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, I did have the above CD cover as the photo of the week in the upper-right corner for about a week so I figure that at least I should find out what the song is all about. I've not covered aidoru Rieko Miura（三浦理恵子）before now.
The tune is associated as an image song with an interesting anime created by Italian production companies and broadcast on NHK from 1994 to 1995. Titled "Montana Jones"（モンタナ・ジョーンズ）, it was about anthromorphized cats with an adventurous streak, and yes, the show was inspired by a famous Hollywood hero-adventurer.
Not sure how Miura's "Rakuen no Tricot" fit in as an image song for "Montana Jones". Perhaps it was placed as a track in the soundtrack or a character song album. However, the aidoru's 8th single from August 1994 is a cheerful and bubbly tune with some cool horns to add some urban jazziness to the proceedings. Written by Hirofumi Nagatomo（長友博文）and Neko Oikawa（及川ネコ）with Minoru Komorita（小森田実）and Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）handling composition and arrangement duties respectively, though I wouldn't quite place it as a 90s City Pop song, there is something of the caviar and champagne in there. Incidentally, I had to dig a tad to find out what a tricot was...apparently, it's some sort of knitted fabric so I gather that "Rakuen no Tricot" can be translated as "Paradise Fabric". It peaked at No. 38 on Oricon.
Miura went on a solo aidoru career once her group CoCo called it quits in 1994. However, I recall seeing her more on television as a tarento, although she would continue releasing albums and singles on her own until 1997.
In the most recent ROY article that I've written, I noted that I didn't bother profiling the Top 3 songs on the August 3rd 1970 Oricon chart (yep, exactly 53 years ago) because I had yet to write about any of them. Well, that's now down to two songs.
That is correct since I'm now covering the kayo kyoku that hit No. 1 on that day, Hide & Rosanna's（ヒデとロザンナ） May 1970 5th single"Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku" (Love is Fragile). Despite the direct translation that I've provided, the record cover has the official English title as "Love is Free".
It's a little surprising that it's taken this long to cover "Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku" since I did write about their "Ai no Kiseki"（愛の奇跡）here several years ago and the melody is familiar to me as one that has probably been performed on music shows such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）, the opening verses show a vocal give-and-take between Hide and Rosanna about their love along with an uncertainty in the melody before it gives way to a key shift into something happier and more hopeful with the two singing together.
I love the triumphant trumpet, by the way. The song not only hit No. 1 on August 3rd 1970 but it stayed there for the rest of the month. "Ai wa Kizutsukiyasuku" eventually ended up as the No. 7 single of the year, and it became a million-seller with it also leading to Hide & Rosanna getting invited onto the Kohaku Utagassen for the very first time that year. They would make one more appearance on the annual NHK special the following year.
Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth, and all I gotta say here is that if anyone back in the early 1970s in California whose family was about to celebrate a wedding or a major wedding anniversary had watched this commercial for Crocker National Bank, they would have rapidly used up the tissue box. The jingle here was "We've Only Just Begun" by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols with Williams singing it.
I remember Williams back then more as a TV personality who showed up on comedy-variety programs such as "Laugh-In", so I had assumed that he was just a wisecracking comedian. It wasn't until much later that I realized his stock-in-trade was as a singer-songwriter. Certainly, I didn't know about him coming up with "We've Only Just Begun". According to the Wikipedia article for the song, it apparently worked a little too well for the Crocker Bank since it did bring in the young customers but they had no collateral for the loans, so the campaign ended up getting suspended.
Still, "We've Only Just Begun" made it onto Williams' 1971 album"Just an Old Fashioned Love Song". It's a very intimate and subdued love ballad that paints the picture of a newly-married couple perhaps having their first dinner in their new house (bought with a loan) consisting of a candle, a spread-out newspaper on the bare floor, a bottle of red wine and Spaghetti-Os. The hope is that it just gets better from there.
Fate had other plans for "We've Only Just Begun", though. Richard Carpenter saw the bank commercial and ran into Williams in the parking lot for A&M Records (both were contracted there) and asked the songwriter whether he could take a crack at the song. Williams didn't seem to have a problem with it, and so as any Carpenters fan would know, "We've Only Just Begun" was released as The Carpenters' third single in August 1970.
Richard and Karen Carpenter came to think of "We've Only Just Begun" as their trademark tune and I think that out of their huge discography, the song rates as one of their most Carpenter-esque creations. I mean, there are the horns, the lonely woodwind, Karen's incredible vocals and those harmonies between the siblings that still manage to raise the hairs on my neck. The song hit No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts for both Canada and the United States, and in the latter country, it stayed at the top for seven straight weeks and it was their most successful single. I recall hearing it plenty of times on the radio. Incidentally, when it was released in Japan, it did so under the title of "Ai no Prelude"（愛のプレリュード...Prelude to Love）.
