Kohei Oikawa -- Tokyo Boshoku（東京暮色）

I hadn't been aware that there were a few ways to express sunset in Japanese. There is yuugata（夕方）which I usually hear in conversation, and then there is tasogare（黄昏）that seems to be the more romantic expression used as part of kayo titles. Now, I've just heard of boshoku（暮色）for the first time that also refers to dusk or twilight. Of course, I've yet to understand any particular nuances for this word.

However, it is used in the title "Tokyo Boshoku" (Tokyo Twilight), the 4th of 5 singles that singer-songwriter Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）released in the 1970s. To be specific, "Tokyo Boshoku" was released in June 1974, and for those keen-eyed readers, the name Kohei Oikawa may ring a bell since I have already mentioned the Hokkaido native as a songwriter for Jiro Sugita's（杉田二郎）"Hitori ni Nareba"（ひとりになれば）last week.

I actually first heard about Oikawa through one of his songs that made it onto one of my "Light Mellow" discs. Unfortunately that song isn't available on YouTube so I took a look around the area and found this rather natty one. "Tokyo Boshoku" is a folk tune but instead of heading into New Music territory that I've read that a lot of Japanese folk songs fall under, this one is truly folksy in terms of old-fashioned kayo. The late, great lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the words to Oikawa's whimsical melody, and instead of getting images of walking the concrete streets of modern Tokyo, it's more imagining the older quarters of the megalopolis such as Asakusa or Sugamo.

Aku's lyrics and Oikawa's music make things rather Chaplinesque or Buster Keatonesqsue as a guy mopes around Tokyo as he mourns another setback in his love life and tries to shake off the blues. Considering the time of its release, I can only see the fellow in ratty bell-bottomed jeans, similar jean jacket and maybe even a shapeless hat plopped onto his downturned head.

In addition to those 5 singles up to 1975, Oikawa has recorded 13 albums up to 2010, although during the 1980s, he didn't do anything music-related. For a time, he even left music altogether and became a tennis instructor according to J-Wiki. There is one album of his that I'm interested in, and that would be his 1975 "Natsukashii Kurashi"（懐かしいくらし...Nostalgic Living） because that J-Wiki article mentioned that it had a City Pop sheen with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）contributing their talents to the project. Alas, I haven't been able to find any sign of it on YouTube.

Oikawa has still been singing in recent times as the video below shows. By the way, "Tokyo Boshoku" also appears on his July 1974 album "Namae no nai Kimi no Heya"（名前のない君の部屋...The Room For You Who Has No Name）.

Chiharu Matsuyama -- Nagai Yoru（長い夜）

Should be giving myself a Gibbs Slap upside my head once more since I'd assumed that this was already up on the blog. This is Chiharu Matsuyama's（松山千春）biggest hit, after all. Plus, I've heard it from time to time on various shows.

"Nagai Yoru" (Long Night) is a rock-n'-roll paean to someone's deep love for a woman and he would cherish the opportunity to show it to her all night. I remember it for all that wailing guitar work and Matsuyama's crooning vocals. From what I read on the J-Wiki article for "Nagai Yoru", his 10th single from April 1981, is that on his radio show in 2016, the singer said that the song he had created was supposed to have the folk rhythm that was his usual stock-in-trade. However, during the recording in the studio, guitarist Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）gave the suggestion of changing it into a more pop/rock thing, despite some resistance from other folks. Matsubara should have gotten a free dinner at the very least for putting the octane into the song.

The song became his second No. 1 after "Kisetsu no Naka de" （季節の中で）which was a 1978 release. It then became the 5th-ranked single of 1981. "Nagai Yoru" was first included on his 2nd singles collection album "Kishou Tenketsu II"（起承転結 II） which came out in November. That album also hit No. 1 and ended up as the 4th-ranked release of 1982. That rather intense title refers to the introduction and development of Japanese and Chinese narratives, according to Jisho.org.

Another reason for giving myself the slap is that I'd heard "Nagai Yoru" often enough on those monomane shows with master impressionist Corocket.

