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.
When it comes to South Korean singer Cheuni（チェウニ）, I've always known her as someone who had gotten her career in the 1990s singing a mix of enka and other genres mixed together...something that I've labeled New Adult Music. It was quite the musical version of blended refined whiskey.
However, after I'd posted my previous Cheuni song, "Glass no Tokyo Tower"（ガラスの東京タワー）, a month ago, one commenter had to give me a correction in that Cheuni's debut had actually happened perhaps as much as a dozen years earlier than expected. For some reason, although J-Wiki had noted her debut as a child singer in the early 1970s at the age of 8 and a Japanese album release at the end of that decade via what is now known as the Taihei Record Company, there is currently no mention at all of a couple of singles in 1979 and 1981.
The anonymous commenter thankfully guided me to the above video on YouTube and it was for her debut single in Japan, "Wasurenagusa" (Forget-Me-Nots), which was released in 1979. She was in her mid-teens at the time so there was of course none of that familiar rasp in her vocals but listening to them now, I can still recognize them as Cheuni's. Considering her age, the single may have indeed been marketed as one belonging to an aidoru and there is something in the arrangement that hints at enka but I think most of the song gives me folk and kayo vibes.
Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）provided the lyrics while the melody was composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）, the veteran songwriter who also had a hand in bringing over another lovely teen ingenue from overseas to Japan: Agnes Chan（アグネス・チャン）.
"He was active in Japan for over a decade, and was pretty popular in Osaka because of its large Zainichi Korean population!"
"I see. I only just found out about this singer today, though."
"You idiot... I have his fan club articles - I'll give them to you."
And that's how I got to know about the existance of South Korean trot* and enka singer Na Hoon-a (羅勲児/나훈아), or Nafuna (ナフナ).
From 好っきゃねん！！羅勲児, the compilation of the Japan Na Hoon-a fan club's (Ara Club 我羅 倶楽部) publications
I had never been up to score on the activities of Korean enka singers. I knew there was an influx of them in from about the late 1970s to the 1990s, which seemed to begin with the immense popularity of Cho Yong-pil's (조용필) Pusan Ko e Kaere (釜山港へ帰れ). I also was aware of the spunky Kim Yon-ja(김연자) and her hearty vocals, since she was a constant fixture on kayo shows like (Shin) BS Nippon no Uta (日本のうた) and Kayo Concert (歌謡コンサート) back when I watched them religiously. But that was about where my knowledge ended... I should probably not tell that enka enthusiast this, lest he actually give me a knuckle to the head. In my defense, digging real deep into the 70s to 90s enka realm hadn't been my biggest priority. But I was aware that it was high time I went beyond my standard boundaries of the likes of Hachiro Kasuga and try something new. And what's newer than a Korean trot-enka singer I had completely no idea about?
The first song by Na that hit my ears had been Nidoto Koi Nado (二度と恋など), an electric kayo bop. The enka enthusiast had sung this at a karaoke recital I'd watched some weeks ago for want of something better to do that day, which was how I got around asking him about the Korean singer. After that, I went about sampling more of Na's works on YouTube and Spotify - mainly the Japanese tunes first, because I didn't (and still don't) know a sliver of Korean. That was when I stumbled upon Minato Koi-uta.
Minato Koi-uta (Harbour Love Song) - as far as titles go, that's as enka as it gets. Acoustic guitar and accordion in the intro - yup, that's that quintessential 70s and 80s enka arrangement. But cutting through the rustic do-enka feel is the electronic beats and wavey effects that give the song a modern, almost new music edge. That interesting fusion arrangement, courtesy of Nobuyuki Sakuraba (櫻庭伸幸), alone was enough to perk my ears up.
From what I gather from Na’s Wikipedia page (in English), Minato Koi-uta was released in February 1985. Written by lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi (山口洋子) and composed by Kosho Inomata (猪俣公章), both highly renowned enka-kayo songwriters in the second half of the Showa era, this seemed to have been Na’s first fully Japanese single. Yamaguchi writes the song in the perspective of a woman who pines for her lover, who's a sailor (or fisherman) and rarely returns to terra forma. While Yamaguchi's words paint a pitiful image of our protagonist, it's Na's impactful, heart-wrenching delivery that really drives home how much she is in love with the man.
Na in Nidoto Koi Nado sounds rather measured, but one can feel the pent up emotion bubbling just under the surface. Minato Koi-uta, perhaps in simply being a do-enka, had the guy pulling out all the stops - it's as though his heart was being twisted and ripped out by loneliness, frustration, and helplessness. Na's sudden-explosive-bursts-of-anguish singing style is contrary to what I've been listening to for several years, and it actually reminds me a little of Kiyoshi Maekawa (前川清), which is probably part of why it commanded my attention. Combined with the lower register he tapped into for this song... it's kinda hot. And, I mean, Na is also kinda hot, so there's that.
