Kyoko Kosaka -- Omoide Makura （想い出まくら）

And here I thought that the only singer by the name of Kosaka I knew was Akiko. Well, I've now got a second Kosaka...Kyoko Kosaka（小坂恭子）, to be exact. A couple of years after Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）wowed the masses with the evergreen ballad "Anata"（あなた）as her debut, her unrelated namesake, Kyoko Kosaka from Miyazaki Prefecture released a successful ballad of her own as her 3rd single from May 1975.

Titled "Omoide Makura" (Pillow of Memories), I actually heard the song a few times over the decades but neither knew the title nor the singer. Singer-songwriter Kosaka has been described on J-Wiki as a folk and New Music singer, but I think with this song, she's probably more in the former category and I'd say that it also enters the genre of Mood Kayo. Kosaka's lyrics have the heroine reminiscing about some pillow talk memories with a past lover...probably not a song for daytime karaoke, not because it's particularly racy but the mood suits a nighttime session with a tumbler of the good stuff.

I don't know how far "Omoide Makura" got on the Oricon weeklies although it ended up as the 3rd-ranked song for 1975 so I'm fairly sure it reached the top spot. It sold 850,000 copies according to the same company although other data has said that it actually went over a million. The song also got onto Kosaka's 2nd album, "Kyoko" which came out in October 1975.

And it seems like a lot of other singers have done their own karaoke session on a grander scale. Here is Masako Mori （森昌子）.

Misia -- Nemurenu Yoru wa Kimi no Sei （眠れぬ夜は君のせい）

It's been fascinating for me about the trends in music that I've experienced in Japan over the decades. Of course, there was the aidoru wave and City Pop of the 1980s and then all that diversification of kayo kyoku to include visual-kei, Shibuya-kei and all those years with Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）. But then making the shift from the 20th to the 21st centuries, I found that there were a number of female singers who were singing some soulful stuff...artists like bird, Momoe Shimano（嶋野百恵）and of course, Misia.

Misia had been around for 4 years when she released her 10th single in August 2002, "Nemurenu Yoru wa Kimi no Sei" (I Blame You For My Sleepless Nights). To be honest, it's not a bad thing to be accused of, either.  It's another lovely ballad that I used to hear over and over back in Japan and it definitely got its 15 minutes of fame. Written by Misia and composed by Ken Matsubara（松原憲）, the music video was also memorable because of that tree. I don't know where it was filmed...was it Africa or Australia?...but it certainly made an impression. There's nothing like the combination of a soothing ballad with the visuals of a calm area of nature.

"Nemurenu Yoru wa Kimi no Sei" was also a theme song for a Fuji-TV Thursday-night drama titled "Renai Hensachi"（恋愛偏差値...The Standard Value of Romance） which debuted on the 4th of July 2002. By the time, I entered the 21st century, my dalliance with Japanese prime-time dramas had pretty much faded into the ether so I never caught this program. However, the description of the show on J-Wiki was pretty interesting. Instead of the usual 3 months of 12 weekly episodes, it consisted of three separate stories of 4 episodes each. I guess the producers at Fuji had wanted to shake things up a bit.

The theme song hit the No. 1 spot and went Platinum, finishing the year at No. 28. It's also a track on her 4th album, "Kiss In The Sky" which also got No. 1 status when it was released in September 2002. Its trackmate, "Hatenaku Tsuzuku Story"（果てなく続くストーリー）, a ballad of another stripe has already been covered here.

I think it was from around this time that I thought that Misia got a little too heavy with the ballads, but there's no denying that she has one of the best voices that I've ever heard.

Akihabara at night

Hiroaki Igarashi -- Ai wa Kaze Makase （愛は風まかせ）

The above photo was taken in my neighbourhood just a few weeks ago when the temperature was about -1000 degrees with the winds coming in at a breezy Mach 1. Yes, I am indeed exaggerating but I just want to relate to everyone how long and arduous the past winter has been. Well, today was a very pleasant surprise. We actually got broke through the Zero barrier and hit plus +5 degrees with plenty of sun. Knowing Toronto, there were probably wind surfers on Lake Ontario...at least in those areas free of ice.

In any case, it's a Monday night and to further push the mood of spring ever forward, I'm profiling Hiroaki Igarashi's（五十嵐浩晃）sunny "Ai wa Kaze Makase" (Leaving Love to the Wind). Once again, I came across this nice little ditty through Internet radio, and another reason I wanted to put this one up is that up to tonight, I only knew one song by the Hokkaido-born Igarashi (hey, he should know about long winters as well), and that happens to be one of my favourite songs of the 1980s, "Pegasus no Asa".

