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.
Last night, I was watching a 1986 episode of "The Best 10" from the collection that former contributor and good friend JTM had sent me a few years back. Well, lo and behold, in that episode's special segment, thespians and singers Tetsuya Watari and Ayumi Ishida（渡哲也・いしだあゆみ）came through that silvery revolving door. Even back then, it had become somewhat occasional that older celebrities would appear to sing on "The Best 10".
As it turned out, the two of them were on "The Best 10" to perform a November 1986 duet single called "Wakare Michi" (Parting of the Ways), a bittersweet Mood Kayo on the sad realization that a romantic relationship was coming to an end, despite the cover of Watari and Ishida walking down the path arm in arm. Written by Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）and composed by Masato Sugimoto（杉本真人）, the melody kinda strikes me as what was popular in the arrangement of kayo, whether it be Mood or enka, in the 1980s with that addition of a French accordion and built-in ennui (I'm a sucker for good accordion). From what I heard in the interview with them on "The Best 10", it was the first duet for Ishida at least, but she said that Watari made it very easy to follow along in the recording of "Wakare Michi".
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Well, how about that? The video is straight from that episode of "The Best 10". It's ironic considering the lyrical content since both Ishida and Watari look great together as a couple, and their performance most likely made the song a popular one at karaoke. Watari would continue churning out the singles but for Ishida, "Wakare Michi" would be her 57th and penultimate single for many years until 2015 when she put out her final one to date.
Somehow, I think that the Japanese names for certain plants and flowers lend quite a bit more warmth than their English-language equivalents. For instance, natsu tsubaki（夏椿）is known officially on Wikipedia as Stewartia pseudocamellia. Gesundheit! However, translating it directly brings out the more romantic summer camellia.
As well, enka singer Aya Shimazu（島津亜矢）also provides some justice through her rendition of "Natsu Tsubaki", her 70th single released in July 2021. Being one of the most well-known female singers of her genre, comparing her to some of her contemporaries is quite interesting. Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）always struck me as the representative of steel under silk whenever she sings while Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）has had that Kansai robustness. Shimazu seems to possess that tenderheartedness that she wears quite openly on her sleeve whenever she sings of affairs of the heart. I don't see her often cry during a performance but the tears are still there in her voice, no matter the song, and that also has had her singing English-language soul ballads quite effectively, too.
"Natsu Tsubaki", which was written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and composed by Tetsuya Watari（渡哲也）, has the titular flower being the backdrop of the aftermath of a torrid romance that has clearly come to an end with the protagonist probably picking up the pieces in the form of camellia petals. It does start off with an electric guitar riffing away followed by some horns booming (perhaps reflecting the past affair) before Shimazu softly but clearly describes the scene. This can be just one of those enka examples for taking that lonely drink in a quiet bar somewhere.
Continuing on with the tribute to actor/singer Tetsuya Watari（渡哲也）who passed away about a week ago at the age of 78, a couple of days ago, I wrote up an article on the main theme for "Seibu Keisatsu"（西部警察）, the over-the-top cop show that starred Watari in what was arguably his most famous character. However, I knew that he had also released his fair share of songs over a long period of which his most successful one is the 1973 single"Kuchinashi no Hana" (くちなしの花). Noelle Tham wrote the article for that song so have a look if you can.
However, I also wanted to pay my respects by also covering a song that Watari had recorded, so I'm going with his debut single. "Jun'ai no Blues" (Pure Love Blues) was released in June 1965 and it was the theme song for his 3rd movie, the drama "Makka na Umi ga Yonderu ze"（真紅な海が呼んでるぜ...The Scarlet Sea is Beckoning） that opened up in theatres a month later.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any coverage of that film on YouTube; the above video featuring "Jun'ai no Blues" actually shows scenes from a later film in 1966 according to the comments. However, according to the brief synopsis provided on J-Wiki, Watari and Hideaki Nitani（二谷英明）, "Makka na Umi ga Yonderu ze" is about two sailor brothers coming back from the South China Sea into Kobe and then ending up in organized crime.
Written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Gendai Kanou（叶弦大）, "Jun'ai no Blues" is a very shibui Mood Kayo with the bluesy sax, the slightly forlorn horns, the constantly hammering piano and Watari's final wish to his beloved to go on without him when he leaves this mortal coil with the implication that it might be soon and against his wishes. Methinks that this was probably played right at the end of the film. The movie aside, I think "Jun'ai no Blues" has that arrangement which would make it quite welcome fare in a swanky nightclub in Tokyo back in those days.
