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.
The first day of spring supposedly arrived at 5:01 am this morning. It's not exactly warmer out there and in fact, it's looking downright gray but I'll take everyone's word for it. As my friend tells me annually, here in Toronto, we will never be sure of spring's arrival until May.
Anyways, I didn't realize it until yesterday but I had yet to put up an Author's Pick on spring-titled songs so here are some of them although I'm sure that there are plenty of those out there in the kayo kyoku/J-Pop zeitgeist.
A little over two weeks away from Christmas, and I think that there are probably quite a few folks in my neck of the woods that are already clamoring for spring to haul ass to arrive here. It seems that the wintry weather has come by in full force although I'm fairly confident knowing how unpredictable the temperatures are in Toronto that there will be a fair share of balmy days ahead even in the winter.
Then, perhaps it might be a good time to present "Ashita, Haru ga Kitara" (Tomorrow, When Spring Comes) by actress-singer Takako Matsu（松たか子）. It's about time that I introduced her to the annals of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" because at that point in the late 1990s, she became quite popular for her music as much as for her performances as a thespian.
"Ashita, Haru ga Kitara" was her debut single right on the first day of spring in 1997, and according to the write-up for the song on Wikipedia, it sounds as if one of the directors for the popular drama "Long Vacation" lightly suggested that she try her voice behind the mike. The Wikipedia article is quite the love letter about Matsu's first foray at singing so I will let that article speak for itself. What I can add is that I remember "Ashita, Haru ga Kitara" coming out with me previously wondering how she would sound since I've heard other actors going behind the recording mike and not being all that successful.
But, y'know...Matsu came across like a breath of fresh spring air. No, I mean she didn't sound like an epic soul diva but there was something very calming and down-to-earth about her singing as if she were your good buddy with a better-than-average set of vocal cords. With all of the Komuro Boom that was steamrollering across pop music at the time, it was quite refreshing to hear Matsu.
Yuji Sakamoto（坂元裕二）took care of the lyrics while Daisuke Hinata（日向大介）composed the music. "Ashita" reached No. 8 on Oricon, and ultimately sold about half a million copies. In the previous year, Matsu had been a co-host on the Kohaku Utagassen but with the hit of her first single, she became a participant herself in the New Year's Eve special.
(Sorry, but the video has been taken down.)
I could imagine "Ashita" being popular among the karaoke crowd, and even on the old celeb karaoke show "Yoru mo Hippare"（夜もヒッパレ）on NTV, Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）had her chance to cover it as well.
Ahh, the lovely Takako Matsu（松たか子）! She has been quite the presence on Japanese TV whether it be through the various commercials and her time as one of the big stars in many a drama, notably starring with Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）of SMAP in shows such as "Love Generation" and "HERO". In fact, I thought those two were becoming the J-Dorama version of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (aye, I know I'm stretching it here but I did have to analogize) at one point.
Plus, she comes from quite the family of performers. To start off, her father is Koshiro Matsumoto IX（九代目 松本幸四郎）, a famed kabuki actor who has also appeared in his fair share of television dramas including the Fuji-TV show from 1995 "Ou-sama no Restaurant"（王様のレストラン...Restaurant de Roi） in which he played a charismatic legendary waiter of a French restaurant. Then, there is her older brother, Somegoro Ichikawa VII（七代目 市川染五郎） who isanother kabuki actor/actor, and another acting older sister whose husband is also a thespian. And it seems that I've only started with that list. Matsu herself has attained a title according to Wikipedia which is Koka Matsumoto I（初代 松本幸華）as the first master of the Matsumoto School of Nippon Buyo (Japanese dance). I gather that if there is an acting family that could be compared to the Barrymores or Carradines in the United States, this family could be it.
Matsu has even hosted the Kohaku Utagassen once in 1996 and then appeared on the same show the next year when she debuted as a singer. I never followed all that faithfully to her career but my impression was that her music was in the very mellow pop vein.
She's had her share of hits among the 21 singles she's released up to 2009 including her first 2 releases breaking into the Top 10. However, the song that I've always associated her with has been "Koishii Hito" (The One I Miss) which was her 12th single from March 2001.
It went as high as No. 16 on Oricon but I just thought that this was the musical footprint that she left for me. The music by singer-songwriter Yuka Kawamura（川村結花）is perfect for listening in that small but stylish cafe in the wilds of Aoyama or Omotesando, and Matsu's singing is so mellow that I could take my coffee black without needing cream as my ears take it all in. Both Matsu and Kawamura collaborated on the lyrics. It is interesting how the song starts up as if the orchestra was warming up, though.
The original shortened music video for "Koishii Hito" has also helped retain my enjoyment of the song. There is just something very comforting watching Matsu with her cat under that train overpass while it's playing.
Last year, Matsu gave birth to her first child, a daughter. Since I wasn't really too clued into songwriters or musicians back during my time in Japan, I didn't really pay too much attention to the news when Matsu had married musician-songwriter Yoshiyuki Sahashi（佐橋佳幸）in 2007. He is represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a couple of compositions for Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, "Sentimental Kangaroo" and "Moonlight Picnic" although he has done many more for her and other singers.
