Jouji Ogasawara -- Wakayama no Yoru（和歌山の夜）

 

We do have the runup toward December 25th so yes, there will be some more J-Xmas songs coming our way in the next several days. However, I figure that a change of scenery, melodically speaking, is always rather nice.

The other day, we got back from shopping and one of our food purchases happened to be a few examples of instant noodles in the form of Wakayama ramen. I know that there are the specific special areas for ramen in Japan such as Fukuoka and Hokkaido but I didn't know that even my ancestral home of Wakayama Prefecture had its own ramen. Then again, knowing how prolific each prefecture is in terms of its cuisine, I guess there would be a type of ramen for every one of them.

Anyways, that got me thinking about any other Wakayama-based kayo kyoku. Back in 2017, I posted the Mood Kayo "Wakayama Blues" （和歌山ブルース）by  Kiyono Koto（古都清乃）which was released in 1968. Well, it took some doing but I was able to find another old chestnut: "Wakayama no Yoru" (Wakayama Night) that came out a little later in 1970. It was recorded by a fellow named Jouji Ogasawara（小笠原浄二）who had begun his career in that year of 1968.

Written by Takao Yamada（山田孝雄）and composed by both Ogasawara and his younger brother, music producer Masaru Ogasawara（小笠原勝）, it's got that typically bluesy saxophone and the even-tempered guitar leading the way while Jouji croons about the ending of another love affair somewhere in the prefecture (I'm assuming Wakayama City itself). There is the usual name-dropping of places within Wakayama such as Shirahama down in the southern end and the single cover has Ogasawara in a suit while sporting a guitar around his shoulder within a bar area, presumably to visit the various establishments to croon a song or two.

Not sure whether "Wakayama no Yoru" became a hit for Ogasawara but perhaps the fact that I haven't seen any stage coverage of the song through other videos may indicate that it was more of a regional release than a national one which would get the singer in front of the TV cameras. According to one site, Jouji Ogasawara passed away in 1994 at the age of 50.

To finish off, you can take a look at the video below for Wakayama ramen from Burabura Japan. My feeling is that the instant stuff we're going to have on New Year's Eve will not measure up to the authentic noodles but hey, that's life.

Hiroshi Uchiyamada & Cool Five -- Minato no Wasuregusa（港の忘れ草）

 

Stay classy, Kiyoshi Maekawa（前川清）and Cool Five. Yes, I know that the official name is Hiroshi Uchiyamada & Cool Five（内山田洋とクール・ファイブ）, but Maekawa is the lead vocalist here. Anyways, they do look spiffy in their formal wear as they should be a premier Mood Kayo group.

Over there in the thumbnail for the top image, they look more like intrepid police officers from Japanese television. They still look plenty shibui. The setting of the harbour is fine, though, since the song for this article is their 33rd December 1977 single "Minato no Wasuregusa". Now, a little more information on that last word of the title since it does describe two different examples of flora. Wasuregusa can mean daylilies or tobacco, according to Jisho.org. 

Y'know, I'd probably go with the latter since when it comes to Mood Kayo, the singers and the characters do tend to pop out the cigarettes for that pensive smoke which would mean that "Minato no Wasuregusa" can be Cigarettes of the Harbour. I was also thinking about daylilies as well since lilies have been used to signify death, but according to Wikipedia, daylilies aren't really lilies.

Even for vocalist Maekawa who can wear plenty of heart on his sleeve, "Minato no Wasuregusa" is particularly drenched in the lacrymal fluid as he sings about a fellow who is absolutely devastated over the pending death of a romance. In fact, he uses the analogy of that harbour not as safe shelter but as a dark corner to curl up in a fetal position for the foreseeable future.

Written by Takao Yamada（山田孝雄）and composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）with arrangement by Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）, I'm not sure whether the lyricist meant to do so but when Mae-Kiyo wrenches out those desperate words of "kurai, kurai no minato no you ni..."（暗い、暗いの港のように...like the dark, dark harbour）, I also think that perhaps there is some clever interlingual homonymic play between those first two words and "cry, cry". I would like to raise my Roget's Thesaurus in tribute. Anyways, "Minato no Wasuregusa" got as high as No. 76 on Oricon.