"Ai wa Kaze Makase" was Igarashi's debut in May 1980 and unlike his 3rd single of "Pegasus no Asa", this is a quiet bossa nova number and a pleasant way to make his way onto the public consciousness. "Pegasus no Asa" which came out six months later has that roving West Coast sound that I used to hear a lot on radio back here in Toronto at around the same time, but his debut song makes for a more relaxing tune at night. Both Igarashi songs were created by the singer and Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也）but "Ai wa Kaze Makase" can also be credited to Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）.

Ikuzo Yoshi & Miyuki Kawanaka -- Shucho Monogatari (出張物語)

Ikuzo Yoshi (吉幾三) in a trench coat, lugging along a suitcase while dancing away with abandon and cackling like a madman... Nope, nothing odd with that here. Miyuki Kawanaka (川中美幸) dancing a jig in an apron and following Yoshi's crazy shenanigans closely... Nope, everything's pretty nor-... Hold up sec. That's not something you see everyday, is it?

I've seen the good chemistry between the male and female singers whenever they are paired up to sing duets - more specifically the older singers, the younger ones are usually very stiff - but "Shucho Monogatari" takes this chemistry to a whole new level! Never have I seen Kawanaka shake her behind or perform in such a comical manner before, but she did it so well that it allowed her to keep up with Yoshi's pace, and the product of that is a hilarious duet that tells the story of what goes on between the married couple when the husband has to leave for work/business trips.

So you have the usual stuff that all couples (I'm going to assume so) face when going through such a situation, like missing each other and counting down the days till the husband come back, the missus warning her man to not fool around when away, and the man being suspicious of his missus' friend. But the best part comes when the frisky fellow sheepishly and sneakily asks his companion if she wants a baby... out of other things, but his wife rebukes him, of course. Well... that's new. This set of humorous yet relatable lyrics can only come from the mind of none other than Yoshi himself.  The Latin-themed music that Yoshi had composed also seemed rather strange at first, but that's the perfect score for some nutso dancing and prancing around.

"Shucho Monogatari" was released on 1st September 2000, I don't know how well it did on the charts as there wasn't a write-up on the song and the Oricon website didn't show its highest ranking either.

amazon.co.jp

Tonosama Kings -- Namida no Misao （なみだの操）

Looking through my Dad's old collection of 45s, I couldn't help but notice the cover for this single by this dapper group, Tonosama Kings（殿さまキングス...The Lord Kings）. That fellow at the very front with the Shatneresque pose is Osamu Miyaji（宮路オサム）, the main vocalist and a guitarist. Behind him are leader and bass voice Atsushi Nagata（長田あつし）, Masaru Oda（尾田まさる）and Soubei Tada（多田そうべい）(although I can't match the names with the faces right now). Apparently, Miyaji was quite famous for twirling around the fist during performances.

Osada and Miyaji along with two other people had started their entertainment career as a musically inclined comic group by the name of The Funky Boys back in 1960, but somehow that changed over the next several years to become Tonosama Kings which was formed in 1967. At first, the group made the round of the variety shows on TV but they finally debuted as a musical act in 1970 with "Keiba Song"（競馬ソング...The Horse Racing Song）.

Now, that cover in my photo at the very top of the article is for "Onna no Sadame"（おんなの運命...A Woman's Destiny） which I couldn't find anywhere on the Net. However, perhaps it's best to start off with what was one of their biggest hits, "Namida no Misao" (The Honour of Tears), a love ballad that percolated from the cobwebbed interior of my mind as soon as I heard the intro and then the refrain. Tonosama Kings might look like a typical Mood Kayo unit and the chorus certainly sounds like one, but at least for this song, it was pure enka of the type that would have me imagine a young couple in traditional wear softly padding up a curved bridge underneath falling petals of cherry blossoms.

"Namida no Misao" was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）, a prolific lyricist who also took care of The Cool Five's "Soshite, Kobe"（そして、神戸）and many of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）early releases. The composer was Masao Saiki（杉木雅夫）who had created the Mood Kayo classic for the aforementioned Cool Five, "Nagasaki wa Kyou mo Ame Datta"（長崎は今日も雨だった）back in 1969. The duo created a number of The Kings' singles for the first few years of the band's career.