Anyway, as far as I know for now, Na was born Choi Hong-gi in Busan (South Korea) on 11 February 1947. He began his career as a singer-songwriter in Korea in 1966, finding great success. However, he had only broken into the Japanese market in late 1984 after a concert in Osaka of that year, and released Minato Koi-uta with Teichiku Records the following year. Na would appear on Japanese media fairly regularly, fostering Korea-Japan cultural ties, and would even sing some of his works in both Japanese and Korean. He'd even been a guest on one of Hachi's radio shows, Kasuga Hachiro no Jinsei Banzai (春日八郎の人生バンザイ) in 1987. Apparently, the enka veteran had a good time discussing enka and trot, as well as sharing experiences in songwriting with the tenacious younger singer, who did both. On that note:
"Y'know your Tadaharu Nakano draft - Adding Butter to Miso Soup?"
"Yeah?"
"It reminded me of [Na] comparing trot and enka to kimchi and takuan."
"Oh, yeah, they are (can be) both made of radish."
What I really meant by saying that at the time was that indeed both genres have their differences, the major one being the country of origin, yet having striking similarities, so I think I know where Na was going with the comparison. What a cool allegory! I did notice that several Korean trot-enka singers like Na sound a lot more dramatic and emotional, and thus sound more aggressive, than a lot of the popular local Japanese enka singers. I don't listen enough to trot to know if that's the norm, or if the likes of Na and the abovementioned Kim Yon-ja just roll that way, but it certain feels like that chili spice in kimchi that takuan lacks.
I can be quite stubborn when it comes to picking up music/book/film recommendations if they don't seem to align with my tastes on first glance. Na's style is quite intense and overwhelming, so I don't find myself going too far down the Na Hoon-a rabbit hole, but I like him more than I'd expected myself to. Fair play to you, enka enthusiast. Oh - if wasn't already apparent, the enka enthusiast had been a big fan of Na's since at least 1984, and did a lot to facilitate his activities in Japan.
*Trot, simply put, seems to be South Korea's answer to enka. Similar themes, highly dramatic and emotional singing styles, and somewhat similar-sounding melodies. Noelle from 17/4/26: I realised it was reductive to equate trot directly to enka. The more I look into it, the more I realise how broad it actually is. Some do sound like enka and ryukoka to me, but some sound like 70s to 80s pop songs, among other things. It sort of reminds me of the Kayokyoku and its vastness.
P.S. There was a theory that enka had originated in Korea - considering the similarities trot has with enka, it was inevitable. That became sort of a point of concern for the "Enka is the music of the Japanese" claim. However, that was eventually debunked by answers that go somewhere along line of, "The 'Father of Enka' Masao Koga only began to make enka (its prototype) when he returned to Japan," among other answers.
One of the earliest Mood Kayo-based articles that I ever put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）1977"Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）which was about as dramatic as one could get with that cigarette-and-whiskey-soaked voice along with the background chorus and trumpet. It didn't open the door wide for my jump into the bar-and-tryst-filled Japanese music genre at the time that I first heard it in the early 1980s, but it did stick to me for many years until I finally admitted my liking for Mood Kayo.
Of course, with "Brandy Glass" being the typical 45" single, there was a B-side to be heard as well. So, I finally listened to "Ashiato"(Footsteps) which was the flip side to the original single when it was released in April 1977. Somewhat more lighthearted than the A-side, it was also a different genre: more old-style club jazz standard that would attract someone like Nat King Cole to do an English version of it. It was the same songwriters behind "Brandy Glass" who tackled "Ashiato": lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composer Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）with the song being about Ishihara musing about a wistfully lost opportunity: seeing the lady she loved getting married to someone else without him being able to express his opinions to her. All he can do now is to wish her well. The song would be perfect for a 50s or 60s nightclub aside from a weirdly inserted twee synthesizer or something like that.
"Ashiato" was the original B-side to "Brandy Glass". However, in a later reissue of the single in 1979, the B-side ended up being "Koi no Machi Sapporo"（恋の街札幌）which was a 1972 single by the Tough Guy.
Man, do I remember these old Japanese phones of different colours and shapes when I first visited the nation in 1972. They all had their purposes but for the life of me, I can't remember what they were.
Yesterday I was talking about airports being a popular subject for kayo kyoku. Well, another object that's also been quite the target in the old Japanese songs has been the good ol' telephone whether it be for romantic continuation or dislocation, often the latter.
This time around, I have "Naga Denwa"(Long Phone Call) which was the final track on Yukari Ito's（伊東ゆかり）October 1981 album "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"（愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women）. And it was a good choice to finish things up on because it is a slow and lush 1970s-style ballad that seems to have been done with some inspiration from folks such as Barry Manilow, Boz Scaggs and Carly Simon. I would place it as an AOR tune but there is that middle part which dives right into classical, so I've also thrown in the Fashion Music tag, too.
Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）was responsible for the lyrics while Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）took care of the melody. The arrangement was handled by the City Pop duo DEW. Some years ago, I also wrote about another track on "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou" titled "Gigolo", so give that one a try as well.
2024 is the 60th anniversary of legendary entertainer Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）career in show business and perhaps he's been doing a lot of reminiscing over those six decades including those early pay-one's-dues years. The original Kazuo Matsuyama（松山数夫）from Fukui Prefecture went through a number of stage name changes and several years of struggle before the turn of the decade into the 1970s and one more switch of his name to Hiroshi Itsuki and perhaps one more chance to strike it big.
