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.
Up to tonight, I would have proudly said that my favourite Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）song was "Nijuu-ichi Seiki mo Motetakute"（２１世紀もモテたくて）. The techno mashup of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）"Tenshi no Wink"（天使のウィンク）and CCB's "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）from 2001 was epic genius.
But then I came across this little gem by Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）and Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）that came out as their 13th single on Valentine's Day 2008, "Mononoke Dance" (Spectre Dance). It was used as the opening theme for the 2008 late-night version of the classic anime "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro"（ゲゲゲの鬼太郎）on Fuji-TV under its different title of "Hakaba Kitaro"（墓場鬼太郎...Kitaro of the Graveyard）. It's the first time in a long time that I watched a YouTube video on first look three times in a row since I was so attracted to the opening credits of the show. It's cool, sultry and driven.
The above is the album version (excerpt only) of "Mononoke Dance" that was included on the band's 9th album"J-POP" from April 2008. However, I think the short and sweet version used in the anime is tighter and better. The single peaked at No. 17 while the album broke the Top 10 at No. 9. Now, that I've heard "Mononoke Dance", I gotta make a decision.
For the original and more famous theme for "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro", have a look here.
I was so struck by the pure pop happiness of "POP STAR" by singer-songwriter Ken Hirai（平井堅）that I'd almost forgotten that the year before, he had come out with one of the most tenderhearted ballads in recent J-Pop memory with "Hitomi wo Tojite" (With My Eyes Closed).
Released in April 2004 as Hirai's 20th single, looking at the translation of the lyrics, I realized that it was a bittersweet one about a man who no longer has the love of his life but still treasures the time that he had with her. And it was the theme song for the 2004 movie "Sekai no Chūshin de, Ai o Sakebu"（世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ...Crying Out Love in the Center of the World）whose plot was along those lines.
I never saw the movie but I remember that "Hitomi wo Tojite" got a lot of airplay on TV through the music shows along with shots of audience members tearing up. It absolutely hit the spot for everyone since it ended up becoming the No. 1 song of the year, sold over a million copies, went Double Platinum, won Song of the Year at the Japan Gold Disc Awards, was nominated for a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards and earned Hirai his 2nd appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen (whew...that's the longest streak of Bold that I've used). I guess the only surprise I found out was that despite all of the accolades, it actually didn't hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies, peaking at "just" No. 2.
"Hitomi wo Tojite" was also a track on his 6th original album"SENTIMENTALovers" from November 2004. Unlike the single, it did hit No. 1 on the album weeklies and became the 3rd-ranked album of 2005.
Yup, I think this is one of those songs that fits perfectly with the weather. I was listening to a best compilation of Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）hits, and I realized that during the 80s when she was the most active in singing as well as songwriting. she was dabbling in a few genres as she entered the 90s. There were her contributions to City Pop in the early part of the decade followed by a dip into American-style dance pop (Reimy/麗美 and Junko Yagami/八神純子) were two other singers who would follow suit at around the same time) and then going into the next decade, she would come back musically into Japan with a different urban contemporary pop sound with mellower synths.
Aran's "Hitonatsu no Tapestry" (The Tapestry of One Summer) from her 1983 album"Fuyuu Kuukan"（浮遊空間...Floating Space）kinda straddles the line between City Pop and funky R&B on the West Coast. I couldn't help but feel a bit of Dazz Band on hearing the synths, and of course, there is that boppy bass. Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, later of the band Fence of Defense, came up with the oh-so-80s music while Aran provided the lyrics.
And those lyrics talk about a night of subtle debauchery through Mona Lisa smiles, blue cocktails and dedicated leering (yup, they are straight from her lyrics) with the ending verse talking of the morning after when everything seems to have faded into half-remembered memories. As they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, although I wonder if Aran could have been talking about Roppongi on a Saturday night.
The singer-songwriter also came up with the words for all those fun-in-the-sun tunes for TUBE so I gather that she was able to take all that night feeling and turn it to a somewhat more innocent thing during the daytime for that band. That would make for an interesting analogy: Aran goes to the beach by day, hits the discos at night.
Perhaps the only bugbear that I might have about "Hitonatsu no Tapestry" is that Aran herself doesn't have as strong a vocal presence as some of her contemporaries, so I would have loved to have had someone like Yagami take the song on.
It was kinda hard to imagine as a kid that the dandelion was an unwelcome weed. It smelled like Juicy Fruit chewing gum, looked pretty in full bloom, and it had that cool dispersal system for its seeds. Just give it a blow and watch every seed fly off under its own parachute. My "hobby" of blowing fluffy dandelion seeds was curtailed at a young age when I ended up blowing a whole ton of them into a stiff wind...which ended up in the direction of my family and all of the picnic food on the table. NOT good times, they were.