The single was released in November 1973 as Tonosama Kings' 4th single. It initially took its time going up the charts, breaking into the Top 10 some 3 months after release but then another 6 weeks later, it finally hit No. 1 and stayed there for an incredible 9 weeks straight. It would eventually sell close to 3 million copies, and more importantly, it became the No. 1 song for 1974. As of September 2011, it is the 25th-ranked song in sales in the history of Japanese single records. Unsurprisingly, the Kings got onto the Kohaku Utagassen.

September 18 2016: I was recently asked if there were a decent English translation for the song. I couldn't find one online so I've decided to do one so I cannot say whether it's a decent one but that will be for you to decide. It was interesting to find out that "Namida no Misao" was sung from the woman's point of view, but then again, a number of enka songs have been performed by male singers from the woman's point of view and vice versa.

My womanly honour has been kept just for you.
I will not offer it to another now
Because I will not get in your way
I want to stay by your side
I'd rather die than be apart...because I'm a woman.

My womanly honour is imbued with the scent of you.
I cannot live after being cast out
If there is something wrong with me
Please tell me so that I can fix it
I will not begrudge this love...because I'm a woman.

My womanly honour should be known just by you.
If I can become that pristine maiden
Anyone can have that crisis of faith
But I don't want to suspect that in you
I will always wait for you without crying...because I'm a woman.

For the original Japanese lyrics, you can check out the utamap page here, and I was even able to find the romanized version at this page.

Off-Course -- Motto Chikaku ni （もっと近くに）

(karaoke version)

I took a dip into my Twitter account yesterday and just by luck, I saw one of the tweets from a J-Pop Internet radio service mention that this song was currently playing. I had never heard of "Motto Chikaku ni" (As Close As Possible), so I decided to give it a try.

Most of my knowledge of the various works by Off-Course（オフコース）are from their 70s discography of folk and ballads although there are a few that I know from their City Pop/J-AOR 80s. But when I heard "Motto Chikaku ni" midway through the song, I knew right off the bat that this must have been close to the end of their time as a band. For one thing, it's quite peppy and the arrangement is such that it could have easily been packed into an album of Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）as a soloist.

As it turns out, "Motto Chikaku ni" is Off-Course's 33rd single from May 1987, almost a year and a half before the band broke up. Oda wrote and composed the song but American songwriter Randy Goodrum also helped out with the English lyrics. And the story behind how Goodrum helped is pretty quaint and telling of the state of communication technology at the time. According to J-Wiki, things got somewhat tight in the lyric-writing and it was determined that there just wasn't enough time to send over a tape to Goodrum Stateside, so with the assistance of an international phone call from Japan, the main track was played over the phone and an explanation given to the songwriter about the lyrics and idea of the song. Several hours later, he sent over his contribution the same way. I'm not sure if Oda and Goodrum were majorly panicking at the time, but if the same thing happened today, Skype would save the day. Also not sure whether KDD or NTT got some credit as well.

The song did pretty decently on the charts, getting as high as No. 29. It was also a track on Off-Course's 12th album, "As Close As Possible" which had been released in March 1987, and peaked at No. 2. Since I'm the City Pop/AOR fan, perhaps I should take a closer look at the band's 80s output in more detail, although I think for a lot of folks, Off-Course probably had their heyday in the 70s.

As for Goodrum, well, he co-wrote a number of songs that decade on this side of the Pacific that I loved such as DeBarge's "Who's Holding Donna Now?" and Steve Perry's "Oh, Sherrie".

Rajie -- Just In The Rain

From the songs by Rajie that have been profiled on the blog so far, I think the singer has been one of those unheralded jewels. I wish I could have found about her earlier, certainly since buying her albums must be pretty difficult these days.

"Just In The Rain" is the final track from her 2nd album, "Love Heart" from 1978. And it's a nice way to finish up since it has that calm soul groove of the city. There seems to be something about walking in the rain downtown that brings out some good music, although I think the melody here might be heard more after the rain has just let up and those first few rays of sunlight are breaking through the gray clouds. And it's not just The Big Sushi that comes to mind here, but also Motown and The Big Apple when I listen to this song.

I couldn't find out who exactly took care of the lyrics and music here. However, I bet it was one of the following who helped her out on "Just In The Rain": Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）on drums, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）on bass, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）on keyboards and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）as backup chorus. Yup, all of Yellow Magic Orchestra and one of the lords of City Pop supporting Rajie, another reason that I would love to get my hands on the album.