And the newly-minted Itsuki did strike it big with his first single under that name and his eleventh overall, the classic "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）from March 1971, which has become one of the most famous go-touchi songs for the international port.
But of course, in addition to "Yokohama Tasogare", there was a B-side which was also written by Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）. "Otoko ga Naku Toki"(When a Man Cries) is an enka/Mood Kayo tune which seems to take things from Yokohama into the darker side streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo just because the arrangement by Koji Ryuzaki（竜崎孝路）makes me think that this is the sort of kayo kyoku thatKeiko Fuji（藤圭子）sang. It's very bluesy and introspective and draws a picture of ambling through neighbourhoods such as Kabukicho without any particular destination in mind. Perhaps the protagonist in "Otoko ga Naku Toki" is in a very down mood, and perhaps just before the time that the single was released, Itsuki had been on the verge of some tears himself over how his career would go. However, after its release, the rest was history.
Noelle Tham has been our resident expert on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" on the older Showa era music for close to a decade now, so it was quite revelatory when I found out from her that the genre of enka only became known officially as enka in the early 1970s. The songs that I had known as enka from before that time had once been scattered among different genres before the great amalgamation took place, and then when everything was put under the enka umbrella, all those tunes were retrofitted as enka songs.
One such genre in kayo kyoku was madros kayo（マドロス歌謡）or "sailor pop" and sure enough, such songs were often about seamen shoving off to the great blue, leaving their loves behind. The Japanese predilection for gairaigo（外来語...foreign loan words） continued here as "madros" came from the Dutch or Flemish word for "sailor", "matroos". Some of the more famous singers sang madros kayo such as Takeo Fujishima（藤島桓夫）and his "Kaeri no Minato" (かえりの港) with the singer often putting on that old-fashioned sailor uniform.
I was watching another grand old episode of "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）the other night when I came across enka singer Mineko Nishikawa（西川峰子）who I first wrote about back in 2016 with her 1974 hit "Anata ni Ageru" (あなたにあげる). She performed her own tribute to the sailors with "Mineko no Madros-san" (Mineko's Sailor) which was her 9th single from July 1976. A very happy-go-lucky enka song that fulfills the requisite of what an old madros kayo was, it's all about a sailor blowing a kiss to his girlfriend before heading out to sea. It was written by Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composed by Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）; there's nothing melancholy about this at all, and it seems as if the young lady is good with her boyfriend enjoying the marine life.
I'm not sure how well "Mineko no Madros-san" did on the charts but she did get her second invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen to sing the song at the end of 1976.
Last night, I wrote up an Off-Course（オフコース）article on an atypical song by them whose lyrics relate the story of a couple having a really good time one night. Well, the lusty number below takes things to an even larger level.
(30:58)
Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）started off as one of the cute 1960s teenage aidoru covering tunes such as Connie Francis'"Where The Boys Are", the ultimate in innocent pining songs. Well, twenty years later, Ito has definitely grown up if this song, "Gigolo", is of any indication. Incidentally, the kanji actually reads as "Joufu" which translates as "male lover".
That cover of the October 1981 album where "Gigolo" resides, "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"（愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women）(which is one progressive rock-level length of a title), seems to be the perfect backdrop for this song. There is a woozy intro with Ito's vocals to match as if one half of a couple is just rousing up from a deep satisfying sleep and admiring her partner still in slumberland. Of course, that part has got to end with a sexy saxophone before the melody suddenly rushes into a bass-driven City Pop beat, and then we return to bed...shampoo, rinse and repeat. Finally, Ito goes into some major moaning and groaning, and no, it isn't because she's fed up. Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）was in charge of the lyrics while Nobuo Kurata（倉田信雄）provided the smoking hot melody.
If the rest of the album is anything like "Gigolo" and if you can get your hands on it, make sure they are wearing oven gloves.
Enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）made one of his regular appearances on "Uta Kon"（うたコン） almost a couple of weeks back, and as he did on a past episode during a tribute to singer-songwriter Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）who had just passed away, Itsuki gave his heartfelt thanks to him. But on the show from a couple of weeks ago, he would also thank him and lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi (山口洋子...who has also left this mortal coil) for launching his career into the stratosphere after a long beginning struggle under different stage names. The following two songs were indeed penned by them and were featured on the show.
The songwriting duo of Hirao and Yamaguchi would give Itsuki his first big hit "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはまたそがれ）in 1971, and they would continue to pen around nine more songs for him during the 1970s including six consecutive tunes (which would also include his hit "Yozora") between late 1972 to early 1974. The first of these six was "Anata no Tomoshibi" (Your Light), a nice and light enka about a man pining for the love of his life who most likely lives in the snowy north. This song was featured in "Uta Kon" through some early taped footage.
Released in December 1972, this was Itsuki's 17th single and was called "rhythm enka". I'm not quite sure what that is, but perhaps the fact that there is that groove in the arrangement and no traditional instruments in the recording is a point. In a way, I could say that "Anata no Tomoshibi" takes things more into a general kayo. Itsuki's heartfelt vocals are still the constant. The song hit No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 23rd-ranked single of 1973.
