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.
It was almost five years ago that I posted the article for the opening theme for Toei's take on "Spider-Man" from 1978 because at the time "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was on its way to theatres with a flash-bang trailer leading the way. I'll let you know right now, I only got to see the whole film finally last month, and much to my regret, I wish I had seen the movie at theatres but with COVID restrictions and my parents' health a concern, there was no way I could do so.
Earlier this morning, the trailer for the next chapter in Peter Parker's life was released. I saw the big ad for "Brand New Day", and I'm definitely looking forward to this one. And hopefully this time around, I'll be able to catch this one at the cineplex at the end of July. For Peter's sake, I'm also looking forward to a happier movie overall as the title hints.
Well, then, to follow the pattern of the article for "Kakero! Spider-Man"（駆けろ！スパイダーマン）, I will provide the ending theme for the 1978 Japanese show. The same people involved for that opening theme: singer Yuuki Hide（ヒデ夕樹）, composer Chumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）and lyricist Saburo Yatsude（八手三郎）, are back for the ender "Chikai no Ballad" (Ballad of Vows). Not surprisingly, this one contrasts with the heroic opener by being more introspective and revealing of the costs of being a superhero: loss of loved ones and a lonely existence. Good heavens! It pretty much wraps up the whole story of "No Way Home" into a tightly-packed ball. Mind you, it's a ballad that almost reaches City Pop groove.
Back last summer, I wrote up on the opening theme for the Japanese TV version of "Spiderman"（スパイダーマン）that ran from 1978 to 1979. At the time, a lot of us were getting some major Spidey Sense tingles for "Spider-Man: No Way Home" that would come out around Xmas. Well, I have to confess that I never managed to catch the movie unfortunately due to all of the COVID circumstances although I could see some of the jaw-dropping scenes via YouTube. I will be trying my hardest, though, to get a ticket to see "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" when it shows up at theatres next week.
Considering all of the madness in the trailer, potentially anything could happen in "The Multiverse of Madness" so I'm hoping that there will be some solace for poor ol' Peter Parker. But I'm hoping that Sir Patrick Stewart gets his due in the movie; it's gotta be better than anything I've seen in Season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard".
Getting back to the Toei Spiderman though, the opening theme "Kakero! Spider-Man"（駆けろ！スパイダーマン）was the kickass banger by singer Yuuki Hide（ヒデ夕木）that a lot of the tokusatsu series liked to use to get the fans all excited and ready to battle along with their favourite heroes. By the same token and pattern, the ending theme, "Chikai no Ballad"(Oath Ballad) as sung by Hide as well, is an introspective and somber song to reflect the hero's often lonely journey and perhaps have the fans get all contemplative about what happened in the episode.
As was the case with "Kakero! Spider-Man", "Chikai no Ballad" was composed by Chuumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）with Tohru Hirayama（平山亨）on words under the name of Saburo Yatsude（八手三郎）. It's arranged as if Spiderman was the lone wolf cowboy getting justice for a tumbleweed town and then having to leave without any hope of settling down. I thought that it felt especially poignant considering the conclusion of "No Way Home".
Strangely enough (no pun intended), it wasn't anything Marvel that reminded me to do this song. It was just that some minutes earlier, there was an NHK vignette about how to teach kids and the topic of discussion was introducing nature to the little ones, with the one animal that popped up being a spider!🕷
Well...just when I thought things were starting to quieten down a tad in Marvel Land (haven't seen "What If?" yet) before "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" makes its premiere next month, out comes not only the final trailer for "Eternals" but also "Spider-Man: No Way Home". Man, Marvel is really pushing the whole multiverse thing now.
In any case, in a similar way to how "Captain America: Civil War" looked like "Avengers 2.5", this latest Spidey movie featuring Tom Holland is making me wonder if this is "Doctor Strange 1.5". There's plenty of bang for the buck here and I'm sure that just like "Avengers: Endgame", there is a lot in this movie that is not being shown in the trailer, although we get to see an old welcome face again at the end.
Now going back further in the "Spider-Man" lore, earlier in the spring, I had devoted one of my ROY articles to the finger-snapping theme song for the original "Spider-Man" cartoon series from the 1960s, and as such, I related my memories of watching that series. Since then, I had heard that somehow Marvel gave permission for someone in Japan to create a manga series (can someone confirm?), I believe, and then came an actual tokusatsu show in the late 1970s.
