Yutaka Oe & Hiromi Yamaguchi -- Takoyaki Biyori ~ Fuufu Yatai（たこやき日和～夫婦屋台～）

 

I've had takoyaki, the great Osakan street food, from time to time when I was living in the Tokyo area and have even tried the Toronto variety. Of course, I'm no expert on it but I believe that the ideal takoyaki is piping hot and creamy on the inside while the outside is pleasantly doughy with all of the nori, mayonnaise and thick sauce covering the balls. We've got commenters on this blog who live in Japan, so would like their input on the ideal takoyaki. One other point that I'd like to add is that whenever NHK shows tourism in Osaka, they always put up scenes of the folks navigating their palates through the searing hot snacks.

Now with the Holidays over, regular programming has continued to return. "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）is another NHK stalwart that has come back onto screens this week and the crew was in Takatsuki this time around. One of the songs that an old couple performed was indeed takoyaki-themed.

Well, you can't get more obvious than the title of "Takoyaki Biyori ~ Fuufu Yatai" (A Good Day For Takoyaki ~ Husband & Wife Stand). This is a duet between enka singers Yutaka Oe（大江裕）and Hiromi Yamaguchi（山口ひろみ）, the latter of whom is getting onto the blog for the first time and for the former, it's about the earliest in his discography that I've come across. Released in December 2015, it's a grand old enka about the ups and downs of a husband and wife making their way through life and finances by cooking up and selling takoyaki. They sing and speak so sugary sweetly at each other in their Kansai dialects that I figure that there must be something behind the heavenly veil, and sure enough at the very end, I get to hear some of Yamaguchi's razor-like tongue.

"Takoyaki Biyori" was written by Miwa Ito（伊藤美和）and composed by Koji Tokuhisa（徳久広司）. As for Yamaguchi, she hails from Osaka and her mother and aunt were a postwar comedic duo named Kamogawa Kamome and Chidori（加茂川かもめ・ちどり）. While in university, Yamaguchi was introduced to the enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）and shortly after became one of his many apprentices with her debut in 2002. Up to last year, she has released 29 singles and a couple of original albums.

Yutaka Oe -- Doronko Taisho（泥んこ大将）

 

I don't get to see enka singer Yutaka Oe（大江裕）all that much on television for some reason, but whenever he has come on, he's usually presented in some really flamboyant and loud suit. Honestly, I don't think that the Osaka native needs the fancy-pants fashion since he's got the "aw shucks" self-effacing demeanor and the talent to become popular all on his own. So that's why I'm glad that he's in a much more sober outfit in the above video.

Actually, I did catch Oe last weekend on NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）amateur singing contest as a guest and it was there that I heard one of the contestants performing this particular song of his.

His February 2020 single is "Doronko Taisho" (The Muddy General) which is an optimistic and inspiring enka about a military leader or someone in a high position who endures all of the messy obstacles to achieve his goals, according to one of his admiring soldiers in the field. From his singing style, I can hear his teacher, singer and songwriter for "Doronko Taisho" Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）under his pen name of Joji Hara（原譲二）. And yep, it does have that muscular arrangement that I would expect from a Sabu-chan song although I can also sense a gleaming smile from it as well. 

Kitajima Kyodai -- Kyodai Renga（兄弟連歌）

I caught the occasional episode of NHK's "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）this afternoon and saw a duo that I've been seeing a fair bit on the singing stages on the telly recently.

This would be Kitajima Kyodai（北島兄弟...The Kitajima Brothers） consisting of enka singers Yutaka Oe（大江裕）and Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）. Not only do both belong to Kitajima Music Office under the auspices of enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）, but the two of them were also apprentices under the master himself. And I just found out through J-Wiki that the older Kitayama got married to one of Kitajima's daughters about a decade ago.

With Oe celebrating his 10th year in show business and Kitayama celebrating his own 15th anniversary as an enka singer in 2019, the two of them got together and decided the previous year that they wanted to tour the country together. And so, the Kitajima Kyodai was formed with their first single, "Brother"（ブラザー）coming out in August 2018. The two of them even appeared with Kitajima himself during last year's Kohaku Utagassen to perform "Brother".

Well, a new single came out earlier in February, "Kyodai Renga" (Brotherly Poetry). With words and music by Toko Daichi（大地土子）, the two of them on today's episode of "Gogo Uta" even said that this jaunty enka about brotherly love was more on the pop side of things. Along with Kitajima Kyodai's smooth voices, I like the optimistic and breezy feeling that the song brings out. It could be a favourite among the karaoke set.

(short version)

I found out that Toko Daichi was the pseudonym for Makoto Ono（大野誠）, the second son of Kitajima who was a singer and songwriter in his own right. Tragically, he passed away in March 2018 at the age of 51.

Yutaka Oe -- Taiju no You ni（大樹のように）

Yes, I know the above picture is of the Great Buddha in Kamakura. However, to preface this article, I wanted to point out something that I learned back in university about the Shinto religion. Apparently, everything in nature is possessed by the many gods, and so I can only imagine what the more interestingly shaped rocks, mountains, trees, etc must be treated like.

I think some of that Shinto lore imbued itself into enka. As much as I have said that enka has been about topics such as lost love, fighting the elements and places all around the Japanese archipelago, I believe that the genre has also much to do about some of the great examples of nature and the admiration toward them.

On a recent episode of the NHK afternoon enka/talk show "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）, the distinctive and very polite Yutaka Oe（大江裕）belted out his latest single "Taiju no You ni" (Like A Great Tree). Released in March of 2018, the 28-year-old native of Osaka belted out a tribute to a grand tree and sang about how all of us could do with emulating its stance of standing up tall and proud while enduring all sorts of trials and tribulations to reach a ripe old age.

"Taiju no You ni" was written by Miwa Ito（伊藤美和）and composed by Joji Hara（北島三郎）. For all those in the enka know, Joji Hara is the pseudonym of the one and only enka master Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）, and Oe is one of the disciples under the singing legend. In fact, while all of us were watching Oe's performance on "Gogo Uta", I observed that the enka Padawan sounded just like Kitajima in his delivery although I don't think the master had ever adopted the same sense of fashion that Oe has. The melody, though, definitely has that Kitajima pride and tradition imbued into it.