"Wakare no Kane no Ne"(The Bell Tolling Farewell) was actually sung by Itsuki on "Uta Con" that night, and his performance did show how grateful he was to Hirao and Yamaguchi. He didn't do so, but it wouldn't have surprised me if he had wept somewhat.
This was his 22nd single from March 1974 and strangely enough, "Wakare no Kane no Ne" was the last of the consecutive six. To be honest, to my ears, this would have been an even better song only if those bells in there hadn't sounded so off...they almost went into horror territory. However, that's not to take anything away from the rest of Itsuki's performance or the overall arrangement as he sings about the hopefully sad-but-amicable breakup between two lovers once the bells stop tolling. As with "Anata no Tomoshibi", I gather that this would also be called a rhythm enka or enka/pop. This song peaked at No. 15.
I was watching a recent episode of "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Don't Sleep Through Life）, that hit NHK information variety show starring the all-knowing 5-year-old Chiko-chan, and none other than enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）was one of the guests, albeit remotely due to the pandemic. And one of the questions posed by the CG girl was "Why do people put their hands in their pockets?"
Chiko-chan was apparently more than happy to use Itsuki as an example since it seems that many of the covers for his singles feature the singer with his hands in his pockets such as the one for his February 2015 maxi-single"Nagisa no Onna" (Woman on the Beach). Incidentally, the answer, which of course followed Chiko's customary admonishment of not falling asleep at the wheel in terms of knowledge (no matter how arcane), was that putting one's hands in one's pockets had to do with physically assuaging doubt or anxiety. Not quite sure whether Itsuki in the cover above ever seemed especially anxious about something.
In any case, as for "Nagisa no Onna", it's a mix of enka and dramatic classy pop that reminds me of some of the material that his fellow enka singers brought out during the late 1970s going well into the 1980s. Perhaps I could even categorize it as a hybrid between the traditional genre and the Fashion Music that Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）and Asami Kado（門あさ美）sang.
The music was created by Itsuki with lyrics by the late Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）who had passed away in 2014. According to the J-Wiki article for "Nagisa no Onna", Itsuki laid down the melody to the lyrics that Yamaguchi had written back in 1989 in tribute to the singer's hometown of Mihama-cho, Fukui Prefecture. And in fact, the number itself had been recorded in that year as the coupling song to Itsuki's single "Omokage no Gou"（面影の郷...Town of Shadows）. On hearing about Yamaguchi's death in September 2014, he decided to release a new version of "Nagisa no Onna" and its coupling song was a new version of "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはまたそがれ）, arguably Itsuki's most famous classic and also another song for which Yamaguchi had provided the lyrics back in 1971.
I've been a bit heavy on the City Pop and J-AOR recently (sorry, I'm rather biased) so I felt that I needed to get back to some of the enka and Mood Kayo. So, why not get back to the one of the masters?
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the original recorded version of Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）3rd single under his most famous stage name online, but his "Kamome Machi Minato Machi" (Seagull Town, Port Town) is a good hearty kayo. It's categorized as an enka on J-Wiki but frankly, I think the arrangement and melody by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）are such that it really strikes me as a very typical Mood Kayo. And with the really brassy horns in there, I couldn't help but feel the atmosphere of something a bit more urban.
Released in February 1972, "Kamome Machi Minato Machi" comes right on the heels of his breakthrough hit "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）and successful "Nagasaki kara Fune ni Notte"（長崎から船に乗って）, both from 1971. This time, though, there doesn't seem to be any specific city mentioned in Itsuki's 3rd single but Yoko Yamaguchi's（山口洋子）lyrics lay the story right on the table of the setting for lovers to flock together only to separate bittersweetly. The fact that there are those migratory seagulls smack dab in the title hints at the flighty nature of love many a time. This time, the song didn't quite leap into the Top 10, stopping its rise at No. 11.
I couldn't find out when Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）sang a cover of "Kamome Machi Minato Machi" but as usual, she puts out a fine version with a brisk and heartfelt delivery. Overall though there is not much of a difference between her take and the original by Itsuki.
The master was back on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）last night, and continuing on with that theme of train kayo that introduced me to "Kogen Ressha wa Iku"（高原列車は行く）, Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）sang a song that probably got quite a lot of notice from the introduction by host Shosuke Tanihara（谷原章介）. Apparently, this number by Itsuki hadn't been sung on TV in around 40 years!
"Yogisha no Onna" (Woman on a Night Train) is certainly something different in the Itsuki discography when compared to his enka and Mood Kayo entries. His 15th single in September 1972 was, according to J-Wiki, released as the second example of Pops Enka（ポップス演歌）, following his first attempt in the previous single, the more successful "Matteiru Onna"（待っている女）.
With all due respect to the person who coined the name for that sub-genre, I can't really place anything enka onto "Yogisha no Onna" which I think is much more in the fuzzy rock/funk vein. And as with "Matteiru Onna", I could easily envisage Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）or Akiko Wada（和田アキ子） covering this. Not surprisingly, it was the same duo who had created the latter song behind the former, Yoko Yamaguchi and Takuya Fujimoto（山口洋子・藤本卓也）.
