Tomokazu Miura -- Hohoemi no Tobira （ほほえみの扉）

Well, I've covered a lot on Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）of course as one of the biggest singers in the 1970s, and I just provided an article on her son, singer-songwriter-actor Yutaro Miura（三浦祐太朗）, so why not the husband/father as well? Actually, I say this because I had encountered to my surprise that Tomokazu Miura（三浦友和）had also contributed to the music industry way back when.

I had never gotten into pure Japanese dramas on either the big screen or the small one but I did know on a rudimentary level about some of the actors and actresses who were in them. One of them was Tomokazu Miura and I've long known that he and Yamaguchi had gotten married which sparked the latter's retirement from show business in 1980. My impression of him is sourced basically on his appearances in recent years so it's that of the nice and slightly adorkable if quite capable middle-aged daddy. However, decades ago, I guess he was quite also capable of providing some of that beefcake according to the above video.

Strangely enough, he also provided some songs onto his resume. In fact, he recorded three singles and eight albums between 1978 and 1984. That debut single turned out to be a rather contemplative ballad titled "Hohoemi no Tobira" (Door of Smiles) from November 1978.

Marcos V. and I plus at least one commenter have spoken on how Japanese songwriters were able to amp up the quality of a song even if the singer wasn't exactly the most vocally talented person. Well, indeed the great sibling songwriters Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）provided the words and music for "Hohoemi no Tobira", but the crazier thing is that Miura actually sounded surprisingly good (if a tad hammy) for a person who has only been tagged as a thespian.

Hearing the ballad for the first time, I wouldn't have automatically pegged the words and music as a Kisugi creation. The sophisticated and sweeping melody was something that I had heard from other songwriters such as Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and perhaps even Kozo Murashita（村下孝蔵）, but as soon as I read the information on the creators, I did go naruhodo. The Kisugis were always very good at tenderizing love songs in the way that I tenderize my steaks. Plus, the way Miura sang the tune, I could easily see him on one knee in front of Momoe while spouting love poetry.

"Hohoemi no Tobira" almost broke through into the Top 10 by reaching No. 11. His next two singles didn't fare nearly as well but his albums were fairly competitive on the charts, so I'll have to further explore Miura's surprise discography. It's quite the revelation to find out that Momoe Yamaguchi's future family would be quite a musical one.

Yutaro Miura -- Hoshikuzu no Merry-Go-Round （星屑メリーゴーランド）

Over the last several years, the inevitable signs of my aging have come to the fore: graying hair, joints that snap, crackle and pop even more than my morning cereal, and the fact that I can barely last one visit to the buffet table (that last one especially hurts). Another sign is hearing and seeing the children of some of my favourite singers from Japan firmly in control of their careers in the geinokai.

Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）daughter, Sayaka Kanda（神田沙也加）, has been entertaining for the past several years, folk singer Ryoko Moriyama's（森山良子）son, singer-songwriter Naotaro Moriyama（森山直太朗）, is a fairly common presence on the telly, and from the pages of this blog, I read that former aidoru Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）daughter, kaho, has started her own singing career.

And just within the last few days, I found out that one of Japanese entertainment's longest-lasting couples, actor Tomokazu Miura（三浦友和）and 1970s aidoru Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, have two sons continuing on the family business as it were.

I saw one of their sons, Yutaro Miura（三浦祐太朗）, on some NHK music variety show a few nights ago and although I didn't hear him sing there, I could see some of Tomokazu and some of Momoe depending on which way the singer-songwriter-actor turned his face.

Between 2002 and 2010, Miura was part of a rock band by the name of Peaky SALT whose activities came to a halt when the members had differing views on the future direction of their group. So, Miura went solo with his debut single coming out in 2012. His third single, "Hoshikuzu Merry-Go-Round" (Stardust Merry-Go-Round) came out in January 2015.

The title just seems like a match-up of two words that have been used over and over again for kayo titles but the ballad itself doesn't sound too bad at all. Considering the music video, it almost has a Xmas-y vibe to it and Miura has a decent if not outstanding voice (it doesn't quite stand out from some of his contemporaries). "Hoshikuzu Merry-Go-Round" managed to get as high as No. 46 on Oricon.

