Toshihiro Kirigaya -- Hitomi wo Tojite（瞳をとじて）

 

THIS IS CBS! Ach...no, it isn't. It's just the Shinjuku Eye.

We've had a few siblings represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" such as lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and her brother, singer-composer Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）, and of course, there are the sisters Iwasaki: Hiromi and Yoshimi（岩崎宏美・岩崎良美）. Now, we've got the brothers Kirigaya. Jin（桐ヶ谷仁）has been on a number of times now but tonight, I'd like to introduce his younger brother Toshihiro Kirigaya（桐ヶ谷俊博）.

Toshihiro Kirigaya, who also likes to go by the names Bobby Kirigaya or Kailani Lehua, made his debut in 1979 but his career of releasing records is very short with only four singles and one album up to 1981. However, he has produced other artists' works since then, such as one for Naoko Gushima（具島直子） and he's even been up with his brother Jin at live performances. According to J-Wiki, he has also been creating jingles for commercials and helping other people in the area of voice training.

His fourth and final single from 1981 is "Hitomi wo Tojite" (Close Your Eyes), an uptempo song that can be placed into the AOR genre. The fascinating thing here though is that the last time I wrote about  Jin Kirigaya via his 1979 song "Return to the Sky", I pointed out how much the older brother sounded like a mix of Off-Course（オフコース）members Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）. Well, right here with "Hitomi wo Tojite", written and composed by Toshihiro and arranged by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, I can say that the younger brother also sounds like Oda and maybe even band Tulip's（チューリップ）Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）. Coincidentally enough, the J-Wiki article also mentions that Toshihiro has also covered Oda's songs. Certainly, "Hitomi wo Tojite" has that folksy pop feeling of either an Off-Course or Tulip tune.

Sumire Uesaka -- SPY

 

The usual talk around the quarter-century-long "Mission: Impossible" movie franchise has revolved around what incredible stunt set piece will Tom Cruise hatch up to top the last incredible stunt set piece from the previous movie. Because he pulled off a HALO jump and then proceeded to perform bumper cars with two helicopters in "Fallout" last time, I gather that he may just decide to learn to become an astronaut and have a fistfight on the exterior of the International Space Station itself for the next entry.

Still as amazing and action-packed as the last few movies have been, I still have a very soft spot for the original TV series from the 1960s to the 1970s with Steven Hill and Peter Graves playing the first two IMF leaders. In fact, I even have the DVDs of the first few years when Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were helping out. Watching the old episodes is still pretty fun for the most part and despite all of the fake nations and linguistic expressions concocted by creator Bruce Geller (the Gellerisms), the whole thing about "Mission: Impossible" back then was mainly the Cold War battle waged between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in those years.

All that preamble I have given you because I wanted to introduce seiyuu and singer Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）"SPY", a track from her January 2020 album "Neo Propaganda". I'd written about one other song on the album, "Neo Tokyo Shouka"（ネオ東京唱歌）, a fascinating hybrid of early 20th-century kayo and Soviet-era march. This time, though, "SPY" is an urgent and intrepid technopop-rock tune along with Uesaka's light and slightly whispery vocals about a couple of intelligence operatives from the East and West trying to top one another. There's something that feels kinda 80s about it, and in fact, I can pick up on some New Order vibes. Kenji Ohtsuki（大槻ケンヂ）and NARASAKI were behind words and music respectively.

Returning to Tom Cruise's magnum opus franchise, there are two more movies at least coming down the pipeline. If the ISS may be one setting in the 7th movie, then I can only imagine what would top that in the 8th entry. Time travel?

Natsuko Aso -- More-more LOVERS!!

 

What brought me here was actually Hyadain's（ヒャダイン）"Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C"（ヒャダインのカカカタ☆カタオモイ-C）, the frantic 2011 song which started off a number of the zany and hilarious episodes of the anime "Nichijou"（日常）. Now, as a reminder from that article, Hyadain is the pseudonym for anison creator Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）but in the video, there seemed to be a duet between him and a young lady under the name of Hyadaruko（ヒャダル子）. Actually, although the lass was singer/actress Natsuko Aso（麻生夏子）, her voice in the song was supplied by Hyadain pitched way up through technology.