Yamaguchi's lyrics present the usual story of love gone wrong for a woman as she gets on that evening express, but it's surrounded not by the tender enka sound stylings but by Fujimoto's funky downtown arrangement that almost cry for Richard Roundtree as Shaft to rescue the lady from her emotional malaise. Even Itsuki's vocals sound quite different in that his lower tones seem to be almost missing in his delivery.
To be honest, I actually liked last night's performance of "Yogisha no Onna" by Itsuki better than the original since the person who arranged it for him actually oomphed up the 007 aspect by a fair bit (Itsuki...Hiroshi Itsuki). In addition, I was surprised that the singer hadn't sung the song on TV for decades, but perhaps he and the audience had thought this form of Pops Enka was just a little too much beyond the pale for him. In any case, the song hit No. 21 on Oricon and won Itsuki a Japan Record Award for Best Performance.
I guess if I had to come up with an overarching theme phrase for this article, it would be "All good things must come to an end". After starting their illustrious career with a sung version of a jazz song and then becoming kayo pop stars for the better part of two decades (including a stint as movie princesses providing a song to a gigantic caterpillar), the female pop duo The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）decided to call it a day, at least when it came to their time as recording artists.
So why not end things with a jazz song to complete the circle? Their final single was "Uwaki no Aitsu" (That Cheating Jerk) from March 1975. It was jazzy as heck but unlike the 1959 "Kawaii Hana"（可愛い花）which started off their career, "Uwaki no Aitsu" was something to let them go out with a bang. There is a mix of jazz and maybe rockabilly in there, and I even wonder if the material that the Manhattan Transfer was performing at about the same time had some influence. Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）wrote the lyrics while Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, the same fellow who arranged "Kawaii Hana" from the original as performed by saxophonist Sidney Bechet, composed the snazzy melody.
The same songwriting duo also came up with the B-side, "Yokogao" (Profile), a somewhat more sedate jazz number. I actually like this song even better than "Uwaki no Aitsu" since it has that comforting nightclub feeling, and I feel as if Miyagawa threw in some kayo influences and even a musical shoutout to "Blues in the Night" by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. I almost expect the Peanuts to say goodbye to the listeners at the end; it makes for a nice farewell to everyone.
I believe I mentioned "All good things must come to an end". Well, in keeping with that theme, I would like to recognize the fact that Adam West, the actor who first introduced me to Batman as a toddler passed away yesterday at the age of 88. Decades before we all got to re-acquaint ourselves with the superhero as the brooding Dark Knight through revamped comics, graphic novels and movies, I got to know him as the ever-faithful goody-goody good guy with Robin as they threw the fisticuffs every episode. The Bright Knight indeed. So long, ol' chum!
Well, let's see here....the Top 10 Singles for 1974 had a mellow enka, "Namida no Misao"（なみだの操）by Tonosama Kings（殿さまキングス）take the No. 1 spot while No. 2 belonged to Akiko Kosaka's（小坂明子）wonderful love anthem, "Anata"（あなた）.
So, curious about No. 3 for 1974, I saw Kiyoshi Nakajo's（中条きよし）"Uso" (Lies) up there. I couldn't recognize it from the title or the singer behind it so I gave it a listen on YouTube. I didn't exactly give it a "Ahhh...now I remember it!" but that intro was certainly familiar to me. Probably I've heard it on one of the NHK music programs or it was played on an episode of "Sounds of Japan".
In any case, "Uso" is another fairly mellow enka with a bit more Mood Kayo sung by Nakajo most likely from the point of view of the scorned other woman as she sees her soon-to-be-ex lover sleaze away to be with someone more "wholesome" to start a family. He may be using every platitude in his black book, but the lady can see right through his uso. Listening to this surprisingly wistful take on a bitter breakup, I already had the perfect setting mapped out in my mind. They were probably sitting at some sort of old café franchise such as Renoir in Tokyo or a café in one of the older hotels such as the good ol' Tokyo Prince. The tension was probably as thick as that strawberry shortcake I had at that café in the Prince.
Perhaps it was the knowing lyrics by Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）or maybe it was the music by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）with that alto sax but "Uso" was that breakthrough hit for Nakajo when it was released in January 1974. It took 3 months for it to crack the Top 10 and another 6 weeks before it finally hit the top spot on Oricon where it would stay for a straight 8 weeks with sales of over 1.5 million records. When it rains, it pours as the saying goes and this time it was raining gold for the singer as it won a few awards at contests such as the Japan Record Awards. Of course, the Kohaku Utagassen dropped by and asked if he had some time on New Year's Eve, and of course, he accepted. However, although Nakajo had some more success, it would be his only time on the NHK special.
All that good news in the last paragraph must have sounded even sweeter and more poignant for Nakajo who was actually born Kiyoshi Shimomura（下村清）in Gifu Prefecture in 1946. It wasn't a particularly smooth ride to the top. After graduating from high school, Shimomura worked on a boat and then joined an acting troupe in Osaka where he tried to become an actor, sometimes coming in as a singer in the warmup before the main performance. A record company executive caught one of his performances and signed up him. Kiyoshi Shimomura was given the stage name of Akira Takanami（高波明）and he debuted in 1968.
