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.
Well, the spring season of anime has just wrapped up so I managed to catch the finales for a few of them yesterday at my anime buddy's place. I've mentioned a couple of them already: "Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear"(くまみこ) and "Flying Witch" (ふらいんぐうぃっち). The two of them have a commonality in that both of them are set up in Japan's northlands with the former taking place in the fictional hamlet of Kumade while the latter is in the very real-life Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture. Both shows also deal with magic to a certain degree for which the characters in both accept in the same way that they accept coffee or tea with their breakfast.
However, although "Kumamiko" never really lived up to its promise (we started getting fed up with the main character having her weekly mammoth nervous breakdowns) despite the fact that I liked the earworm-y ending (and perhaps opening) theme, "Flying Witch" was definitely the nicest way to wrap up a Sunday night and it is the only anime from this season that I will be missing (my buddy feels that most likely there won't be a sequel series for some reason). It stood out for being a magical girl series that really wasn't a magical girl series. It was really about the teenage witch Makoto's comfortable new life in a smaller regional city for which the magic didn't bombard us as a terrifying weapon or as this extremely dense and arcane philosophy; it was simply there to introduce some nice people and situations. Of course, this type of show won't attract absolutely everybody, but for me, I've always been a fan of the slice-of-life anime and "Flying Witch" provides it with slabs of life as thick as wonderful Japanese toast with the huge pat of butter soaking into the spongy nooks and crannies.
I've already written about the country-folksy opening theme for "Flying Witch", "Shanranran"(シャンランラン) by miwa, so here is the nice and mellow ending theme "Nichijo no Mahou"(Everyday Magic) by Minami Shinoda & Eri Suzuki（篠田みなみ・鈴木絵理）who played the roles of Makoto and her foster little sister Chinatsu. I think in one way, this ballad sums up what the series has been about....finding the magic in the everyday whether it be helping a classmate get over her fear of cooking at school or attending the annual summer festival in town. Although I was able to get the ending credits with the theme at the very top, I couldn't find the full version of "Nichijo no Mahou" with Shinoda and Suzuki but I did find a cover version starring a couple of Vocaloids, Miku Hatsune and Zunko Tohoku（初音ミク・東北ずん子）. The song was composed by Shuhei Mutsuki（睦月周平）and written by Natsumi Tadano（只野菜摘）.
After having read Noelle's adventures in northern Japan over the last few days and watching "Flying Witch", I wouldn't mind visiting good ol' Hirosaki or even Sapporo someday. And if you are interested in reading about some of the places that Noelle and I have visited over the days, and in my case, years, check out the new category in Labels called Sites.
The first stanza of "Kimi ga Koishi kute" (君が恋しくて) was pretty much the theme song to my time in the northern country's Sapporo.
Finding a record shop in Japan turned out to be slightly easier than expected and I was able to partially strike it off the list just two days into the trip. While exploring the streets of Sapporo, we came across this shopping arcade known as Tanukikoji in the busy Susukino. It was quite a long strip of shops spanning about seven blocks with stores ranging from drug stores to bars depending on which block you are at. There was even this little stall that sold owl-related snacks with a room beside it with few owls (they looked bored) sitting on a large branch! The drug stores, food joints, and souvenir outlets were more on blocks four to seven, while the bars seemed to only show up from block three to two.
These blocks were pretty lively with people milling about and those claw machine arcade music blasting at full volume. Block one, however, was the most... desolate of all, or at least it was when I got there. Ignoring a stall that looked to sell yakitori and beer, if my memory serves, there was only one other stall that was open at that point in time (about 6-ish in the evening). That shop had crates of old records sitting out in the open! BINGO!
Although it's called Fresh Air, the irony is that the air inside the shop was musty and the air outside smelled of oily grilled fish. But that aside, I immediately darted to the crate labelled "Kayokyoku; Male Artists" and running through the various dusty vinyls that were all below 1000 Yen in this one box, I found quite a number of familiar faces, and some with amusing covers.
For Mood Kayo, we've got the Cool Five and Kiyoshi Maekawa with his blooming perm, as well as a slightly more fashionable (by Mood Kayo standards) Tokyo Romantica.
Representing the Ishihara Gundan, we've got the Tough Guy himself and sidekick Tetsuya Watari. And then for enka, we have... um... this:
As I was looking through this treasure trove, this old lady walked up to my side as I pulled out a vinyl with a young and derpy Takashi Hosokawa (sadly, I lost the photo). She seemed to peer at the records, then at what I took out, then I heard her mutter an "Okashi na...", which roughly translates to "How strange", before she ambled away. Hmm...