So as such, I was curious to hear what Aso really sounded like since she's been active as of 2006. Through listening to her 5th single "More-more LOVERS!!" from November 2010, her voice is just a tad lower than the technologically-altered Hyadain voice which made me wonder for a bit why Maeyamada couldn't have allowed Aso to sing the song with her own voice. But then again, "Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C" had been recorded before the video so really Maeyamada only needed the young lady to provide a body and mouth for the vocals.

Maeyamada, in fact, was behind the just-as-frantic music and arrangement for "More-more LOVERS!!" with prolific anison lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）taking care of the words. Aso hasn't been listed as an aidoru in her J-Wiki profile, but everything about the song and the pastel-coloured music video pretty much screams the recent teen idol genre (although the Tokyo-born singer had already been an adult for about 3 months at the time of release). She reminds me of a few solo aidoru from the Hello Project cadre.

"More-more LOVERS!!" peaked at No. 38 on Oricon and it served as the ending theme for the late 2010 anime "MM!"（えむえむっ!）, a show whose characters displayed a lot of their own special kinks. Unfortunately, I couldn't track down a video with the ending credits featuring Aso's song but I did discover that the seiyuu cast consisted of a lot of current A-listers who were already making waves in the industry such as Saori Hayami（早見沙織）and Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）.

Tsunehiko Kamijo with Rokumonsen -- Tabidachi no Uta ~ Ushinawareta Toki wo Motomete（出発の歌 -失なわれた時を求めて-）

 

Over three years ago, I wrote about an old kayo chestnut titled "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de"（誰かが風の中で）from January 1972 by singer/actor Tsunehiko Kamijo（上條恒彦）. It reminded me of those heroic theme songs for American Western shows such as "Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza", except that it was used as the theme song for a samurai drama. We are talking about Japan after all.

Well, a few months earlier in November 1971, there was a previous single, "Tabidachi no Uta ~ Ushinawareta Toki wo Motomete" (The Song for Setting Off on a Journey ~ In Search of Lost Time) that was a collaboration between Kamijo and the folk group Rokumonsen（六文銭）. Two of the members from that group, Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and Hitoshi Komuro（小室等）, were responsible for words and music respectively (Komuro also composed "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de"). And this was another rousing song that has actually lingered in my mind as well.

As is the case with the later "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de", there is a heroic quality to this particular song as once again Kamijo sounds much older than his 31 years when "Tabidachi no Uta" was released and comes across as a wiser and older man proudly exhorting listeners to take that bold step into the future. The heroism isn't with a lone wolf here, it's more with everyone. However, the singer's words and music don't dissipate into the crowd but still packs as much punch into all who listen to it as "Dareka ga Kaze no Naka de" does into that samurai.

I have to thank the uploader for providing the video of Kamijo's appearance at the 1972 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, and indeed he did get that honour after ultimately selling approximately 700,000 records with "Tabidachi no Uta" peaking at No. 5 on Oricon. As for any questions on the first two kanji of the title: yes, that actually does read as shuppatsu（出発...departure） but in the name of the message for the song, I think tabidachi（旅立ち...setting off on a journey） has more of that dramatic and optimistic flair.

Yoko Kagawa -- Ginza no Maria（銀座のマリア）

 

Yoko Kagawa（佳川ヨコ）is another one of those singers that I haven't been able to glean a lot of information about, although her discography is listed at "Showa Pops". I don't know where she comes from, how she got into the singing business or whether she's even still alive. What I do know so far is that she made her debut in February 1967 with "Kimi Koso Waga Inochi"（君こそわが命）. Now for those kayo experts, if that title sounds familiar to you, it's because Hiroshi Mizuhara (水原弘) also released the same song in the same month as Kagawa, and it has become one of his trademark tunes. The debate goes on as to who released it first, though, and unfortunately I haven't been able to find Kagawa's version of the song online.