Unfortunately, he didn't particularly sell so a second attempt was made in 1971 under the name of Ken Atsumi（渥美健）but the results were the same. So the singer went to a salaryman's life and in his mid-20s, he even set up his own little bar in Tokyo which drew regulars consisting of folks in the mass media industry (did this guy set up in front of NHK studios?!) and was encouraged to try once again to be a singer. In 1973, he tried out for the 1970s Japanese equivalent of "American Idol", "Zen Nippon Kayo Senshuken"（全日本歌謡選手権...The All-Japan Kayo Championships） on Yomiuri TV where he won the title of Grand Champion after winning 10 weeks in a row. The songwriters for "Uso", Masaaki Hirao and Yoko Yamaguchi were actually two of the judges on the show which set up the fateful meeting, and with that final name change to Kiyoshi Nakajo, the stage was all ready for him to finally grab that brass ring.
It still wasn't all wine and roses for Nakajo, though. Between the release of "Uso" and his appearance on the Kohaku that year, he and his manager ended up on a Japan Air Lines flight that was hijacked. They had the bad luck of being seated right up at the front of the plane so that they had to hear all of the vitriol spewing from the terrorists in the cockpit. Then, many years later, it was found out that Nakajo had been playing a round of golf with a mobster so his NHK appearances were curtailed for about a year. Such is life. And he survived both incidents to release a total of 38 singles including his last one to date in October 2015, "Tanpopo"（たんぽぽ...Dandelion）.
It's been quite the while since I put up an article having to do with either Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）or the late Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）, and I was feeling somewhat enka-ish on this Sunday. Mind you, although Itsuki's single "Nagasaki kara Fune ni Notte"(Getting on the Ship from Nagasaki) is listed as an enka tune on J-Wiki, I think that "modern" drumwork, that city beat in the rhythm, and the "daba daba" chorus make it closer to a Mood Kayo or even a pop kayo.
Released in August 1971, this was Itsuki's follow-up single after his breakthrough blockbuster of "Yokohama Tasogare"(よこはま・たそがれ) which had been released almost half a year earlier. The same duo for that hit, Masaaki Hirao and Yoko Yamaguchi（平尾昌晃・山口洋子）, was also responsible in the creation of "Nagasaki kara Fune ni Notte". It might be due to how legendary and how often "Yokohama Tasogare" has been sung by the suave singer, but "Nagasaki kara Fune ni Notte" has more of a workman-like and down-at-home musical feeling to it in comparison. Yamaguchi's lyrics talk about a love-'em-&-leave-'em cad who dumps the women as smoothly as he woos them as he makes his way from port to port. Even Yokohama gets another reference in the song. In any case, the ballad seems to have the jerk treating his romances like any old set of business trips over the year.
I've only heard the song a few times but the way that Itsuki delivers it makes it sound like he's a barfly storyteller or even the Don Juan himself several years later, now filled with regret. "Nagasaki" may not be as well remembered as "Yokohama" but after its release, it did peak at No. 4 on Oricon.
Keiko Fuji did a cover of "Nagasaki" in her own inimical style although I don't know when her version was first released. The arrangement of the song is very similar even down to the chorus but with her singing it, I sensed that she could be taking on the role of one of the cad's victims, angrily but resignedly telling her side of the story.
J-Wiki has listed this as an enka although I think the arrangement of this song is more along Mood Kayo lines because of the jaunty beat and the boozy saxophone in there. And I gotta say that Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）is pretty darn genki in the video.
"Mou Ichido Aitai" (I Want To Meet Him One More Time) was released as Yashiro's 17th single in September 1976, and it's a song that I heard on the most recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）. It stood out to me since the last couple of entries by the veteran singer I've heard were definitely more on the maudlin side. I'm not sure what the setting of the song is but my imagination posits the vivacious Yashiro as a footloose and fancy-free young lady who knows her away around the tony neighbourhoods of Ginza and Akasaka. And there, she finds the ultimate Mr. Right from afar but just can't seem to get him. Hey, Aki, we've all been there, lady! In any case, that statement also weighs a bit more for supporting my theory for it being a Mood Kayo.
I did mention those last couple of Yashiro tunes I came across. Well, one is "Namida Koi"（なみだ恋）which was her first big hit from 1973. "Mou Ichido Aitai" hit even higher in the Oricon rankings than that song, breaking into the Top 10 at No. 9, earning another invitation for Yashiro to the Kohaku Utagassen that year, and winning a prize for Best Song at the Japan Record Awards as well. She also made some history by winning the same prize the following year for her 22nd single, "Ai no Shuuchaku Eki"（愛の終着駅）which is the second of those Yashiro tunes I was referring to.
Ultimately, "Mou Ichido Aitai" was the 97th-ranked single for 1976 and it did even better in 1977 as the 78th-ranked single. The song was written by veteran Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎眞一）. Yashiro would also perform the old chestnut at the 1993 Kohaku.