To think, one of the most eternal romantic pop standards started out as a melodic plea to apply for a loan. Anyways, I managed to find a website listing the Top 10 on Oricon for August 3rd 1970. Unfortunately, I have yet to profile the Top 3 songs on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" but here are Nos. 4-6.
When it especially comes to Japan, one of summer's most famous sounds there is the distinctive buzzing or wailing of the cicada. Known in Japanese as semi（蝉）, the cicada and its noise are as much a part of the hot season as festivals and firecrackers. Walking through the hot and humid air each day while living and working in the Tokyo area, I would hear that near-deafening sound in August and knew that the dog days of summer were here.
My first experience with the critters was during my first visit to Japan in 1972 while I was on my grandfather's farm. One of his old friends placed a cicada nymph in its final moult to adulthood on my shirt and I stood there amazed as its brown armour cracked open to reveal a ghostly white adult slowly squeezing out. After several minutes, it gained its familiar darker colours and triangular shape while still clinging onto my shirt before it literally buzzed off.
Before you all begin worrying that KKP has become the Discovery Channel, I've only put that reminiscing about cicadas above so that I can introduce eclectic singer-songwriter Maharajan's（マハラージャン） latest, "Semi Dance Floor" (Cicada Dance Floor). It had originally been introduced as a digital single in May 2022 but it got upgraded to EP status and released again just last month.
Written, composed and arranged by Maharajan, "Semi Dance Floor" is another one of his characteristic funky pop tunes, and it seems to tell a story of a cicada which headed to the bright lights of Roppongi rather than the sedate coolness of the forest. I figure that it wanted to spend its last days dancing the night away rather than finding a mate and starting the circle of life once more. The music video for "Semi Dance Floor" is something that I've come to expect from Maharajan with those three guys reminding me of the three "wombats" that were Scott Lang's good buddies from "Ant-Man".
This will be a long Bin san appreciation post, so buckle up, folks.
For my summer vacation mini trip, I'd decided to head up to Akita. This part of Tohoku wasn't high on my list of go-to places - I'd actually wanted to go to the neighbouring Aomori. But cementing my decision to visit the prefecture rich with cultural heritage this summer was none other than Bin Uehara (上原敏). Bin san's memorial plaque in Odate city was a spot I knew I had to visit some time, but having done projects on him and his death anniversary coming up, I felt like the time was now. And so, up north I went in late July.
But before we get into that, I don't think I've given Bin san a proper intro on KKP, so I'll do so here for some background info on the bespectacled singer. This intro is brought to you by the following: Kiyomaro Kikuchi's (菊池清麿) "Showa Enka no Rekishi", Masato Mori (毛利眞人) and Yuki Kobari (小針侑起) from the album liner notes in "Oya Koi Dochu Uehara Bin 1936-1943", the introduction in Odate Museum, and the J-Wiki :
From the Odate Museum.
Uehara was born as Rikiji Matsumoto (松本力次) on 26th August 1908 in Odate city, Akita. He learned the violin from a young age and honed his singing skills from music teacher Aira Owada (大和田愛羅) when he moved to Tokyo to attend Senshu University. He didn't pursue music despite his love for it and joined the sales department of Wakamoto Pharmaceuticals in 1934 after he graduated. But opportunity to enter the world of kayo came a knocking when Polydor Records' Jugo Chichibu (秩父重剛) scouted Matsumoto at a baseball game between both companies' teams. Considering his love for baseball, the fact that Matsumoto got his dream career via his favourite sport was quite the amusing coincidence. He made his debut as Bin Uehara (combination of author Bin Ueda (上田敏) and actor Ken Uehara (上原謙)) in July 1936 with"Tsukimi Odori" (月見踊り), an ondo duet with geisha singer Kiyoko Shinbashi (新橋喜代子). Following which came smash hits starting with "Tsuma Koi Dochu" (妻恋道中), "Ruten" (流転), and "Uramachi Jinsei" (裏町人生), and he was loved for his sentimental tenor with a rustic, minyo flavour. He was described as a serious but earnest individual - my impression is that he seemed rather... square, but by no means is that bad at all.
"Tsuma Koi Dochu"
Despite his success, by the early 40s, he intended to throw in the towel and start a ranch in Chiba with his wife when he realised that the harsh recording and performing schedule was taking a toll on his health and voice, and that his popularity was declining in light of the war. Unfortunately, the ranch plan never came to pass as he was drafted into the infantry in 1943 (possibly by mistake) and shipped off to Papua New Guinea, where he never returned. Some say malaria got him, some say an air raid. Maybe both. I was reading about this in visceral detail via Kikuchi's fantastic summary just to make sure I was leaving no stone unturned for my paper and presentation. At 7am. Needless to say, reading about one's favourite singer's tragic end on the morning rush hour train is not advisable.