Sakurako Biseimaru -- Onna Misaki Bushi（おんな岬節）

I heard this song "Onna Misaki Bushi" (Song of the Woman on the Cape) on an episode of NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）weeks ago when the show was showing past scenes of folks singing on the stage, and I was rather captivated by it. There was a lot of spunky brio to it.

So I did a look around online and found out that the original singer was a lady by the name of Sakurako Biseimaru（美盛丸桜子）, and according to Tower Records, it had been released back in 1988. Aside from that, there is next to nothing on information about this mysterious enka singer, although I could glean from the same site that her active years may have been between 1988 and 1992. I had to find out how to read the kanji from Oricon itself. She has recorded a number of songs according to the JASRAC database.

Written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）, it's got a thumping beat throughout as Biseimaru sings softly but actually carries a big stick (to partially quote US President Theodore Roosevelt). To wit, her protagonist in the lyrics is exhorting everyone to watch out since she doesn't want to be the quiet woman who prays for the safety of those brave fishermen on the trawlers on the rough seas. She wants to be one of those fishermen out there!

Another enka trope that I've noticed is how a number of songs of the genre have used misaki or "cape" in their titles. Being an island nation, Japan does have a lot of capes all over, and I guess standing at the edge of one of them with the water crashing all around must cut quite the heroic pose.

(karaoke version)

Not sure whatever became of Biseimaru but the fact that there are karaoke videos of her and the fact that people do perform "Onna Misaki Bushi" on "Nodo Jiman" mean that she still has a presence and memory in her fans' minds.

Shin Rizumu -- Mikakunin no Superstar（未確認のスーパースター）

Commenter Michael was kind enough to reciprocate when I put up my latest "Happy Songs For Me" list last Thursday. He put up his own list in the Comments section and I enjoyed all of his contributions including this one here.

Singer-songwriter Shin Rizumu（シンリズム）is a fellow that I did talk about back in 2018 with his 2nd single "Music Life" from November 2015, and I enjoyed that one for its jazziness. However, with his December 2019 digital download single "Mikakunin no Superstar" (Unidentified Superstar), it's all about the light synthpop.

Written and composed by the man himself, "Mikakunin no Superstar" has quite the appealingly spacey and chrome-gleaming futuristic sound, and from looking at the lyrics, it seems to be about a shy fellow who becomes quite the big man on campus online (albeit incognito). But I think that he's also chomping at the bit to finally reveal himself to a particular young lady who he's taken a shine to. And thus the inner conflict begins to boil. Sounds like it might be the just the idea for some sort of TV drama in Japan or a movie.

Miyuki Ogawa -- Shine My Heart

I can't come up with the names right at this moment, but I think there were female singers (aidoru or pop) in the 1980s who had voices that seemed to be suited for rocking but were held back because of the genre they were singing in at that point. That was my impression on hearing Miyuki Ogawa（小川美由希）for the first time.

Ogawa had a brief career in the geinokai between 1986 and 1989. Born in Tokyo, she first got that desire to become a singer when she listened to her first ABBA record as an elementary school student, according to an interview she gave in the Japanese variant of "Car & Driver" magazine in 1989. Ogawa actually debuted under a stage name Shima Kitahara（北原志真）in 1986 but then the following year in August 1987, she released her 2nd single "Shine My Heart", under her new stage name of Miyuki Ogawa (her real name is Makiko Sato/佐藤真紀子).

"Shine My Heart" was written by Ogawa and composed by singer-songwriter Goji Tsuno（つのごうじ） and has a tropical summery beat. When I first came upon her name and saw the cover for her debut album "mew club" which was released on the same day as "Shine My Heart", I had assumed that she was one of the countless aidoru that came through the door of show business but listening to the arrangement by Tsuno, I thought that there was more polish on this particular song which also starts off the album. As I said off the top of the article, there is something about that voice of hers which was fine enough but also seemed a tad tentative in the delivery. Ah, now I remember...maybe that was also the case for the late Minako Honda（本田美奈子）, although she did get her opportunity to do some rock tunes later on.