I'd wanted to write about Hiroshi Itsuki's (五木ひろし) "Chikumagawa" after hearing it on the previous "Uta Kon" episode, but then a "brilliant" idea popped into my head at the last minute and so I held it off until today. What is this idea? Well, when learning about days in Japanese (I finally got myself to learn the language for realsies), how I remembered how the 5th of a given month is said was by picturing Itsuki (who literally has a "5" in his stage name) as it's called "Itsuka". And then it also happens to be May. Sooooo, I'm sure you know where this is going. GO-GATSU ITSUKA NO ITSUKI!! (Itsuki of 5th May)
HA! It's been a while since my last terrible pun, if this is even one in the first place. Yeah, I don't know why, but I just find it absolutely amusing.
Ah, okay, back to the music. While I had seen this classic often, I only really paid attention to "Chikumagawa" when it was time for Itsuki's anticipated (by me) appearance on the 66th Kohaku last year. Even though I wished he had gone for the rousing, heart-pounding, new and improved "Yozora" (夜空) that could wake me up in an instant, hearing this beautiful enka song that has a little folk in it allowed me to put that aside. It's calm and gentle melody with all the strings and the acoustic guitar chiming in was sort of like a massage to a worn mind - sitting through half of the 4 hour Kohaku is pretty mentally tiring. Kosho Inomata (猪俣公章) was the one behind this. It kinda reminds me of another enka that features another well known river.
As you may already have guessed, "Chikumagawa" is based on the Shinano River, the longest and largest river in Japan. It spans from Nagano prefecture to Niigata, and the Nagano locals call it the Chikuma River. Looking up pictures of this channel of water, it is quite a sight to behold, more so when it is surrounded by the lush, natural environment. The lyrics, by Yoko Yamaguchi (山口洋子), are of the main character reminiscing a past lover, with the Shinano area in Nagano, including the river as the setting.
"Chikumagawa" was released on 25th May 1975 - oh wow, what a coincidence that even the release date has so many fives! It is one of Itsuki's successful hits, peaking at 6th place on the charts and settling at 24th by the end of the year, and allowed him to bag two awards: one for "Best Singer" at the 17th Japan Record Awards and one for "Broadcasting Music" (I think that's how it's being translated) at the 6thJapan Music Awards (日本歌謡大賞... Nihon Kayo Taisho). Itsuki had sung "Chikumagawa" at the Kohaku a total of 3 times out of his 45 appearances: in 1975, 1997, and 2015.
Since I didn't post any Itsuki-articles in April, here's April's picture. Yup, definitely prefer this to March, and marginally prefer this to May's one - only because it has a closeup.
Just because I find this "5" business hilarious, I'm going to put three more pictures of the fellow. Don't worry, this bombardment of Itsuki-s will just be for this article.
Yeah, okay, I'm good. I think I got it out of my system.
I heard of this song without knowing the title or the original singer for years and years. But I had no idea that "Matteiru Onna" (The Waiting Woman) was actually a Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）single.Within the kayo kyoku world, the beaming Itsuki is quite the Renaissance Man with his dexterity in musical instruments and genres, but little did I know that he had already tackled this rocking tune with Mood Kayo lyrics.
Released in May 1972 as Itsuki's 14th single (according to his discography on his website), I had thought that "Matteiru Onna" was something that Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）or Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）sang originally. My assumption that the early years for Itsuki were all about the enka and Mood Kayo before he decided to stretch his wings out some more. Written by Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）, the lyrics are about a woman pining for a lost lover somewhere in the dark streets of the city...something typically Mood Kayo. But Takuya Fujimoto's（藤本卓也）music puts a near-disco jolt into the usual Akasaka proceedings. I can even envision a re-arrangement with Blondie music for this one.
"Matteiru Onna" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon, and Itsuki performed it at the 1972 Kohaku Utagassen, his 2nd appearance on the New Year's Eve special just a year after his debut of the more Mood Kayo"Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）. According to J-Wiki, the singer is currently in 3rd place after Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）and Shinichi Mori（森進一）for the most number of appearances on the Kohaku.
Of course, the monomane artists couldn't let this one go.
I'm glad that this week is finally over. It started off with having to do Mahjong-paper-based presentations, which I find much more stressful and troublesome to do than your regular PowerPoint slides, for 3 consecutive days for 3 modules. Immediately after came an enjoyable albeit harrowing field trip to the S.E.A Aquarium - mode of presentation switched to standing in front of an aquatic exhibit of each group's choice with no notes for reference, all while competing with noisy tourists and annoyingly boisterous Chinese New Year music on the speakers. To cap it all off, a repetitive but somewhat interesting lab session where we had to isolate fish DNA. Now that it's over, I feel like a tire being deflated and the need to listen to something soft and mellow to help me wind down was strong.
