024, Hashi showed up in Tokyo to announce that he just didn't have the heart to retire after all. And so, he's continued to sing and he has vowed that he'll do so until his final breath. I remember Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）doing much the same thing in the 1980s, so it's not unprecedented.
Just before Christmas, I put up a Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）song titled "Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no"（土曜の夜は羽田に来るの）, one of many songs in the kayo kyoku oeuvre that talk of romance won and lost (usually the latter) at the airport. Well, this one here has the same theme but it's from a different time and style.
Of course, Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）are one of the premier Mood Kayo groups and with just their second single, they presented the melancholy "Yogiri no Air Terminal" (Night Fog Airport). Just gotta have that night fog rolling in for extra ambience. Not surprisingly, there is another final meeting of a couple before departing from each other forever although the airport in question is not specifically identified.
Written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, the Mahina Stars are also joined by a couple of female singers, Ukiko Kagurazaka（神楽坂浮子）and Kaoru Kagurazaka（神楽坂かおる）. Despite the identical family names, I'm not 100% sure whether the ladies are indeed sisters although Ukiko is listed on J-Wiki as being a geisha-turned-singer, much like Mamechiyo（豆千代）as mentioned in Noelle's recent article. With all the voices together and the steel pedal guitar, there is very much a mournful tone in store for listeners. "Yogiri no Air Terminal" was actually the first song that the Mahina Stars sang on the Kohaku Utagassen in their 10-appearance history on NHK's New Year's Eve special ranging from 1959 to 1989.
Singer Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）has been known among kayo kyoku fans for taking part in duets and group songs such as "Tokyo Nightclub"（東京ナイトクラブ）, her collaboration with Frank Nagai（フランク永井）. Of course, though, she has been releasing her own solo singles for years. And what I was struck by when I was poring through her discography on J-Wiki was that in 1960, she released a grand total of 11 singles...almost one a month. That's a lot of productivity and I'm wondering if she didn't end up dangerously exhausted by the end of the year.
Among that huge number of records was her 10th single from August of that year, "Saikai"(Reunion). I first heard it on a recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた...Songs of Japanese Spirit）, the network's show focusing on enka and the old kayo kyoku. Just from the arrangement alone, it's quite the melancholy waltz-like kayo (the lonely clarinet helps) about a woman who has met an old flame for the first time in a while and realizes how much she loved (and probably still loves) him. The punch in the gut is probably that they can never regain that old relationship again due to other factors such as the guy finding a new lover. And the resignation in Matsuo's vocals pinpoints that.
"Saikai" was written by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, the same famous songwriting duo who came up with "Tokyo Nightclub" in 1959 for Matsuo and Nagai.
Oh, Nishi-Ginza Station (West Ginza Station)? Heck, I know that subway station...not too far away from the main intersection, eh?
Ahhh, no. Sorry, that wouldn't be correct since there is no station known as Nishi-Ginza Station on the Tokyo Metro. There is a Higashi-Ginza Station（東銀座駅...East Ginza Station） on the Toei Asakusa Line and the Hibiya Line that I've gotten off at, but putting in Nishi-Ginza Station into the search engines will only get you the title of an early film by the late Shohei Imamura（今村昌平）titled "Nishi-Ginza Eki Mae"(In Front of Nishi-Ginza Station) which was released in 1958.
Just from my observation, it seems as if the less-than-one-hour comedy has been given short shrift by about everybody including Imamura himself, according to this review at "Blueprint: Review". There's not even a J-Wiki article about the movie. Only the second movie that he directed, Imamura was apparently trying to go for some variant on "The Seven-Year Itch" (1955) by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe.
The interesting thing is that Mood Kayo crooner Frank Nagai（フランク永井）seems to have a mystical role to play in the movie as not only the narrator but also a subway staffer and a lounge singer. Not surprisingly, he sings the titular theme song which is how I found out about the movie in the first place. Written by veterans Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, it's a brassy jazz piece with a bit of rockabilly guitar mostly about one fellow's frequent visitations to the club in the Ginza neighbourhood in search of drink and dames. I was a bit struck by that line of "ABC...XYZ" which I thought would have been ideal in a "Sesame Street" tune or something by an aidoru much later in the century.
When I posted the "Top 10 Singles for 1961" in the fading minutes of September 30th 2023, I couldn't help but notice the fact that singer Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）had no fewer than four songs on the list. That was quite the achievement and the last time that I saw a single artist or band with as many as four songs on the Top 10 for a particular list was probably AKB48.
As such, I had to look into and write about at least one of those Hashi hits and so I went with No. 2 on the Top 10, "Nankai no Bishonen" (The Handsome Boy of the South Seas). Released in May 1961 as as his 8th single, when I first saw and translated that title, I envisioned some toned and tanned Polynesian kid having a ton of fun under the sun while wearing a grass skirt. But then, I heard the melody by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）and the lyrics by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）, and realized that this was anything but a tale of tropical Nirvana.