I was able to find this video of Miura singing his mother's eternal classic "Ii Hi Tabidachi"（いい日旅立ち）with the man who created it, Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）, and with Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, who also helped come up with a lot of Yamaguchi's later hits, on guitar (Sorry but that video has been taken down, but the above still has Miura performing the song).

At this point, I think this isn't even to the level of wishful thinking anymore but more of wistful fantasy, but there's still some part of me who would love to see Yamaguchi do a surprise appearance anywhere to sing a song.

Ami Ozaki -- Kimagure Yohou （気紛れ予報）

Another lass that I hadn't written about in a while. It's always nice to hear Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）from time to time since whenever her vocals come out, they're very refreshing and sweep any existential gloom. That is especially true when it comes to her early material.

Case in point: one track from her 4th album "PRISMY" from November 1978, "Kimagure Yohou" (Moody Forecast). Mind you, it's one of those typically Japanese tunes that has some potentially stormy times hidden in the lyrics while the music is lovely and congenial. Written and composed by Ozaki, a young lady is perhaps accompanying her mysteriously tight-lipped boyfriend for a drive while cheerfully denying any of those rumours of him sowing his wild oats with other women. Frankly, if he doesn't 'fess up to anything, the lass should dump the jerk but that's just my opinion.

Still, there's no denying the breezy 1970s pop feeling of the music, although it starts off with a riff that sounds strangely ELO. It's definitely a nice tune to listen to in the summer, and I could imagine Anri（杏里）covering "Kimagure Yohou" with ease in her early years. It's also got quite the field of musicians helping her out: Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）on guitar, Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）on bass, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）on drums, Nobu Saito（斉藤ノブ）on percussion, Hideki Matsutake of YMO fame（松武秀樹）on synthesizer programming, and two members of the band Off-Course（オフコース）as backup singers, Yasuhiro Suzuki and Kazumasa Oda（鈴木康博・小田和正）. Thank you, J-Wiki for that information.

Sachiko Kobayashi -- Futatabino （ふたたびの）

It's been some months since I've written about this kayo legend so I'm happy I'm able to talk about her again.

This is one of those songs by Sachiko Kobayashi（小林幸子）that I let slip through my memories perhaps because a later hit "Moshikashite"（もしかして）pretty much embedded itself in my head as her trademark song from the 1980s. Still, now that I've become reacquainted with "Futatabino" (The Second Time), I do remember that it was popping up on those music programs via rental video tapes from Nippon Video.

Appreciating it again after so long, I've found Kobayashi's 36th single from January 1983 to be another one of those kayo that might straddle the line between enka and Mood Kayo. Certainly looking at her appearance in the above video, I can envisage "Futatabino" to be a tune that can bring up images of being in a swanky nightclub in Tokyo and in fact, the lyrics by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, talk of a lady walking through the side streets of an entertainment district bumping into an old flame again and wondering whether the embers of love can be rekindled.

It's pretty interesting how much more conservatively dressed Kobayashi was back in the day. To be honest, I kinda prefer that way instead of the more glamourous threads she's been wearing in recent years.

Anyways, there is also something about that melody by TAI that hints at enka so you can imagine why I'm slightly stuck to definitively categorize "Futatabino" one way or another. I was surprised to find out that it was Kisugi who came up with the lyrics since I'd always thought her to be purely providing for regular pop singers.

There is no mention on J-Wiki about how the song did on the charts but it did get her another opportunity to appear on the 1983 Kohaku Utagassen. I'm pretty sure at that time, Kobayashi had yet to begin that custom of enswathing herself in yards of epic fabric on the level of an Eiko Ishioka（石岡瑛子）creation.

The late Teresa Teng（テレサ・テン）had also released her version of "Futatabino" later in October of that year but unfortunately I couldn't find her take on YouTube. (But now I have!)