For years, on our family forays of Japanese TV via videotape, one of the familiar figures on the kayo shows was the enka singer Mieko Makimura（牧村三枝子）. I haven't seen her in decades but on the videos of "Enka no Hanamichi"（演歌の花道）and any of the music shows that NHK put out, she was always out there. Of course back then, I wasn't into enka or Mood Kayo like I am now so it was just the name and the fact that she sang enka tunes that I remember.
So I decided to take a look at her discography on J-Wiki. And I found her 12th single, "Michizure"(Traveling Companion) from October 1978. The Hokkaido native made her debut in 1972 and several years later, she encountered this song that actor Tetsuya Watari（渡哲也）had released a few years earlier. She basically begged him directly for the chance to record it as a single and obviously her efforts bore fruit.
"Michizure" doesn't refer to traveling partners. It's actually a love proposal from man to woman so that they can become partners for life. It certainly hit a soft spot among listeners as it broke the Top 10 to peak at No. 8 and eventually become the 9th-ranked single for 1979. The ballad hung on for another year to finish at No. 62. Not surprisingly, it won a Japanese Record Award for being a long-seller and sold over a million records. The song is quite tenderhearted and I get images of a couple in traditional garb walking slowly over an arched vermilion bridge, and it is there that the man professes his love to his lady.
A few years in 1981, Makimura made her debut on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen with "Michizure". It would be her first of four consecutive appearances on the show.
Written by Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）and composed by Minoru Endo（遠藤実）, Watari had released the original "Michizure" in November 1975. His version has a pretty pleasant low and rolling delivery but his voice keeps things within a relatively narrow range compared to the delicateness that Makimura has. So perhaps it didn't quite make as much of an impression, peaking at just No. 55 on the charts. However, sales weren't too bad for him at all; his single was able to sell around 200,000 records.
Ironically enough, Makimura would make her 2nd appearance on the Kohaku in 1982 singing "Kuchinashi no Hana"（くちなしの花）, another Watari original.
Last night, I was doing my occasional browsing through YouTube when I saw the above video which had the still of this "don't-fool-around-with-me" lady striking an intimidating pose. Well, I should have known that this was singer-actress Meiko Kaji（梶芽衣子）. She was playing all sorts of deadly rebels and perhaps she is most famous in the West as the singer behind the song that was playing immediately after Uma "The Bride" Thurman scalped her enemy, Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, in "Kill Bill: Volume 1".
Well, the song that she sings here is called "Tokyo Nagaremono" and as soon as I heard the quiet guitar and harmonica and her voice, I knew that the second word in the title had to mean "drifter", and sure enough, the English translation is "Tokyo Drifter". What better way to describe the characters that Kaji has played...that of a lone wolf bumping into trouble or trouble bumping into her and then taking care of it?
"Tokyo Nagaremono" then took me on a short journey which led me to the actual yakuza movie of the same name for which it became the theme song. I've only seen the first few scenes of the 1966 movie and read the Wikipedia description of it and was impressed by the story behind it. The director, Seijun Suzuki（鈴木清順）, was apparently quite the firebrand at his craft and his bosses over at Nikkatsu tried to tone him down (or take him down a few pegs) by slashing the budget for his next film. I'm sure the big guys had initially crossed their arms in glee at the thought of their uncontrollable director finally being made to heel...only for Suzuki and his staff to be inspired as they "....pushed themselves to new heights of surrealism and absurdity."
I caught a few more scenes here and there and there's quite a bit of day-glo colourful psychedelia and even some fast motion almost along the lines of a silent movie but I've got a feeling that my eyes haven't gotten quite the full experience of Suzuki's tour de force film. As for me, I'm not a yakuza film fan at all. However, considering the tidbits I've seen, I would be willing to take a longer look at "Tokyo Nagaremono", the story of a young hitman who has just been laid off, only to get himself involved in some nasty give n' take between two gangs. Who knows? This could have been one of the movies that inspired Quentin Tarentino to make "Kill Bill" in the first place.
Now, to the theme song itself which was released in 1966. The star of the movie, Tetsuya Watari（渡哲也）who plays that young assassin sings "Tokyo Nagaremono" in its full Mood Kayo (with a bit of Hawaiian) glory. And yep, it's that same Watari who would play Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）right-hand man in those cop shows many years later. He looked quite a bit burlier back in his early days.