Oh, Bin san, you poor thing (;-;).
Odate from Keijo Park
Despite his short life and career, Uehara's legacy lives on, albeit on a much smaller scale despite (still) being overshadowed by fellow Akita native and Polydor Records senior, the great, still-like-a-lamp-post Taro Shoji (東海林太郎). His hits have become enka-kayo standards today, and a plaque was erected in his memory in his hometown in 1976. The monument stands in the historical Keijo Park which overlooks the town. Not only does it relate Bin san's life and achievements, but it also serves as the "Tsuma Koi Dochu" music plaque. Bin san doesn't have a grave stone (as far as I know), so this plaque seems to serve as a stand-in. It's where Uehara fans regularly gather to pay their respects to the singer on the morning of his death anniversary on 29th July in the annual Ruten Ki (流転忌... Ruten Memorial... I'm not too sure on the last kanji's pronunciation), among many other tribute activities, according to Yuta Inoue's (井上裕太) findings. If you can read Japanese, Inoue did articles detailing memorial activities and sites dedicated to various musicians including Bin san - interesting stuff.
On an even smaller scale, I reckon there are also folks like me trying to showcase Uehara and his works through other outlets. In my case, while I'm still stumbling around with my work, I wanted to show that Uehara was a significant figure in the world of kayo and worth remembering; he wasn't just "Shoji Taro No.2". It was part of the reason why I chose him as the center of my past couple of music-related school projects. I toiled over them, especially my recent one, and I don't know if they really amounted to much (besides grades I can acknowledge), but I guess I just wanted to make Bin san proud some how.
"Ruten"
Anyways, on the note of Inoue, I believe he was the same person whose tweet I saw on the Twitter (...*sigh* X) grapevine about the Ruten Ki when I was planning my pilgrimage. That made me determined to travel all the way to Odate on 29th July. I was curious and wanted to know what the current Bin san fan demographic was like. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch the memorial as it was held at 9am - my train to Odate was at 9.44am from Akita city at the earliest, and it was a 1 hour 45 minute ride (one way) plus a 15 minute bus ride to the park. Slightly regrettable, but I made it to Odate at around noon nonetheless.
Odate (大館市), north of Akita city, is by no means miniscule. It's also the home of the world renowned Akita Inu and Japan's best tasting poultry, the Hinai chicken. There were some tourists, local and foreign. Yet, like most countryside towns in the mountains I've been to, barely anyone roamed the streets. Perhaps the unseasonably high temperatures (still better than Tokyo and Saitama) had most taking refuge indoors. Keijo Park, the site of the Odate castle ruins, was also mostly empty save for a a grand total of 2 people sitting in the shade and a group of teens taking school group photos. It was quiet. But I appreciated the quaint afternoon atmosphere.
"Hatoba Katagi"
For the occasion, I'd been listening to Bin san's stuff the whole journey there and had "Hatoba Katagi" (波止場気質) playing as I neared the park. This was the song that made me aware of his existence and the lyrics are some of the most bittersweet I've heard, especially with the singer's gentle yet forlorn delivery. It ended just as I stood before the plaque. I joked with my friends over a naan that I'll cry when I "see" him, but that clown statement *almost* became more than a statement. All the more so when I said, "Hi, Bin san. I've come to see you as promised."Oh, boy, that still gets me.
But this was why I was glad for the near empty park and for missing the Ruten Ki. I wanted quiet time to pay my respects to one of my beloved artists and tell him about how my projects on him fared. Doing so on his death anniversary only made it more impactful. As you would've seen in the previous pictures, I also brought my bromide along for the ride. Just because.
Here are some close-ups of the front with his introduction and the first stanza of "Tsuma Koi Dochu". The back was in the shade and harder to discern the carved words, but it detailed how he fell victim to the war. Apparently, folks will sing "Tsuma Koi Dochu" and "Ruten" during the Ruten Ki. I naturally went for "Hatoba Katagi" and "Shunkoden" (春香伝) first.