Sueo Masuzawa -- Saraba Haiseiko（さらばハイセイコー）

A long time ago back in the 20th century as a young pudgy lad in Toronto, my family used to go down to the local horse racetrack known as Greenwood Raceway by Lake Ontario and watch the races down there. The highlights, aside from the actual races, were making origami boats and cranes out of discarded tickets and the pizza sold there that tasted like cheese and pepperoni baked onto cardboard (mind you, fibre is important for good health).

When I was writing the article on Salty Sugar's "Hashire Koutarou"（走れコウタロー）in early November, I also discovered this song called "Saraba Haiseiko" (Farewell Haiseiko). It's an enka that stands out since it was written and composed as a tribute to a champion racehorse called Haiseiko (1970-2000), and the performer himself wasn't a singer by profession, but a racing jockey and a horse trainer by the name of Sueo Masuzawa（増沢末夫）who was the main jockey for Haiseiko.

"Saraba Haiseiko" was released on New Year's Day 1975 as a song in commemoration of Haiseiko's retirement, and I have to say that if Masuzawa had ever decided to leave the racing industry, I think that he could have become a pretty decent enka singer. The introductory trumpets are a nice touch as they resemble the horns that I remember hearing at Greenwood. And the overall melody by Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）is a proud anthem for the champion horse given by his partner-in-arms (or saddle, as it were).

The creation of the song was definitely kept in the family, so to speak. The lyrics were provided by Iwao Kosaka（小坂巌）, a horse racing journalist, with assistance by songwriter Takao Yamada（山田孝雄）. "Saraba Haiseiko" made it up all the way to No. 4 on Oricon and finished the year as the 37th-ranked single.

Mieko Makimura -- Koi Ningyo（恋人形）

Last year, I mentioned about enka singer Mieko Makimura（牧村三枝子）, someone who we, as a family, used to see rather frequently on the old VHS tapes of music programs from Japan. Apparently, according to her J-Wiki article, she has been performing again since 2004 after several years of serious illness.

(Commenter Kaz has given corrections to my description below but I'm keeping the text intact so that future readers will want to know what was corrected. Of course, though, I have changed the title above.)

Makimura had her big hit in the late 1970s with "Michizure"（みちづれ）which was an enka love proposal, but tonight, I wanted to go further back in time to her debut. After her first single "Shojo wa Otona ni Narimashita"（少女は大人になりました...The Girl Has Become A Woman）in July 1972, her second single came out in December of that year. Titled "Koibito Katachi", I initially had wondered about how to read those three kanji as you can see as usual at the top. Those three kanji could conceivably be read as "Koi Ningyo" which would translate as "Love Doll", but I don't think the lyrics by Takao Yamada（山田孝雄）seem that racy.

Instead, "Koibito Katachi" (The Shape of Lovers) has Makimura singing from the man's point of view as he wistfully remembers the names of past paramours and wonders why he can't seem to find that Ms. Right. In the end, he resignedly leaves Tokyo to head for his hometown and his mother. Yamada's lyrics are pretty melancholy but I have to say that the music by Mitsuyoshi Yanagida（柳田光義...I hope that his given name is pronounced correctly） sounds pretty Mood Kayo; in fact, I could even imagine the Cool Five covering this one easily. But, of course, this is Makimura instead of Kiyoshi Maekawa（前川清）extolling the stories of lost loves, and the teenager had quite the powerful voice...something along the lines of a Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）with a bit of Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）in there.

The whole song is all very pleasingly nostalgic, and although it wasn't a hit for Makimura, it's a nice discovery for me.

Sakura to Ichiro -- Showa Kare Susuki （昭和枯れすゝき）

I've often read or heard that the genre of enka has been compared to blues music in America. Well, I think I've just come across the ultimate illustration of that comparison. After finishing another day of translation work, I decided to do a little bit of roaming for music and information online. Getting to J-Wiki, I checked out what some of the top songs for 1975 were, and at the very top of the list was this song titled "Showa Kare Susuki".