1986 Omega Tribe -- Crystal Night

Summer has begun. I've already brought in the beer-friendly TUBE for the season so it's time to also bring in the mellower mineral water/cocktail side of summer J-Pop via one of the incarnations of Omega Tribe, namely 1986 Omega Tribe（1986オメガトライブ）. I listened to the above album "Downtown Mystery ~ 'Night Time' Version" yesterday and it was the nostalgic 80s of the season once more.

The song here wasn't placed on that particular album but it was the title track for 1986 Omega Tribe's 2nd album "Crystal Night" from February 1987. Carlos Toshiki（カルロス・トシキ）is at the mike for his light and creamy delivery of some nighttime light funk. Ahhh....I can see the Mai Tai being served in front of me right now. It may have been guitars for TUBE but it's those crystalline synths for Omega Tribe.

"Crystal Night" the song was written by Toshiki and Koichi Fujita（藤田浩一）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）for the album which peaked at No. 1.

Basically when I see any Japanese song from the 1980s with the word crystal in the title such as this one here, all of the pop images from that decade come flooding into my head ranging from the neo-zoot suit fashion for the guys and the big hair for the gals to the bright-lights-big-city feeling. Perhaps that is because of a 1980 novel that I had heard about years ago while in university titled "Nantonaku Crystal"（なんとなく、クリスタル...Somehow, Crystal）by Yasuo Tanaka（田中康夫）, who would later become the governor of Nagano Prefecture in the first half of the 2000s. The story involved a college kid and a part-time model living their modern Tokyo lives and apparently according to the review of the novel, Tanaka even provided tons of footnotes about the various products and cool places that the reader "needed" to know.

I never read "Nantonaku Crystal" but it seems like it can be treated as an indictment of the empty materialistic society of modern-day Japan or as a bible for the kakkoii kids at the time. In any case, I'd be interested in taking a look at an English translation of it just to confirm what was big in those early days since I had my first, brief and ultimately everlasting taste of it during my summer trip in 1981 there. Strangely enough, perhaps all those Future Funk/Vaporwave videos up on YouTube might reflect what Tanaka had been up to decades ago.

It's kinda ironic, though...supposedly Tanaka took some sneering swipes at aspects of the domestic pop culture in lieu of the "superior" Western stuff such as music in his book while I am the fellow who absolutely embraced the former (and the latter)!

You can take a look at the review of "Nantonaku Crystal" here.

Hiromi Go -- COOL

You go, GO!

Well, here I was thinking that I may have exhausted the Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）file after so many years but I'm starting to realize that the dandy man had a good dalliance with City Pop and the more urban contemporary style of music during the 1980s. Yup, I remember nikala's 2015 article on "Irie Nite"（入江にて）which had the Go man singing the urban genre as early as 1979, but I've always seen the lad as the regular face on Japanese TV, including his long stay on the Kohaku Utagassen, while singing those Oricon-friendly dynamic teen aidoru hits back in the 1970s and those man-about-town favourites in the early 1980s.

My memories of the Kohaku Utagassen go pretty hazy beyond 1983. I guess those three years of 1981, 1982 and 1983 will be the only golden ones for me so it was with some surprise on finding out that Go had sung the cool "COOL" on the 1985 Kohaku. I think I barely remember this one and I rather felt like giving myself a slap on the back of my head a la the Gibbs Smack from "NCIS" since on hearing the original recorded version here, I wanted to exhort "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!"

This was Go's 56th single from October 1985 and apparently it didn't quite chart too highly or at least J-Wiki didn't want to bother posting the results this time. However, it still registers with me as a fairly slick City Pop production (J-Wiki still has the song categorized as an aidoru tune!), and the YouTube commenters seem to be comparing it favourably to Vaporwave. I think there's even a bit of technopop in there although it wasn't enough for me to categorize it thusly. But no doubts...I think it is cool.