Since those salad days, I have learned that though there are many commercials selling herbicide to get rid of the yellow flowers every year, the dandelion has provided some nice parts in terms of greens for salads and tea. I'm not sure how the flower has been treated in Japan but that famous ramen noodle western from 1985, "Tanpopo" does exist and that title is the Japanese word for dandelion. Plus, a couple of years earlier, Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）had given her own tribute to the flower via "Dandelion".
Well, I've just come across this other dandelion-themed folk song (that flute gives it all away), "Tanpopo no O-Sake" (Dandelion Wine) from 1975. There wasn't a whole lot of information about the song on YouTube and there was a commenter who had asked about it...5 years ago, mind you. However, the mellow music and the lovely vocals by Hideko Yoshida（吉田日出子）intrigued me enough to take on the challenge to track this down.
First thing is that Yoshida is an actress, and when I looked up her biography in J-Wiki, there was no mention of her ever going behind the mike to sing so perhaps "Tanpopo no O-Sake" was a one-off. It would be too bad if that were indeed the case since I think she actually sings the song very well. According to her bio, she would have been over 30 years of age by this recording but she sounds like a teenager here.
Apparently, the song was perhaps first performed as the theme song for an NHK drama "Roku Nen Ni-kumi no Haru wa"（六年二組の春は...The Spring for Grade 6, Class 2）but I'm not sure whether Yoshida's version is the original one for this show. The lyrics of the lives of a bed of dandelions were written by Kazuko Fujimoto（藤本和子）and the music was composed by Hiroshi "GWAN" Sato（佐藤GWAN博）. Now to be clear, this isn't the late keyboardist Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）who had come up with the marvelous City Pop album "Awakenings" but the folk singer/actor with the same name (Hiroshi Sato is pretty much like John Smith in Japan) whom I'll be distinguishing through the inclusion of his nickname GWAN in the Labels. Supposedly, according to Sato's bio on J-Wiki, he was given the nickname by fellow actor Ryuzo Hayashi（林隆三）since the singer had eyes that resembled those of a bird that had just gotten shot by a pellet gun (gun=GWAN....go on!). Moving on...
In any case, I have recently come across some other songs by GWAN online so I would like to explore and perhaps feature some of these in future articles.
A few days ago, one of my friends introduced me to her fellow odori dancer who was searching for a song that she could perform with at a future Wakayama Kenjinkai（和歌山県人会）event. For people who may not know what a kenjinkai is all about, it's basically an association consisting of ethnic Japanese in Canada, the United States and elsewhere who share a common lineage according to their ancestral prefecture in Japan. I've heard that the Wakayama Kenjinkai in Canada is fairly large from my parents since all of us have roots in the province immediately south of Osaka.
The dancer asked me if I knew of any old kayo related to Wakayama Prefecture. Aside from "Kumano Kodo"（熊野古道）, a song about the World Heritage site in that area by Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）, I couldn't come up with an answer right away. However, I did a bit of searching about and realized that there were a few of them. Also I found out that a couple of bigwig enka singers were also born in Wakayama such as Toshimi Tagawa（田川寿美）and the legendary Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）.
One of those songs happened to be "Wakayama Blues" by Kiyono Koto（古都清乃）. Now, everyone who is fairly well versed in Japanese kayo will probably figure out quickly that the song is a Mood Kayo from the title including the word "blues", the chorus and the forlorn saxophone playing out there.
The setting this time is the Burakuri-cho Shotengai（ぶらくり丁商店街）, a shopping and entertainment district in Wakayama City. Koto's 8th single which was released in September 1968, became a huge hit for the singer (who was actually born in Gunma Prefecture as Yoko Kondo/近藤陽子 in 1947), selling over 800,000 records, and it did put Wakayama Prefecture on the map, figuratively speaking. The lyrics were written by Shizuo Yoshikawa（吉川静夫）and the melody was by the veteran Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）.
In my case, my image of Wakayama Prefecture had nothing to do with the urban parts at all. Whenever my family went over there, it was to visit my grandparents an hour south of Wakayama City by train in a very small village. It was nothing but farmland and humongous insects (thank you most kindly, Wakayama, for my several years of arachnophobia) out there, and since I had only been there during summer and winter, I got to experience the extremes of climate. The torrid summers most everyone who's been to Japan would know, but at the end of the year, my neck of the woods near Shirahama was always buffeted by high winds so even though there was no snow, there was a definite wind chill factor.
Methinks that a nice tokkuri and ochoko of sake would have helped during those wintry days in Wakayama more than the basket of mikan.
When I came back to Toronto for good after so many years, I finally got the gumption to visit the St. Lawrence Market. I had been hearing about this place since I was a kid but never made it there in my life, sorry to say. But I finally did make my visit to this emporium of food and souvenirs on Front St. a few months later.