Alright, that was outside. Inside, things just got even better despite being rather stuffy and musty with age. In there, there were records of all kinds of seemingly every genre. Naturally, I went to the kayo section again to see what other vinyl covers amuse me. Those were mostly above 1000 Yen, so I'm guessing that they were either not on discount or they are rarer than those outside. Again, I was back to the sifting in the 33 1/3 rpm section. I eventually found one by Michiya Mihashi (三橋美智也). That alone garnered a grin and a "No" that had a mix of disbelief and excitement. But he did look a bit weird standing sideways. I flipped it around and Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎) was smiling at me. I smiled back. The realization that I found a gem kicked in.
What I took out happened to be a collaboration between two old enka world legends! It was the Double Deluxe "Kogane no Uta Goe Mihashi Michiya Kasuga Hachiro wo Utau" (黄金の歌声 三橋美智也 春日八郎を歌う). I had to listen to it so I asked the owner if he could play a song for me, which he kindly obliged. As he opened it up, I got to see the amazing condition that it's in despite being used and old (the original owner bought it in 1970), as well as the wonderful pictures of the First Enka Singer and the Minyo Superstar being all pal-ly. Then I was asked which singer I wanted to listen to, and I chose Michi. "Aishu Resha" (哀愁列車) played loud and clear as I admired the photos.
With Mom's permission, I bought it at just 2800 Yen despite not having a record player... yet. I had to have this incredible rarity, which I can't even find online, and I shall continue to keep it well, just as the previous owner had.
After Fresh Air, I wasn't able to find anymore record shops in Hokkaido, mostly because we moved on to more remote areas in the prefecture. That was fine and all, but I couldn't wait to get back down to Tokyo where one record/CD shop called my name. It's the enka shop I first read of upon entering the enka world and it's store front is fully decorated with posters of enka singers. It's the record shop I wanted and had to go to. It's Miyada Records.
Located in my favourite haunt in Tokyo, Miyada Records hid in one of the back streets of Asakusa near the Kaminarimon, so it took us a while and quite a bit of walking in alleyways to find it. Here, I wasn't particularly interested in old kayo vinyls as I was in enka singles and posters of my favourite singers, which they had in abundance. Unfortunately, much to my disappointment, the posters, most of which were signed, weren't up for sale... It was also where I first learnt that posters can only be found at a singer's concert, according to one of the sales representatives. I recalled inquiring if they had Mae-Kiyo posters, and when they said no, I asked about Itsuki, and the guy pointed up to the section of wall near the ceiling.
Yes, sir, I see the signedItsuki posters. I saw them when I came in. Thank you for pointing them out, they look lovely, especially the "Yuhi San San" one (on the right). I don't think he was about to give them to me anyways.Well, even so, I got about seven singles there, adding to my newly-bought collection of six.
As the singles were being paid, I noticed that near the cashier was this container that had plastic folders with enka singers on them, with the one in front having Yoshimi Tendo (天童よしみ). Being curious, I went to check them out. There were also some with Yutaka Yamakawa (山川豊). Then, to my surprise, a Mae-Kiyo one appeared! It was like Fresh Air all over again!
Now, I usually am quite stoic on the outside, only keeping my fan-girling to a minimum on the outside save for the usual wide grin. The elation of finding a folder with a picture of Mae-Kiyo that I like on it was overwhelming, but I kept telling myself to keep under control. The other sales fellow said I could have it for free, and I couldn't help but hug it. So much for control. Dang it, Noelle! That was probably the single most amusing thing those fellas saw that day. Anyways, I now use it to keep the pamphlets and tickets and stuff like that from this trip.
That's it for this article. Next, the Asakusa Star Plaza.
Well, I was going to keep it to two articles of my own today but then I saw this video, and I simply had to get this one in. This is one of those rare gems that might come across my vision once in a blue moon and there is no sign of a blue moon tonight.
What I am talking about is this music video for "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" (Make It Spring, Fall In Love, Look For It, Kiss Me) by this New Wave band called Portable Rock (ポータブル・ロック) which had its heyday between 1983 and 1986. And what is notable about it is who was fronting the band as its vocalist. It was none other than the lady who would half a decade later become the Divine Ms. M of Pizzicato Five, Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）. I actually and somewhat offhandedly threw out the trivia that Nomiya had been part of this group in one of the first P5 articles I wrote, "Baby Portable Rock" back in early 2013, never knowing that I would ever witness an actual video from Portable Rock itself.