Ogawa provided a total of 4 singles and 3 full albums with her final album "Funny Baby Lady" coming out in May 1989. She's not doing anything in show business currently according to J-Wiki.

Kana Hanazawa -- Summer Sunset

Well, congratulations to seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）on her marriage to fellow voice actor Kensho Ono（小野賢章）on July 8th a few weeks ago. Apparently, according to "Oricon News", Hanazawa made the announcement on her Twitter account.

I've seen her in many roles over the years but I will always adore her Mei-Mei from "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）, and I hope that she was feeling very much the same thing on her wedding day as her character did here.

Perhaps one fellow seiyuu who may be feeling some slight blues right now is Tomokazu Sugita（杉田智和）. Man, the above video has been one on my heavy rotation over the years just for Sugita's constant razzing of Hanazawa. Not sure if that's going to happen all that often anymore. Oh, well, I guess he can always tease Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）.

Well, in commemoration of the blessed event (though belated), I give you "Summer Sunset" by Hanazawa on her 2nd album "25" released in February 2014. A nice slice of Latin-spiced mellow pop, it was created by lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composer Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, the same duo who came up with the more uptempo "I♥New Day!" in her 3rd album "Blue Avenue". Personally, I'm glad that she uses her higher-pitched voice to sing rather than the voices of her scarier characters.

Would also like to take this opportunity to pay a little tribute to fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto（山本寛斎）who passed away almost a week ago at the age of 76. He was always the very flamboyantly eccentric character who would come up with some very crazy designs for clothes and events. I don't quite remember how but I ended up with a tote bag with his name on it years ago when I was in Japan, and it's still with me today although the handles have lost some of the outer coating. In fact, I used it to go shopping at the local supermarket this morning.

Michiya Mihashi -- Chichibu Ondo（秩父音頭）

Years ago, the owner of the juku that I was teaching at for several years invited me on a Sunday day trip over to her hometown of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture. So I was able to see the usual souvenir shops, her relatives and the nearby town of Nagatoro which has its famous boating excursions.

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching NHK's show dedicated to minyo（民謡...traditional folk song） and one of the singers performed "Chichibu Ondo" (Chichibu Folk Song) which of course brought back those memories of traveling with my old friend to Saitama.

Both Noelle Tham and I have written about minyo including the festival ondo, so there has been my experience with "Tankō Bushi"（炭坑節）and "Soran Bushi"（ソーラン節）. Now both of those songs were born sometime in the 20th century with my surprise that the latter tune had actually been created in the 1970s. However, according to one tourism website for the nearby town of Minano (which states that the song was born there), "Chichibu Ondo" probably had its origins around two hundred years ago in the early 19th century. I couldn't narrow it down to the exact year so I'm using the Label "1800" which would mean that "Chichibu Ondo" is the oldest song to be placed onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

Of course, I also don't know who the original singer was for "Chichibu Ondo" but at one point, enka singer Michiya Mihashi（三橋美智也）recorded his version of the song with Kikutaro Takahashi's（高橋掬太郎）lyrics. According to the English page of that tourism website I mentioned, the music was provided by Gisaku Yoshioka with lyrics by local poet Isekiko Kaneko sometime in the early Showa period, so that was probably an earlier form of the song before Takahashi's revision. Again, if I'm mistaken here, please let me know.

There is also a festival dance which accompanies "Chichibu Ondo". The song and dance together represent the hardy people of the area and the industries and traditions that were prominent there such as silkworm cultivation. The Chichibu Ondo Festival usually takes place every August 14th in Minano but when I saw subtitles go up on that NHK minyo program whenever a singer performed a regional ondo or bushi that the particular festival for that song had been cancelled this year due to COVID-19, I figured that the Chichibu Ondo Festival would probably share the same fate for 2020. However, I'm sure that we are all hoping for a return of all of the regional festivals next year, and maybe a major world sports competition as well.