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.
1. Chage and Aska Super Best II
2. B'z In The Life
3. Yumi Matsutoya Dawn Purple
4. Kome Kome Club Octave
5. Dreams Come True The Swinging Star
6. B'z Run
7. Southern All Stars Yo ni Manyo no Hana ga Sakunari
8. Princess Princess SINGLES 1987-1992
9. Dreams Come True Million Kisses
10. Noriyuki Makihara Kimi wa Boku no Takaramono
I bought Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）8th album, "Quiet Life" through mail order during those 3 years that I had been back in Toronto between long-term stays in Japan. I'd bought one of her BEST discs and a few of her CD singles in Japan, but this was my first purchase of an original album by her. And as the title may denote, it falls into Takeuchi's skill set of easy-listening pop. One of my favourite tracks in the album is "Forever Friends", a happy-go-lucky and skippy sort of tune with assist from hubby Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. It, and almost all of the other tracks, were written and composed by Takeuchi. There's also a bit of a tribute to John Lennon in there.
"Manhattan Kiss" is a track that was also released as Mariya's 20th single in May 1992 as the titular theme song for the Japanese movie starring actress/singer Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）. Masato Honda provides the urban sax. The single peaked at No. 11 on Oricon and was the 97th-ranked song of the year.
"Kokuhaku"（告白....Confessions) was originally released as her 19th single all the way back in September 1990. It's a well-titled song since it was used as the ending theme for one of the weekly suspense dramas on TV at the time. I'd first heard it when it was playing on the speakers at a household goods store that I'd been visiting in Numata City. Then when I heard it being played at the end of that suspense drama, I went out and got the CD single. It peaked at No. 3 and ended up as the 51st-ranked song of 1990.
As for the album itself, after its release in October 1992, "Quiet Life" (Mariya's first album in 5 years after 1987's "Request") ironically made quite the big noise by hitting the top spot on the charts and becoming the 17th-ranked album of the year. It was a million-seller and earned the singer a Best Album award at the Japan Record Awards. There are other tracks that also helped earned "Quiet Life" its accolades. Among them are: "Lonesome Season", a cover song of and a tribute to the late aidoru Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）; a wonderful version of "The Christmas Song" by Mel Torme; and another Mariya hit, "Single Again". It wouldn't be wrong to say that this album is one of her landmark productions.
1. The Checkers Julia ni Shoushin
2. Akina Nakamori Mi Amore
3. Akiko Kobayashi Fall in Love
4. CCB Romantic ga Tomaranai
5. The Checkers Ano Ko to Scandal
6. Akina Nakamori Kazari ja nai no yo Namida wa
7. Akina Nakamori Sand Beige
8. The Checkers Oretachi no Rockabilly Night
9. Anzen Chitai Kanashimi ni Sayonara
10. Seiko Matsuda Tenshi no Wink
Really banner year for The Checkers and Akina Nakamori. I think pretty much all of them were favourites at karaoke. It's a list for the teenyboppers but I'm also glad that Akiko Kobayashi and Anzen Chitai were able to get in as well. The latter band also had quite a few songs lower down on the Oricon list as well. And nice to see the Queen Aidoru herself sneak in the back door, so to speak.
When I bought the 1994 CD single of Yutaka Ozaki's（尾崎豊）hit "Oh My Little Girl", the B-side single was this song titled "Donut Shop". Originally, the song was included on Ozaki's 3rd album in 1985 called "Kowareta Tobira kara"（壊れた扉から.....Through the Broken Door).
Compared to the emotion-laden, near-anthemic feeling of "Oh My Little Girl", "Donut Shop" is a lot more mellower and comforting....rather like a weekly visit to that donut shop in the neighbourhood. I could imagine a young Ozaki writing and composing the song in a booth at a Mister Donuts over a Chocolate Glazed and coffee.
I rather like this song myself since it does remind me of my own not-so-healthy but down-to-earth custom of hitting the Tim Hortons with a couple of buddies for a donut and a double-double (for the uninitiated, a double-double is a coffee with double sugar and double cream). If I actually believed in ghosts, I would be more than happy to have Mr. Ozaki over for a bit of Timmies.