Yup, Toei Company was allowed to produce a one-season series of Japan's own "Spider-Man" spanning a year between May 1978 and March 1979 according to the Wikipedia article. The iconic suit was indeed worn but that was about it for similarities. The hero wasn't photo-shooting Peter Parker but motorcycle-racing Takuya Yamashiro（山城拓也）, and this time, he even had a ship called Marveller (ahem) which could transform into the robot Leopardon. Plus, like any tokusatsu hero, this Spider-Man was now battling alien enemy threats to Earth all on his lonesome.
YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! WOW! I'll be honest here and say that the opening theme for the Japanese "Spider-Man" won't ever eclipse the original jazzy theme song by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris, especially after hearing Michael Bublé's take on it. Still, "Kakero! Spider-Man" (Run! Spider-Man) has that heroic and disco tokusatsu esthetic complete with syn-drums galore. The singer behind it is Yuuki Hide（ヒデ夕木）, someone that I have known for his joint recording with Kotaro Asa（朝コータロー）and Singers Three（シンガーズ・スリー）of the folk singalong and commercial jingle "Hitachi no Ki"（日立の樹）back in 1973. This time, though, Hide is putting more of his growliness into the theme. Chuumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）was behind the music with Tohru Hirayama（平山亨）on words under the name of Saburo Yatsude（八手三郎）, a collective pseudonym used by a number of Toei producers.
To bring things full circle, Diandra Ross, in a November 2019article for the "Screen Rant" website, stated that Yamashiro and Leopardon will make their debut in the Marvel universe when the sequel to "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018) comes out late next year. Who knows? Maybe they'll even work side-by-side with Holland, Garfield and Maguire. Multiverses are just that unpredictable.
April 28, 2022: I've written about the ending theme!
Sad to say but I seem to be seeing and reading about these obituaries of figures in the Japanese music industry all too often these days. This morning, NHK reported the death of songwriter and actor Asei Kobayashi at the age of 88 after he had suffered heart failure on May 30th. I had just written another article regarding one of his creations a little more than a month ago.
My knowledge about Japanese lyricists, composers and arrangers has grown only because of my work on the blog, so before 2012, the name Asei Kobayashi was one that I was barely aware of. In terms of the visual medium of television, however, I've known about Kobayashi for years on sight alone since as a thespian, he became famous for his very first role as Kantaro Terauchi, the stonemason with the volcanic temper from the mid-1970s TBS drama"Terauchi Kantaro Ikka"（寺内貫太郎一家...Kantaro Terauchi's Family）. Looking like the most terrifying and willful Showa Era father, his most famous scene involved him literally tearing up his own living room and painting the walls with his family (albeit in a comical fashion), including young heartthrob singer Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. I don't know whether Kobayashi had ever created a song that was recorded by Saijo.
Interestingly enough, from reading an article on this website, I found out that "Terauchi Kantaro Ikka" was famous for tackling some of the social issues of the day, and considering Terauchi's personality, I immediately wondered whether this program was the Japanese equivalent of America's"All in the Family" which was becoming a controversial hit on CBS at the same time.
However, I was to gradually discover that Kobayashi's true forte was as a composer. He was born in August 1932 in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and he was named after a playwright that his mother, a member of a drama troupe, had greatly admired. His father was a government official, and it had been his hope that young Asei would become a physician and so the lad attended Keio University. But much to his parents' dismay, he jumped ship so to speak to become a composer under the tutelage of Tadashi Hattori（服部正）.
I was also surprised to find out that the actor behind the fiery Kantaro was the same fellow who created the beloved themes for the following anime among other shows:
Yuuki Hide, Kotaro Asa and Singers Three -- Hitachi no Ki（日立の樹）(1973)
Kobayashi also composed a lot of commercial songs for various products, and in fact, in the same way he made quite the splash as a first-time thespian in "Terauchi Kantaro Ikka" in the 1970s, he became famous for one of his earliest creations (words and music) for a television ad, "Wansaka Musume"（ワンサカ娘...The Wansaka Girl） for the Renown company which specialized in textiles and clothing.
Originally recorded by Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）in 1961, "Wansaka Musume" was taken up as the song for Renown and this time it was Mieko Hirota's（弘田三枝子）turn behind the mike in 1964.
Then in 1965, singer and actress Sylvie Vartan performed her own yé-yé cover of "Wansaka Musume". I tried looking it up but I couldn't find out what the wansaka meant. Maybe it's just onomatopoeia but hopefully one of you veteran readers can let me know. Anyways since then, "Wansaka Musume" has been given further covers by acts including Duke Aces（デューク・エイセス）and Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）.