I've made a few visits there since and I've always enjoyed it for lunch such as juicy porchetta sandwiches (do not tell your doctor about this one!) and chicken parmigiana sandwiches. Still, I was surprised to find out that at least for one year, the St. Lawrence Market was actually labeled as the best market in the world! I guess it's rather Canadian to do so but I couldn't quite believe that our Toronto emporium would actually be selected as the best. After all, there is the Pike Place Marketin Seattle, Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, and even Ameyoko（アメ横）in Tokyo. I almost felt like apologizing to everyone on the planet "Hey, sorry....it wasn't my decision!"
But in any event, I think a lot of us were quietly happy and proud that we would get the honour, and the St. Lawrence Market is a pretty decent place for eats and stuff.
Well, on that note, I would like to happily introduce "Fuyu no Market"(Winter Market) by Miki Imai（今井美樹）. Over a year ago, when I wrote up the follow-up article for her grand album "Retour" (1990), I mentioned that this particular song and one other had been the remaining tracks not to be covered by me due to non-availability on YouTube. Luckily, that is no longer the case as far as "Fuyu no Market" is concerned.
My neighbourhood in Ichikawa was well stocked with supermarkets and convenience stores so seeing actual lively markets from the old days was simply not to be during my time. Probably the closest I got was traipsing through the aforementioned Ameyoko. I know now through my translation work that there are some famous farmers' markets in areas of Japan such as Niigata Prefecture with that bustling and homey atmosphere as the locals come down to get some fresh fish and vegetables. I might try to partake in one myself someday when I head back to the nation for a visit.
Imai's "Fuyu no Market" definitely has that contemporary sound (for 1990, at least) in the arrangement, but the atmosphere of the setting is very homey and comfortable as I could see Imai walking through the local market and searching for some goodies to make dinner when, lo and behold, she bumps into an old flame doing the same. There is a combination of that bitter and sweet as the two former lovers decide to chat and partake in some coffee to keep the chill away and maybe stoke of that warmth from the old days.
Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）provided the lyrics and Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）composed the music for this song which was one of the 12 reasons why I love "Retour" as one of my very favourite albums in Japanese pop music.
Looking at the above trailer, you would be forgiven if you had thought that this was merely one of those heartwarming slice-of-life anime starring a little cosplayer. However "Alice to Zouroku"（アリスと蔵六...Alice and Zouroku）has a split personality. I've been watching this as one of my buddy's presentations during the biweekly sessions this season, and it seems like it can swing almost fully into sci-fi thriller for one episode while swinging into a slice-of-life light comedy for another. However, everything hinges on the relationship between the perky and headstrong super-powered Sana and the cranky Zouroku with the heart of gold.
As I said on the article for the theme songs of "Uchoten Kazoku 2"（有頂天家族2）, none of the anison for the shows this season have been instant hits, but at least, the ones on offer here for "Alice to Zouroku" have been appealingly quirky. For instance, the opening theme, "Wonder Drive"（ワンダードライブ）by ORESAMA has got a nice pop beat that reminds me of ZAQ's "Hopeness" for last year's "Koukaku no Pandora: Ghost Urn"（紅殻のパンドラ）.
ORESAMA consists currently of vocalist and lyricist Pon（ぽん）and guitarist and composer Hideya Kojima（小島英也）, both from Nagano Prefecture. Since their debut single in 2014, they have released 1 album and 3 singles including "Wonder Drive". During their high school days, they covered a number of hits by Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）, Avril Lavigne and Judy and Mary. Lyrical Nonsense has the English translation of the lyrics right here.
It's the ending theme that I think fits in with the overall feeling of "Alice to Zouroku" because of its dreamy, innocent and whimsical nature. And in meeting with that mysterious vibe, I've got no idea who this unit, toi toy toi, is. Whoever they are, though, I'm starting to like "Chant" since there is something rather Enya with that layered vocalization. However I've been getting some push from my anime buddy about the lyricist and composer for "Chant", songwriter Kotringo（コトリンゴ）. Even before this show started, he had been telling how accomplished she is and I've passed by some of her videos on YouTube so perhaps I should give her more of a look-see. Translated lyrics are also up at Lyrical Nonsense.
June 13 2017: Well, Lantis Channel on YouTube put up the official music video for "Chant" yesterday, and I did find out that toi toy toi is made up of Kotringo herself, Babi, Rie Yoshihara（良原リエ）and Masumi Ito（伊藤真澄）.
Due to various circumstances, I've been running behind the sessions and with the spring season wrapping up in a couple of weeks, I'm wondering if my anime buddy might end up showing me the rest of episodes in a massive marathon session.