When Nomiya started her solo career in 1981, her backing musicians at her debut concert happened to be Nobuo Nakahara (中原信雄...bass) and Tomofumi Suzuki (鈴木智文...guitar). The following year, they decided to make it a permanent professional relationship by creating Portable Rock. However during their 3 years of existence, they never really hit it big although "Haru Shite Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" was a tie-up song for the spring campaign for Kose Cosmetics in 1986. The song was written by Saeko Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）and composed by Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）of the Moonriders.
Still, it is interesting to see Nomiya in her mid-20s prancing about like a proto-version of her Shibuya-kei self singing a cute technopop commercial jingle. Now, I just gotta track down some of her solo stuff even before Portable Rock!
A nice little slice of nostalgic downtown contemporary from the 1970s, it's been a long time since I've welcomed Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and her band Minowa Central Station（美乃家セントラル・ステイション）to these pages through this song.
"Sentimental Lady" was released as the B-side to her 9th single"Starlight Train"（スターライト・トレイン）in April 1978. It's been quite a while since I've heard the full-throated vocals of Ohashi and on a nice summer day like this, it's nice to hear some of the old stuff. How old, you may ask? Well, when Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics include the words "transistor radio", I had to go gulp. I actually lived in those days...pre-Walkman. There is also something to be said about the slow disco beat by Ohashi's husband, Ken Sato（佐藤健）. This isn't quite boogeying music under the disco ball at Lexington Queen on a Saturday night; it's more of the lounging stuff while nursing a cocktail in the late afternoon just before the party night begins.
"Sentimental Lady" was placed as a track on her first BEST compilation, "Special Blend Album"（スペシャル・ブレンド・アルバム）which also came out in the same month as the single. Heck, even the album sounds like a fine old whisky.
Nice to discover the latest Sing Like Talking single. One of the reasons for the band's longevity (28 years and counting) is the number of genres that they cover rather comfortably. According to J-Wiki, Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）, Chiaki Fujita（藤田千章）and Tomohiko Nishimura（西村智彦）can perform straight-on pop, AOR, City Pop, funk, fusion and rock. At one point, though, I thought SLT was going a little deep on rock so I decided to let them go years ago in terms of purchasing any new albums.
However, I found out about this new single (their 38th) "Kaze ga Fuita Hi"(The Day That The Wind Blew) which was released just last month in June 2016. Created by Sato and Fujita as usual, it isn't anything revolutionary...a number of SLT tropes I've heard in previous material are in this song and the opening verse sounds like something Chris Hart has probably tackled, but for a guy like me who's been wondering for a long time how Chikuzen and the gang have been doing, hearing "Kaze ga Fuita Hi" was like meeting an old buddy after many years. He may have the same tics and adorable points but it's still great to see him all the same. The song is another comfortable and comforting ballad led by the warm vocals of Chikuzen Sato.
Not sure how well this single has done but J-Pop isn't currently in an age when SLT music is exactly going to be hitting the top of the pops but I'm sure the fans don't care. It's another nice arrow in the AOR part of their quiver and we're happy to hear them again. In an aside, I have to tip my hat to the director of the official music video above.
Immediately after the excitement of Yujiro's museum, I must say that I was a lot more relaxed when it was time to pay Takashi Hosokawa's (細川たかし) museum a visit. It's probably because I was reassured that whatever I saw in pictures online is what I'll get, as experienced by the former, and it helped that my expectations for the enka-minyo singer'smemorial hall were set lower than Yujiro's since it's in the tiny town of Makkari, and it's not a stand-alone building unlike the former.
Mt. Yotei
It was another rainy day and with Makkari-mura being in the midst of ski-resort country, there was some thick fog wrapping around the surrounding mountains. But being within Hosokawa's hometown that essentially occupied one stretch of road leading to Mt. Yotei was fascinating enough to keep the rainy blues away.
The memorial hall occupied only one corner of what was probably the one of the largest buildings in the area, the Makkari Flower Center, that also happens to be the local novelty store and market, and the whole Hosokawa sh-bang was situated directly in front of a few crates of root vegetables. The entire building was, in all honesty, quite underwhelming, and it smelt like dirt and veggies, but with my highly sought-after Hosokawa stuff in front of me, those didn't bother me. And my reaction upon seeing this corner was different from the Yujiro museum: I couldn't stop a large grin from stretching across my face. The lady cleaning the floor at that time must've been rather perturbed/amused.