Naturally, the singer who first came to mind was none other than Yujiro Ishihara (石原裕次郎). His delicate and smooth vocals are very much welcomed when the internal battery is flat. However, being not particularly well-versed in his songs - haven't had the time or thought to explore much of that Yujiro album I got - I went to have a look at the jazzed-up renditions of his hits from Hiroshi Tachi's (舘ひろし) cover album. "Brandy Glass" was my pick as I have developed a newfound liking for it, which I attribute to the trumpet-and-saxophone-filled arrangement from Tachi's version. It's more like something you'd hear at a jazz bar. As for Ishihara's long-selling hit from 1977, I was actually disappointed by it when hearing it for the first time early last year as I expected more than just that. But giving it a second chance since Tachi's cover was pretty good, I learnt to appreciate it.
The original has a slightly different feel to it; I find it more Latin Mood Kayo with a hint of jazz and the lone trumpet and the piano tinkling away gives off a more lonesome feeling, making it easy to imagine Tough Guy sitting at the bar by himself swirling his brandy in the round-bottomed glass. To a certain extent, it also feels warmer and more comforting. The only thing I don't like from this song is the female backup singer who greets you at the start of the song with her high-pitched voice and chimes in from time to time throughout. Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. But I guess it sets the tone for "Brandy Glass".
As mentioned above, "Brandy Glass" was first released in 1977, but if I read correctly on the song's J-Wiki page, it didn't sell well then and there. Only in 1979 did it gain popularity after it was sung by Ishihara's character during an episode of "Seibu Keisatsu" (西部警察) with the title "Wakare no Brandy Glass" (別離のブランデーグラス). It was re-released in that year, this time peaking at 11th place on the Oricon charts, and it stayed within the top 100 for 65 weeks (that's amazing!), allowing Yujiro to recieve the Long-Seller award at the 23rd Japan Record Awards in 1981, where it was the 22nd best selling song for that year.
Oh, not to forget that "Brandy Glass" was put together by the renown lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi (山口洋子) and composer Mitsuru Kotani (小谷充). And J-Canuck did an article on this song a while back, you can check it out here.
I finally listened to the last of my Xmas purchases yesterday, "Just My Feeling", the debut and only album by Kaoru Uemura（上村かをる...although her website has it spelled in romaji as Caolu Uemula） in 1979. I bought it on the strength of listening to a B-side, "Comin' Together". I had never heard of her during any of my time in Japan, only catching wind of this sultry-voiced singer through one of my random forays on the Net after I had returned in late 2011. I also caught her name again in "Japanese City Pop" via her contributions to a compilation album called "Loft Sessions Volume 1"which I did get. As for "Just My Feeling", it's a nice mix of some City Pop disco and some country-pop.
According to her website, Uemura released 3 of her own singles and that one album while providing some other songs for other artists. At present, the only track from "Just My Feeling" the album that I could find on YouTube is the country bluesy "Yokohama Bund Hotel". I think the cover photo for the single fits the mood of the song which seems to have the singer ambling along the bay...I'm assuming that it's Yokohama Bay.
Katsuhiko Kamitsuna（上綱克彦...at least, I hope that is indeed the kanji; it was written in rather microscopic size in the liner notes） provided the music while the late Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）wrote the lyrics under the pseudonym Manon Resco. Yamaguchi was also known for writing another more kayo Yokohama-based number, the breakthrough hit for Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）, "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはまたそがれ）all the way back in 1971, and also the shibui "Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）for Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）.
Yamaguchi's lyrics talk about being that barfly at the watering hole at the titular hotel drinking her sorrows away. The Yokohama Bund Hotel actually did exist for 70 years between 1929 and 1999 with a live house, Shell Garden, opening there in 1982 which featured acts like Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）,Godiego（ゴダイゴ）and the late Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）. Supposedly, according to the J-Wikiarticle on the Bund, the blue neon sign for the Shell Garden's predecessor, the Shell Room nightclub which was opened in 1968 may have been the inspiration for the title of the classic song "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）as sung by Ayumi Ishida (石田あゆみ...check out the link for "Yokohama Tasogare" above since both songs are covered in the same article).
I think one of the reasons that I've enjoyed Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）Mood Kayo renditions is that they're very comforting to me....almost on a lullaby level. The Big Man's voice had that gravitas but not quite the gravel of some of those other enka singers. You might say that his vocals could be compared to that glass of fine aged brandy; he was just made for listening to in a Ginza or Akasaka bar.
Ishihara's 2nd-last (and his first posthumous) single is "Kita no Tabibito" (North Traveler), released in August 1987, less than a month following his untimely passing from liver cancer. Considering the title and the sound of the song, perhaps it should've been released in the fall or even the winter. The smooth-as-silk strings, the Latin guitar and his voice are all fine attractors for an izakaya regular to come in from the cold...just like a good steaming bowl of oden.
Author/lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）who passed away earlier this year was responsible for the lyrics of loss and longing in the north country. She also wrote Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）breakthrough hit, "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）and my favourite Ishihara tune, "Brandy Glass". Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）composed the calming melody. The prolific composer also came up with other songs for many other enka singers (including Ishihara), such as the powerful "Amagi Goe"（天城越え）for Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）about a year previously.
"Kita no Tabibito", not surprisingly, went all the way to the top of the charts and became the 30th-ranked single of the year, selling nearly 220,000 copies. It also earned a special prize at the Japan Record Awards for 1987.
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