Actually, the young man in the title refers to Shiro Amakusa（天草四郎）, a 17-year-old Japanese Catholic leader of the Shimabara Rebellion (1637-1638), the biggest uprising against the Shogunate in Japanese history. Also calling himself Geronimo and Francisco, the rebellion in what is now Nagasaki Prefecture involved fighting back against the policies enforced by the daimyo of Shimabara which included prohibition of Christianity. In the end, the rebellion was defeated and Amakusa and his thousands of followers were beheaded. So, I can imagine the militaristic and mournful melody of this song which has also been given the subtitle of "Shiro Amakusa's Song".
The above has fresh-faced enka singer Shin Aoyama（青山新）performing "Nankai no Bishonen" in front of the original singer himself.
April 26 2023: I was given the correction for the title earlier today from commenter Yurihan on the proper reading of the title. It is indeed "Fuyuko to Iu Onna" according to the romaji reading of the single cover as located on the Amazon site given to me in the comments below. However, I am leaving the text that I had originally typed in as is so that you can see why Yurihan made the comment without any confusion although the title on the byline has now been corrected.
Hmmm...usually it's been with the names of the singers or songwriters that I've sometimes run into reading problems. This time, though, it's the title although I think I may have a handle on it due to coming across similarly titled kayo over the years.
By the way, I am talking about a 1964 single by the late Frank Nagai（フランク永井）, "Fuyuko to Iu Hito"(A Woman Named Fuyuko). I tried searching for the proper reading of that original title as you can see above as usual but I couldn't find anything and the lyrics by Takao Saeki（佐伯孝雄）don't have the title in there. The title if read directly would come out as "Fuyuko to Iu Onna" but I know that enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）has had his "Hito" (which actually means "person" in English) series of songs based on a woman and a certain geographical area in Japan. For example, there is "Hakodate no Hito"（函館の女...Woman of Hakodate） and "Onomichi no Hito"（尾道の女...Woman of Onomichi）.
Although I hadn't been too sure about why the furigana would say "hito" over the kanji of "onna" when I wrote about Sabu-chan's "Hakodate no Hito", perhaps now I can give a theory. Maybe to refer to "onna" instead of "onna no hito" in the title is a little too rude and abrupt, but the full expression may just be a bit too long for titular purposes. And so, a compromise was made, but again, that's just my theory.
In any case, Nagai's "Fuyuko to Iu Hito" was created by kayo veterans, lyricist Saeki and composer Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, in the form of a stringent tango. The cover has Nagai looking rather pensive over this drink and that's because he is worried and he cares greatly for Fuyuko, a woman that he's probably seen in the drinking joints doing her duties all the while she's hiding great pain inside. He would love to help her but circumstances may indeed be preventing him from doing so. Isn't that a typical kayo for you?
I'd read about entertainer Yukio Hashi's（橋幸夫）intention to retire this May at around his birthday at the age of 80, and according to the press conference above, he actually had already made his announcement last year. Well, earlier on the NHK News, he also declared that he was now looking for his successor. Thinking along the lines of traditional entertainers such as kabuki actors and rakugo storytellers who inherit names from their masters and pass them onto their beloved acolytes, he posited about why couldn't a singer do the same thing. It would be setting a precedent since as far as I know, this had never been done before involving a singer from the kayo kyoku era.
The surprising thing was that I had assumed that the singer was using a stage name of Yukio Hashi which would have made things easier in terms of passing on a name. But looking at his J-Wiki profile, I found out that Yukio Hashi is indeed his birth name, although the second kanji for his first name Yukio（橋幸男）at birth is different from the one that has been used in his career. Maybe that was good enough for Hashi to treat the name that his fans have known all this time as a stage name. Regardless, Hashi is searching for that younger, tougher and more talented singer to become Yukio Hashi II (and again that special second kanji will be changing) to sing his old hits so that fans and others won't ever forget them. I wish him well.
Noelle Tham was good enough to cover Hashi's debut single"Itakogasa" (潮来笠) from July 1960, so I'm going with his second entry, "Are ga Misaki no Hi da"(That's the Light of the Cape) which was released a mere month following his debut. I believe that it was normal for the singles of new singers to come out strong and fast so not surprisingly, his third single"Okesa Utaeba"（おけさ唄えば...Singing in the Traditional Style） came out a little more than a month later in October.
It's been the case sometimes that I have to wonder whether a certain Japanese song is actually an enka or a straight ahead kayo kyoku or Japanese pop song. "Are ga Misaki no Hi da" has that somewhat emotional and slightly mournful tone that the traditional genre of enka is famous for, but Hashi's second single is also arranged through Western instruments and according to the J-Wiki article for "Are ga Misaki no Hi da", it's been categorized as a kayo kyoku. Well, I'll do my usual straddling of the genres here.