Photo-taking was allowed, by the way, so I'm able to show you guys more pictures. Some of the photos were provided by Mom.
The first thing that I saw there was this replica of Hosokawa's statue (I'll be talking about that later). Well, it doesn't really look like him, and if I'm not wrong the man himself actually mentioned this very thing in a "Kayo Concert" episode that had him back at home. The rest of the things on display include posters of his past and recent works and commercial tie-ups, some newspaper clippings, his numerous awards, some photos of him as a kid, and a part of his on-stage wardrobe (glitzy). There was this one article that featured him donating Makkari-mura's first electric piano, and from the looks of Hosokawa in that newspaper piece it was probably not long after he debuted.
Top: Class photo
Bottom: Piano donation
Those posters made my eyes lit up, especially the "Kita Dake" (北岳... first from the left in the picture here) one since it's, up to this point in time, Hosokawa's latest single and I happen to like the song a lot. Unfortunately, upon inquiry, there were none left to take home, even though there were about 6 smaller ones below that big one... Fine...
The photos here show theater-play-Hosokawa. He looks pretty fierce, but I have problems taking him seriously like that.
It was another wonderful experience, this time being amongst the items of a singer I love. Having the chance to see the goofy and awkward side of Hosokawa besides the regal and professional front he puts on whenever he appears on TV was nice. And viewing this guy's progress from a rural village boy to one of the greatest enka singers was mighty impressive. So there's no wonder he is one of Makkari-mura's pride and joy, other than the Yuri bulb, of course. Never got to try that root vegetable, but I did see the Yuri mascot in a pink shirt shuffling about the Flower Center.
Hosokawa'sfans... huehuehuehue...
As for souvenirs, there wasn't much to get really. I don't think they had restocked either. There were some phone charms with two different designs, one having Hosokawa's signature on it; I got both and used the one without the autograph (the blue one) as another bag accessory. Other than that, there was the Hosokawa senbei with his face imprinted on them, and packs of lozenges that were made from the local herbs (if I'm not wrong). I was tempted to get the senbei, but I decided against it as I'm not a fan of rice crackers... and I may not eat it because his face is on it.
With that done and the Flower Center given a customary visit, we then headed over to the Makkari Park, that was less than five minutes away from the Flower Center, where Hosokawa's statue stood. By then the rain had slowed to a drizzle so it wasn't particularly uncomfortable. The only thing was the worms. Had Mom not mentioned those flat, white and LONG things out and on the ground because of the rain, I would've been more at ease. Yes, worms give me the willies. But anyways, the real statue was quite a sight to behold, and it would've been even more picturesque if the sun were out and Mt. Yotei weren't shrouded in fog.
Makkari Park
Yup, the real deal does look like him, and I think it stands at the same height as the original too (not including the pedestal). To our surprise, the statue also "sings". When one approaches, it will play Hosokawa's recorded message and a snippet of his minyo song performance. Then on one side of the pedestal is a panel with five of Hosokawa's hand prints, one representing the mentioned message while the other four represented the following hits: "Kokoro Nokori" (心のこり), "Kita Sakaba" (北酒場), "Yagiri no Watashi" (矢切の渡し), and "Naniwabushi dayo Jinsei wa" (浪花節だよ人生は). If you put your hand near/on a hand print, the respective song will play.
Naturally, the first thing I did was freak out about being able to put my hand on Hosokawa's hand print - Hosokawa has long fingers. Then I was trying to figure out how to get "Yagiri no Watashi" (lower right hand corner) to play, which took me a few tries. I'm not sure why I chose this song in particular, especially when I had a longer history with the other three. I wonder if it's because I'm able to appreciate it in its entirety, rather than just its music.
The last thing on the Hosokawa-itinerary was to see the plaque that honors him. This was a distance away from the town center, and to get to it one must drive through the Makkari farms - mostly vegetables but some were dairy farms, didn't see any cows though. When we finally got there at the end of a farm road, I was wondering why the singer's plaque was built in such a far out place rather than in the middle of the village. Then Dad mentioned that it was most likely because they had wanted to have it with the majestic Mt. Yotei in the back. Can't argue with that, and it does make the plaque even more spectacular.
Well, that about wraps up this article. Stay tuned for my record shop escapades.
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.