Reading the article for the song before hearing the song, I saw that it was an enka tune. The title was not familiar to me, but then again since I'm more of a casual rather than ardent fan of the genre, I wasn't particularly surprised. And though it is difficult to believe these days, enka tunes did break the yearly Top 10 on Oricon quite a bit more often in the older days. Still I was interested in what made "Showa Kare Susuki" tick so that it would end up as the No. 1 song of the year.

As I pointed out in the introduction, I think I came across a truly blues enka tune. "Showa Kare Susuki" means Dried Out Pampas Grass of the Showa Era, and the title refers to the protagonist couple. The Hiroshi Mutsu（むつひろし）-composed ballad begins with this notably fragile-sounding koto...perhaps even exhausted might not be too far-fetched an adjective. That was a big signal as to what Takao Yamada's（山田孝雄）lyrics plaintively sung by Sakura to Ichiro（さくらと一郎）would indicate.

Sakura and Ichiro forlornly croon about how their efforts against the cruel world have come to naught, so now they talk about ending it all with the saving grace being that at least they can end it all together. How cheerful! I gather that "Showa Kare Susuki" has never been on the playlist at a wedding reception. When it comes to the older kayo, I've often garnered the impression that there have been sad lyrics behind the cheerful facade of music. But even this song does away with the melodic mask, although there is a certain exquisite beauty to the languid music by Mutsu as if it were describing a warrior on his last legs of life still dying happily because he/she could do so in a lover's arms after crawling home.

"Showa Kare Susuki" was actually released in July 1974, but it didn't do much action in the short term. However, it was used as a featured song in the popular TBS comedy series "Jikan desu yo"（時間ですよ...It's Time） later that year, and that provided the engine to get it up the charts. It finally hit No. 1 on April 28 1975 and stayed up there until May 12. The ballad became a million-seller (1.5 million records according to J-Wiki) and finally ended up as No. 1 for the yearly charts of 1975.

Interestingly enough, the perennial Mood Kayo duo of Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo（フランク永井・松尾和子）did a cover version of "Showa Kare Susuki" (but I don't know when) which sounds exactly how I would have assumed Nagai and Matsuo would do it. The Mood Kayo arrangement makes it awfully difficult to believe that the doomed man and woman are off to oblivion...more likely off to the next nomiya.

The original duo of Sakura to Ichiro is Ichiro Tokugawa（徳川一郎）and Sakura Kanno（河野 さくら）, a stage name for Kazuko Kanno（菅野和子）. The two were actually individual singers until they got together in 1974. In 1978, the duo was broken up when Sakura decided to go solo once more, but a second Sakura was recruited in the form of Sakura Yamaoka（山岡 さくら）later on and the pair is apparently still going.

As a postscript, Sakura to Ichiro presented a new song in 2006 titled "Heisei Kare Susuki" (平成枯れすすき...Dried Out Grass of the Heisei Era). Keep the sad times rollin'!

Nobue Matsubara -- Onna no Defune （おんなの出船）

Get ready to drink down that glass of shochu or ochoko of sake. Enka veteran Nobue Matsubara's （松原のぶえ）debut single of "Onna no Defune" (A Woman's Departing Ship) just makes me wanna head over to that small nomiya in Shinbashi, Tokyo. And it has that famous first line of "Namida, namida, namida, namida..."（涙、涙、涙、涙....Tear, tears, tears, tears）as the song follows that classic enka trope of "Parting is such sweet sorrow". Once again, man and woman must separate as she gets on that ship for most likely the last time.

"Onna no Defune" was written by Takao Yamada（山田孝雄） and composed by Toru Funamura（船村徹）, and released in 1979. Although it didn't get into the yearly Oricon rankings, it did earn a Newcomer's Prize for Matsubara who was around 18 years old at the time. The Oita Prefecture native had been first scouted as a junior high school senior and made her way up to Tokyo during her high school years with the intention of becoming a singer. Ten years after making her auspicious debut, she was given the very first Hibari Misora Prize at the Japan Record Awards as the best female enka vocalist. Matsubara would make her debut on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1985, six years after hitting it big with "Onna no Defune", premiering with that very song.