Regardless, the song was created by veteran songsmiths, lyricist Takao Saeki（佐伯孝雄）and composer Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）. Hashi sings about a man relating a story to someone while on board a ship rounding a promontory and points out perhaps what could be a lighthouse or a beacon there. It just so happens that the man's home port is there along with the love of his life. It's uncertain whether the relationship is ongoing or is now in the past tense but just judging from the tone of the song and the usual kayo tropes, it could very much be the latter. However, Hashi sings in his last line that the woman has changed the man no matter what the status of the relationship is.
Through a book that Hashi co-wrote titled "Hashi Yukio Kayo Tamashi"（橋幸夫歌謡魂...Yukio Hashi The Soul of Kayo） and referenced on J-Wiki, he stated that because of the lightning-quick release of his early singles in the 1960s, although he personally liked "Are ga Misaki no Hi da", the hits of his first and third singles rendered his second single into a less venerated song. Still, it managed to sell around 100,000 copies throughout 1961 so it was no big flop by any means.
Getting back to the news of Hashi's retirement from the geinokai, I really felt that time has been going by since he will be leaving in a few months as a familiar face in entertainment and as one of the Ganso Gosanke（元祖御三家）. One other member of the trio, Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）, died almost a year ago, which would leave only Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）.
Welcome back to the blog, Frank Nagai（フランク永井）! It's been a few years since the kayo crooner has been posted up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with the most recent one being his "Tokyo Cachito/Roppongi Waltz"（東京カチート・六本木ワルツ）. I wrote on those two back in March 2019.
This time around, though, Nagai's taking on the other big metropolis of Osaka when he sings "Osaka Roman" which came out in 1966. With lyrics by Tsuneo Ishihama（石浜恒夫）and music by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, I've always been a little unsure about the definition of roman in Japanese, especially with its depiction in hiragana（ろまん）within the title; usually it appears in katakana（ロマン）. My guess is that the songwriters wanted to emphasize the softness of the situation through the more rounded hiragana when compared with the harder and more angular appearance of katakana.
Sure enough, Nagai trills his way through what I think is a form of kayo lullaby regarding the third-most populous city in Japan. Going through Ishihama's lyrics, my take is the roman here refers to the one definition of romance instead of other meanings such as story or romanticism. This might be something that an Osakan is cooing to his girlfriend while on the verge of proposing. He's setting the stage that he's ready for the highs and lows of marriage and that she's exactly the one to spend life with.
The melody by Yoshida is another one of those examples where I'm not sure whether the song belongs solidly in enka or Mood Kayo. As I mentioned, there is that place namedropping in "Osaka Roman" including sites such as Dotombori and Kitahama along with the languid underlying cha-cha rhythm, both aspects of which can be part of Mood Kayo. On the other hand, there's something enka about the main melody that hints at the heart-on-one's-sleeve love within a couple in the Japanese countryside; it's just been arranged with the saucy horns of the other genre.
Regardless, "Osaka Roman" is an intimate love song of the city for those young couples from back in the day. With Nagai also using examples of Kansai-ben in his singing, the song is most likely considered to be a go-touchi song（ご当地ソング）of the area along with some other kayo that I've listed in that Author's Pick over a month ago. Incidentally, this isn't the velvet-voiced singer's first tiff at an Osaka-based song. Noelle Tham has written up an article on his 1964 "Osaka Gurashi" (大阪ぐらし).
Unfortunately, the thumbnail photo here isn't quite accurate since this was taken during the fall of2017 but it looks festive enough by Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. What I wanted to get across is that the summer festival season is most likely back in Japan considering that the Gion Festival of Kyoto returned in all of its glory last month and I saw the news report on the annual fireworks festival in Niigata Prefecture.
Mind you, this video uploaded by dodondo was apparently taken at some Wakayama Prefecture festival in late September some years back, but the important thing is that even in the early days of autumn, people can still enjoy a good matsuri. Of course, a festival means a lively dance to an ondo around the yagura stage. And the first song featured here is "Tozai Nanboku Ondo" (Traditional Folk Song of the East, West, South and North).
Recorded as a duet featuring Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）and Akemi Misawa（三沢あけみ）and consequently released in June 1967, "Tozai Nanboku Ondo" was created by lyricist Takao Saeki（佐伯孝夫）and composer Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, two of Hashi's mentors in the music industry. With those taiko drums and shamisen in play, it would be more than enough for folks to stand up and get into that ring around the yagura.
According to J-Wiki, the song was recognized as Hashi's 90th single, and I also found out that the singer has had the second-highest number of duets with Misawa, next to his collaborations with actress/singer Sayuri Yoshinaga（吉永小百合）. In any case, for those KKP viewers in Japan, let me know if you have any local festivals coming up this month.