The intriguing thing is that the composer of the song is unknown. Maybe he got rubbed out? And as for the lyrics, they seem to have shifted. Watari sang the song for two different recording studios, Teichiku and Crown Records, each with a different lyricist, Kotoba Takatsuki（高月ことば）for the former and Kohan Kawauchi（川内康範）for the latter company under the pseudonym Kazuko Kawauchi（川内和子）. No matter what the words were, though, Watari's forlorn if somewhat defiant delivery pretty much spoke for his character, Phoenix Tetsu.
That same year, another version of "Tokyo Nagaremono" was released by Osaka-born singer Hiroko Takekoshi（竹越ひろ子）. Once again, the lyrics were done by yet another writer, Hiroshi Nagai（永井ひろし）. With a similarly Hawaiian Mood Kayo arrangement (that steel guitar seems to take a louder role in this take), Takekoshi sounds as if she were the unlucky lady that got dumped by Phoenix.
Takekoshi was born in 1941 and after graduating from Kishinosato Music Academy in 1959, she started performing as a jazz singer in nightclubs and US military camps before making her recorded debut in 1963 with King Records. With her version of "Tokyo Nagaremono" though, she sold 300,000 records in about 6 months which perhaps made it her biggest hit.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Of course, I cannot finish this article without including Keiko Fuji's（藤圭子）take on the song since she was indeed the Queen of Down-and-Out Kayo. It sounds as if the steel guitar has been replaced with an organ and saxophone, though. Her cover was apparently recorded in 1970 and once more, a different lyricist, Masao Ishizaka（石坂まさを）, put his own stamp on it. I'm kinda wondering if there was an unwritten rule that "Tokyo Nagaremono" could be re-written anytime.
From one episode of the crazy cop series "Seibu Keisatsu" (西部警察) I viewed, I must say that it drastically improved how I saw Tetsuya Watari (渡哲也). I thought he was amazingly cool as the tough-as-nails Detective Chief, Keisuke Daimon (大門圭介), with that scowl, sharp eyes behind a pair of aviator shades and commanding voice. And did he look good in a three-piece suit (as do the other Ishihara Gundan fellows, I realise)! To think that I used to just see him as YujiroIshihara's (石原裕次郎) thuggy sidekick and constantly got him confused with another tough guy, the late Ken Takakura (高倉健) - both had crew cuts and have a similar stoic expression on their faces.
Just like Ishihara, Watari had a singing career aside from his acting. He debuted as a singer in 1965, a year after he began acting, and his most notable single was probably "Kuchinashi no Hana" (it means Jasmine flower, I think), a slow and gentle Mood Kayo tune with a slight Latin flavour to it. Quite the contrast to the rough-and-tumble characters he used to play, if you ask me. I first heard it via the same video that introduced me to Hiroshi Tachi's (舘ひろし) "Nakanaide" (泣かないで), which started with Ishihara having a go at Watari's hit. I guess that was one of the reasons that got me to like the song, besides its catchy-ness. And yes, I did visit that clip many, many times (for... reasons...) so I was bound to get hooked on to it. Watari doesn't have the most pleasant of singing voices as heard later in the clip, especially when compared to Yujiro's, but it's not particularly bad either so I got used to the original - he sounds exactly like how I envision a gruff salary man tackling some enka/Mood Kayo at a karaoke bar after a hard day at work.
"Kuchinashi no Hana" was released in August 1973 and peaked at 4th place on the Oricon charts. It sold about 1.5 million copies, allowing Watari to perform on the Kohaku for the first time in the following year. He then sang "Kuchinashi no Hana" on the annual year-end competition once more in 1993. Writing the lyrics was Kaoru Mizuki (水木かおる), who had also written a number of Watari's songs, and the music was done by the renowned composer Minoru Endo (遠藤実).
Awesome...
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I know "Seibu Keisatsu" is supposed to be a relatively serious police show, but I couldn't help but snicker as I watched its first episode. I mean, the characters were cool albeit a little over the top in their own ways, but a tank chugging through Ginza and so many things going "boom" and going up in flames? Now that was hilarious.
To end off, here's a fun fact: Watari and Ishihara share the same birthday, just that they're 7 years apart.