Kobayashi also had his regular appearances on game shows and his own commercials. He had quite the voice, and I'm not talking about his yelling one from "Terauchi Kantaro Ikka".
I've related over the time of this blog that I had that one month in Wakayama Prefecture in 1972, and that was where I got my education of sorts in the various tokusatsu programming that had the children enthralled. There was "Barom-1"（バロム・1）, "Kamen Rider"（仮面ライダー）and even a couple of representatives from "Ultraman"（ウルトラマン）.
Thing is, though, I never got to see this tokusatsu hero on telly during my summer in Japan or elsewhere, although I did get to read one manga about the android hero "Kikaider"（キカイダー）in the 1970s. His run on TV lasted between July 1972 and May 1973.
Although he won't beat Lieutenant Commander Data in terms of smoothness and elocution, Kikaider was another of those androids that you wanted by your side when justice was desperately needed. Mind you, Kikaider was quite a colourful fellow compared to Data.
Of course, any self-respecting tokusatsu hero needs that hearty opening theme song that melodically kicks all sorts of ass (hopefully just kaiju), and "Kikaider" is no exception. "Go Go Kikaider" was recorded by Yuuki Hide（秀夕木）and the Columbia Yurikago Kai（コロムビアゆりかご会）with the music by Chuumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）having that mix of brassy kayo, Western twang and even a bit of psychedelic groove in the guitar. Series creator Shotaro Ishinomori（石森章太郎）provided the lyrics exhorting viewers and listeners to support their local android superhero.
Looking out for "Go Go Kikaider", I found out that Hide was the same fellow behind the recording of a beloved tree-based kayo a year later.
If memory serves me correctly, our family's very first rice cooker was from Hitachi. I still remember what it looked like: white exterior with black lid. My love of rice (which I have almost daily) is thanks to this vital appliance.
Now, there has been that certain type of commercial that I've been watching on CNN and other American channels over the past few years. You've all probably seen it involving a medicine which touts some amazing new help when the ad starts showing happy and healing folks enjoying a baseball game or a BBQ. Then the announcer suddenly quickens his delivery and blurts out all of the potential side effects (including DEATH) as Dad is grilling his ribs.
Well, when I was in Japan watching the tube, there was also a certain type of commercial that came on which had a sponsoring company for a program devote a minute or so to the nation's many subsidiaries for that company while a cheerful song plays in the background and there is some soothing nature scene. Hitachi was one such company and it had its own super-genki tune to play during its commercials.
Titled "Hitachi no Ki" (The Hitachi Tree), it's a friendly and folksy number that has had various singers and choruses perform it over the decades since its first appearance in 1973. Asei Kobayashi（小林亜星）was responsible for the down-home melody while Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）took care of the lyrics. Apparently, Kobayashi introduced Ito as the lyricist to Hitachi while the commercial was being made up, and while the lyricist was being shown illustrations of a non-descript tree to be used, he understandably asked "What kind of tree is it?". After getting a lot of "I dunno" and "I have no idea" from the staff, Ito was then inspired to write his lyrics with the singer happily wondering aloud about what kind of tree the Hitachi tree was. Not surprisingly, the alternate title for the song has been "Kono Ki Nanno Ki"（この木なんの木...What Kind of Tree Is This Tree?）.
While the first commercial aired for the first couple of years just had an animated tree forming while "Hitachi no Ki" was being played, the second version settled on a grand Albizia saman or rain tree located on Oahu in the state of Hawaii. In Japanese, the tree is known as a monkey pod which sounds a bit more imaginative. And reading through the J-Wikiarticle for the song, I found out that it has been an attraction for Japanese tourists over the years. In fact, I think the article reported that Hitachi itself has been helping out in its maintenance. Although for a few years in the early 1980s, it was switched to a mango tree on Hawaii Island, a banyan in Singapore and then some tree in California, due to popular demand, the rain tree came back and has stayed so since 1984.
The first six versions of "Hitachi no Ki" were performed by a collaboration among anime/tokusatsu singer Yuuki Hide（ヒデ夕木）, singer/seiyuu Kotaro Asa（朝コータロー）and the female vocal group Singers Three（シンガーズ・スリー）. Since the song's introduction, it has also been used in any events where Hitachi is participating, and it is played every day at noon at Osaka's famous Tsutenkaku Tower（通天閣）since the company advertises there. The J-League soccer team Kashiwa Reysols' supporters often sing (or at least clap vigorously to) "Hitachi no Ki" before games since Hitachi is a major sponsor for the team.