For me and a lot of other families in Japan....we all know that the weekend is just about over when we see the following:
Well, for me only, the 6 p.m. hour on Sundays is the big signal for me that we're heading out of the weekend and back into Blue Monday. On Fuji-TV, there is Chibi Maruko-chan（ちびまる子ちゃん）, the anime about the cheeky if basically good-hearted little girl living out in a small prefectural town, and then at 6:30, there is of course "Sazae-san", the long-running show about the eternally young woman and life with her family in a neighbourhood of Tokyo. If I were at home on Sundays, I would always be having dinner in front of the TV watching the two cartoons. It's almost a Japanese obligation.
"Sazae-san", created by Machiko Hasegawa（長谷川町子）in 1946 as a 4-frame newspaper comic strip, took its success to television for the first time in October 1969 (in fact, it was the 5th of October, meaning that the anime has just passed its 43rd birthday), and its famous Sunday opening theme has remained intact. One of the characteristics of the opening for the show is during the song, Sazae gets to visit a number of famous tourist sites throughout Japan.
The theme was written by Haruo Hayashi（林春生）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. Simply titled as " Sazae-san", the brass and strings just bring tons of nostalgia from those days....just like the anime has. Life in Sazae's world is always ideal with no problems that cannot be solved in less than 10 minutes....no matter how naughty her younger brother is. The vocalist has always been Yuko Uno（宇野ゆう子）, a chanson singer.
I guess whenever the ending theme for the show finished, it was time to wash the dishes and then get those lesson plans done....sigh. But during those 30 minutes of "Sazae-san", I got to see a slice-of-life Tokyo that probably never existed in real life but still brought a nice measure of domestic comfort.
Oops....did forget. Here's the full version of the theme:
Both of my unsung heroines are represented here with this beautiful song. Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子), a native of Nakano Ward, Tokyo, often wrote about certain places in her city. "Ikegami-sen"（池上線...Ikegami Line) is her most famous song, but I also love this tune titled "Chitose Bashi"(Chitose Bridge) which actually exists in Nerima Ward, not too far from her home ward. Nishijima composed the song while Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）provided the lyrics. I would have thought that Nishijima had also written the words as well since she puts so much emotion into them. The lyrics talk about a woman's wistful memories of a past love in her school days with Chitose Bashi as the romantic and literal centre of her relationship. The melody to me has this lovely lilt that Nishijima makes full use of, and though it is a kayo kyoku in every sense, there is this string instrument playing there which gives the song a somewhat Mediterranean feel. And strangely enough, if it had been translated into German, it wouldn't have been out of place during the more contemplative moments at a concert during Oktoberfest (OK....maybe it's time for me to hit the hay here).
In any case, the song was part of one of her albums released in October 1979. And that was as far as I could get in terms of information. Her website is currently under construction, and whatever is out there in terms of a discography is very sparse.
(May 31 2014: Unfortunately, the video has been taken down.)
Speaking of sparse, I also tried to track down where Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子） version came from (just know that it had to have been done in the early-mid 80s). I have a number of albums by her, but none of them contain her "Chitose Bashi", even the BEST compilations. The only copy of it I have is on an old audio tape somewhere. If anyone reading this (hopefully, you, CC Baxter, my fellowRuiko fan from Mixi) can give me any insight, I would be eternally grateful.
Anyways, Ruiko's version also has a lovely but interestingly different arrangement in that it has a bit of a French jazziness (probably from the vibraphone).
For those who may want a bit of a palate-cleanser away from the aidoru songs, I can recommend these two chanteuses easily.
The famous police show, "Taiyo wo Hoero"（太陽をほえろ....Howl at the Sun) had a wide range of crusty and cool characters. Within that august cast, there was a subset of actors who also had a few hit songs among them. Of course, The Big Man and the star of the show, Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）, had released a number of enka/mood kayo hits during the show's run, and Akira Terao（寺尾聡）had his huge hit album, "Reflections" in 1981.
And there was another by the name of Toru Watanabe（渡辺徹）who played the big, somewhat burly detective Junji 'Rugger' Takemoto (the nickname was for his love of rugby). In August 1982, he released his 2nd single, "Yakusoku"(Promise), a light pop song written by Akira Ohtsu （大津あきら）and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）. It managed to peak at No. 2 on the Oricon charts.
I'd heard a rumour (unfortunately I couldn't find any confirmation of it) years ago that the lyrics "...my sister..." may have referred to aidoru Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵） , who would become Watanabe's wife. But I'm not sure if Watanabe had any say in the creation of the song.