Maybe it was just that it seemed rather out of character for Go when I originally saw his performance on the 1985 Kohaku that the memories of it didn't really stay on in my head. Considering how soon to the New Year's Eve show its release was, I was surprised that he did get onto the show for this particular song, but then I read on the J-Wiki article that Go had announced his departure from entertainment activities from 1986 for a while (I believe he wanted to head to New York for several months) so his 13 straight Kohaku appearances would be coming to an end on December 31 1985. I gather that NHK was feeling rather sentimental so the network let him on for one final go (no pun intended). However, he would return to the Shibuya stage for the 1990 show.

The one other surprise was that singer-songwriter Senri Oe（大江千里）was the man behind the words and music to "COOL"! He always struck me as the one to create those happy-go-lucky pop tunes for singers such as Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）at the time and for himself so I didn't realize that he was able to create something as funky and downtown as this one. I'm not sure whether "COOL" ever got onto an original album although it may be on one of his BEST compilations. This would be another one that I would like to track down someday.

As a P.S., the single has the Japanese version as the B-side. The A-side has the English version of the song with Linda Hennrick providing the lyrics. Would be interesting to hear that version.

(English version)

Yujiro Ishihara -- Shiroi Machi （白い街）

This morning, I saw something rather unprecedented on NHK's "News Watch at 9". I saw the news program devote over half an hour of its hour-long coverage to something that wasn't political, economic or meteorological. Instead, the broadcasters and commentators were all gushing about a self-effacing teenage boy who just happened to win his 29th consecutive shogi match, breaking a record. In fact, part of the reason that there was such a full-court press was that the match was in the middle of its endgame during the broadcast so that NHK and perhaps other channels could catch the moment when 14-year-old shogi wunderkind 4-dan Souta Fujii（藤井聡太）confirmed his status.

Perhaps the only thing I could think of here that would be equivalent to the media hysteria surrounding Fujii and his achievement was probably when Toronto's No. 1 NHL draft pick from 2016, 19-year-old Auston Matthews, proved his worth right in his first hockey game with the big boys and scored 4 goals against Ottawa last October. Boy, were folks in Canada chattering the next day. But even that didn't extend to 30 minutes on the telly.

So here I was thinking about how I should pay some tribute to Fujii. Well, the obvious choice was "Osho"（王将）by Hideo Murata（村田英雄）but Noelle has spoken up about that enka, and since I couldn't really find any other shogi-themed kayo, I decided to check out the wunderkind's home prefecture of Aichi whose biggest city is Nagoya.

It didn't take me too long to track down a kayo related to that city (although Fujii was actually born and raised in Seto City in Aichi Prefecture). I just so happened to find "Shiroi Machi" (White City) by Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）. The Tough Guy is definitely one for geographical kayo with him singing the Japanese blues in Yokohama and Tokyo, and this time, his ballads have brought him to Nagoya. "Shiroi Machi" was written by Naoya Uchimura（内村直也）and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎真一）as a song for Ishihara in October 1967 and has him singing about another love in Nagoya.

It's another one of Ishihara's Mood Kayo tunes but the notable thing about is that instead of the customary saxophone greeting the listener, it's actually a clarinet doing the honours before Ishihara starts crooning. For me, the feeling is that of having a drink in an even classier and older nightclub. I have to admit though that I am biased since I did play the licorice stick for a few years back in junior high school.

Nagoya was one city that I did visit a few times during my odyssey in Japan and it takes about a couple of hours by Bullet Train from Tokyo. At times, I did hear that the city used to get short shrift when compared to bigger metropolises such as Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka. However, from personal experience as a foodie and as a visitor, I think it's great for its unique dishes such as ten-musu (little shrimp tempura squished into rice balls), miso katsu (deep-fried pork cutlet slathered in a miso sauce) and their own version of tebasaki (sweet-and-savory chicken wings). An old friend of mine was born and lived there, and she took me to a lovely hotel in the downtown district of Sakae for a dessert buffet while a jazz duo was playing.

Well, perhaps my tribute is somewhat oblique to the kid's shogi achievement but still all of my respects to him in his career. To be honest, I am actually more partial to I-go than shogi but even with that former game, I couldn't quite figure that one out either.