However, Kagawa's star really rose with the release of her sophomore effort, "Ginza no Maria" (Maria of Ginza) later that year according to what I read on one fellow's 2006 blog entry titled "Wasureta koro ni Kagawa Yoko"（忘れた頃に佳川ヨコ...The Forgotten Yoko Kagawa）. This is an interesting song by her in that although it is listed as a Mood Kayo (and I believe that genre choice, too), not only can I still hear some elements of enka in the arrangement and Kagawa's vocals but there is also that twangy guitar twist rock in there as well that I would usually associated with Group Sounds which had its heyday during that time. Give thanks to composer Yasumi Matsuo（松尾安巳）for this somewhat gestalt kayo.

Lyricist Kohan Kawauchi（川内康範）, the same man who was behind the words for the aforementioned "Kimi Koso Waga Inochi", was also responsible for "Ginza no Maria" in which the protagonist, a hostess, has proudly proclaimed herself to be the Mary Magdalene of the glamourous Ginza with her clients all coming especially to her for succor and sympathy. Never did I ever think that religious idioms would be made in this particular neighbourhood, but whether this hostess actually believes her own press or is being rather tongue-in-cheek about it is up to the listener. For me, Kagawa's breathy and varying vocals seem to be giving knowing winks to my ears. Her voice is a mix of Auntie Mame, teasing experienced hostess and traditional enka chanteuse.

Kagawa was regularly releasing singles up to the middle of the 1970s but it looks like "Ginza no Maria" was her one big hit. However, I want to see if there are any more examples of her work on YouTube.

Masayo Kawaguchi -- Memoirs（メモワール）

 

I've always been intrigued by the unsung singers and musicians since I started this blog nearly 10 years ago, and one of those folks is singer-songwriter Masayo Kawaguchi（川口雅代）. When I first wrote about her "Salmon Pink"  (さあもん ぴんく) which was a track on her first album, "Salute - Go-Aisatsu"（SALUTE 〜ご・あ・い・さ・つ〜...Greetings） from 1981, I likened her and the song to what Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）had been doing in the late 1970s.

Well, it's then been interesting listening to this 1981 single from Kawaguchi, "Memoirs". Written by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, it was Kawaguchi who was behind its composition which once again reminds me of Ohnuki although this time, it's the Ohnuki of the early 1980s when that singer decided to make her right turn from New Music and City Pop towards technopop and a more European sensibility. Kawaguchi doesn't sound anything like Ohnuki but "Memoirs" has that mixture of being in a futuristic Tokyo and a romantic Paris, and it certainly sounds like something that Taeko could have created for Kawaguchi. 

From her J-Wiki article, "Memoirs" didn't make it onto her two albums which were released in 1981 and 1998, so this particular single is probably among the rarest of the rare out there.

Hako Yamasaki -- Bōkyō（望郷）

 

The first full day of summer 2021 has arrived and I'm feeling it. Following lunch and working in my fan-assisted room, I'm still sensing that drowsiness threatening to envelop me until dinner. Can't let that happen. Must...work...on...blog!

So far, my impression of folk singer-songwriter Hako Yamasaki（山崎ハコ）has included adjectives such as melancholy and tenderhearted. From her debut album in October 1975, "Tobimasu"（飛・び・ま・す...Fly）, the first track is "Bōkyō" (Nostalgia), which has Yamasaki singing about a woman residing in Yokohama reminiscing about her old days in her hometown and wondering about returning even though her original home is no longer there. It's a very wistful way of expressing "You can no longer go back home again."

In a way, I've been cursed and blessed with that feeling of bōkyō since I've had two homes: one in Toronto, one in Ichikawa. No matter where I have been, I will always have longing memories of being back in the other city. However with this pandemic perhaps slowly going away, I'm glad that I was here in Toronto with the family.