When I was making my acquaintance with the various parts of Tokyo once I landed there at the end of 1994, one area that I got to know was Roppongi, one of the big entertainment spots in a megalopolis filled with entertainment spots. At the time, the action was basically on the main strip which is Gaien-Higashi Dori which goes through Roppongi Crossing and heads over to Tokyo Tower. It was (and still is) lined with all sorts of establishments such as The Hard Rock Café, Tony Roma's, a lot of clubs and bars, and the notorious Gas Panic. There is a certain Showa Era grottiness to the avenue that kinda developed over the decades but there is no doubt that the strip has been popular especially when Halloween hits the area.
However, perhaps to counteract that grottiness, the huge shiny development that is Roppongi Hills rose up just west of Roppongi Crossing in 2003. With its representative Mori Building jutting up like a massive silver cylinder, I remember when the area first opened up since for the first few months, it was virtually impossible to enter because of everyone else who had wanted to take a look at the place. But I eventually got into the complex and even got to meet a student in one of the cafés there on a weekly basis. Some years after that, another commercial complex was erected by the name of Tokyo Midtown north of Roppongi Crossing. There was a decent hamburger joint there and one of my favourite tonkatsu restaurants, Hirata Bokujo, is also located in Midtown.
Of course, being born and raised in Toronto, I never got to know what Roppongi was like back in the early days. Was it a gleaming place to be seen in economically recharging Tokyo? No real idea, but perhaps I can get a slim glimpse via Akira Mita's（三田明）"Night in Roppongi", his September 1968 single.
Mita was someone that I first introduced through his November 1963 debut single"Utsukushii Juudai"（美しい十代）which was representative of that innocent seishun kayo of young love in high school. But with "Night in Roppongi", it looks the lad has grown up and is taking on the grownup entertainment and love in the famous neighbourhood. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, the song takes full advantage of the Group Sounds music that was having its heyday during that time, thanks to the jangly guitars and rollicking percussion.
If any of you viewers ever get to Tokyo for the first time, have a walk through the area, old and new.
I caught this being performed by a married couple on today's episode of "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）which took place this week in Okinawa. Good to see that the show is still active out there, by the way.
This article is for the Sayurists since we've got actress Sayuri Yoshinaga（吉永小百合）paired up with singer Akira Mita（三田明）for the jaunty and hopeful "Asu wa Sakou Hana Sakou" (Let Tomorrow Blossom, Let The Flowers Blossom), a single that was released back in April 1965. Yoshinaga is no stranger to duets especially since she performed one of the most famous kayo of them all with Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, "Itsudemo Yume wo"（いつでも夢を）back in 1962.
(karaoke version)
Not surprisingly, this was another hit for Yoshinaga, and true to form for the connection between music and cinema back then, "Asu wa Sakou Hana Sakou" got to become a movie released later in August under the same title starring Yoshinaga as a health worker assigned to a backwater village outside of Tokyo that is in desperate need of help of any kind due to the rampant poverty. I've not seen the movie, but with a title song this genki, I think it's pretty much a given that the village gets at least somewhat better by the end. Mita himself even shows up in one scene as a popular entertainer with the same name who just happens to be from that very village. Hmm...guess which song he sings with Yoshinaga? By the way, the above video has Mita's performance with singer Midori Oka（丘みどり）.
The lyrics were provided by Sou Nishizawa（西沢爽）while the melody was composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, the same person behind "Itsudemo Yume wo".
As has been reflected on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years, veteran singer Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）has been able to tackle a number of genres including enka, Mood Kayo and even some rock. Tonight, it'll be some enka.
I heard this one on last Saturday's episode of "Songs of Japanese Spirit" on NHK's satellite channel, and it's quite the jaunty tune called "Edo no Hana" (The Flower of Edo). If I'm not mistaken, it was actually Hashi himself singing this one on the stage (I was actually around the corner from the telly having dinner at the time so I couldn't see the screen).
"Edo no Hana" was actually the B-side forHashi's 122nd single"Mukou Tooru wa"（向こう通るは...Passing Yonder） from October 1973, and both songs were used as the theme songs for NTV's adaptation of historical novel series "Denshichi no Torimonochou"（伝七捕物帳...The Memoirs of Denshichi The Detective）. It was evidently quite the popular series since it had first been televised on TBS in 1968 for a few months before NTV had its time with its own version for four years and then TV Asahi produced yet another version in 1979.
While "Mukou Tooru wa" served as the opening theme for the first half-year of the NTV series, "Edo no Hana" was the ending theme for those early episodes before taking over as the opening theme for the remainder of the series. Kazuya Senke（千家和也）was the lyricist while Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）took care of the music.
_(5071620010).jpg)