"Shunkoden"
After saying my piece, I went to do a little sight-seeing around town before my train back. Since I had bromide Bin san with me, I decided to do what the young'uns have been doing as of late: Oshi-katsu, which refers to doing activities revolving around your favourite artist or character. Technically, me visiting his memorial plaque is one such activity, but another includes taking photos of your favourite personality's acrylic stand, plushie, etc. against the backdrop of something. So, that's what I did. At the Akita Inu museum and the Ishida Rose Cafe. With Bin san's bromide... Look, it took me 500 years to get to the town and I planned the trip around this one specific day, so I wanted to be as extra as I could. This brand of oshi-katsu was a first for me, but I have a feeling it won't be the last because it was oddly... fun? (Not gonna lie, I feel slightly guilty for the extra special treatment I gave to Bin san compared to Hachi and Haru san... But my boi deserved it.)
It was a fulfilling day, I'd say. Rather, it was cathartic. And I headed back to Akita with a feeling of accomplishment. Next, I intended to go check out Akita city's Taro Shoji museum. While he's not one of my favourites, I still respect him considerably and I figured it'd be good to have a look see. Or so I thought.
Remember Inoue? As expected, he gave an update on the earlier Ruten Ki on Twitter (I can't with X). But on the next day (30th), he added a tweet about a visit to the Odate Museum (大館郷土博物館)... which had some Bin san artefacts on display... To go, or not to go? That was my question. The 9.44am Odate-bound train had already left. Taro museum, then? But it felt like a crime to choose that over the one with some Uehara stuff on my Bin san tribute trip. It'll be a "Shoji Taro No.2" moment! The audacity. I could NEVER.
So, I jumped on the 11.40am train back to Odate.
Thinking it'd save some time over taking the only bus that'll take me only half of the way there at the time, I decided to walk the 40 minutes there. It took me through the fields of the town and I got to appreciate what Akita's nature and farmlands. But I never felt more like a melting popsicle until then.
Mt. Ho-Oh (Hōō) in the back with a "大" (for Odate... 大館) carved into it.
Somehow, I made it to the museum without melting into a puddle and I found what I was looking for. Indeed, as per Inoue's tweet, there was only 1 record (an "Ore wa Funanori" (俺は船乗り) record), Uehara's script from a movie he appeared in ("Yaji Kita Kaidan Dochu" (弥次喜多怪談道中)), and 2 bromides (1 signed). But I was happy nonetheless. You don't get to see Bin san artefacts every day.
Also, I always say that Bin san looked the most ordinary and plain out of my 5. Again, not to say that it's bad. He looked quite cute with that little grin and, somehow, it's that aforementioned serious nature and simple charm that makes him... like an adorable guinea pig to me. Particularly a brown, short-haired one that looks like a potato. But that tuxedo shot was uncharacteristically spicy. Marubell, please, just print this one. I only ask for just this one. Please.
With Bin san pilgrimage II done, I checked out as much of the larger-than-expected museum as I could before my last bus (thank goodness there was one scheduled) back into town for my last train to Akita city. Besides the famous dog and chicken breeds, Odate is home of mage wappa, the art of bent woodwork. Basically the woodworker would take an extremely thin slice of wood and turn it into rounded objects, most notably bento boxes and buckets. It used to be a mining town as well, but one with quite a dark history. I shall not go into that here, but you can look up the "Hanaoka Incident" (花岡事件) if you're keen. It is grim and controversial, but I'm glad the town clearly noted what happened without any skewed viewpoints.
In the end, I didn't have the time for Shoji's museum, but I did check out his statue and memorial plaque near Senshu Park on my first day, so I may do a short Shoji piece featuring those. Next time, I'll make sure I have time to call on Shoji.
Overall, I enjoyed my time in Akita and learned a lot more about the northern prefecture than I thought I would've since this short summer vacation essentially turned into 200% Bin san oshi-katsu time. Even my Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎) and Haruo Minami (三波春夫) pilgrimages weren't to that extent - and I've been to both places twice! But I guess that was the idea...? I don't know. Perhaps it's because it's exceedingly rare to find anything on Bin san compared to the others due to his short life and the earlier time period in which he was active, so the fact that there were even some things was enough to make me happy. Perhaps it was also because his tragic end really tugged at my heartstrings. And perhaps because there was way more emotional significance attached to the trip. Either way, I'm glad that I could pay tribute and convey my message to him. And it was oddly fun to tour Odate and Akita city "with" him. I hope he'll be happy. And where ever he is, I hope he is at peace.
Nagasu namida wa koi janai
Honni (Bin san) no shiawase wo
Ureshii namida de inoru no sa
P.S. Inoue actually reached out and so graciously gave me a heads up on the Bin san memorial activities just recently. Turns out that the fan club heads to the local community center for a song fest after the Ruten Ki. That sounds like great fun. Maybe next summer...? I believe next year will be 80 years since Bin san's passing, so I wonder if there'll be special stuff planned... Ack, but next year is Hachi's centenary too!
Those summer colds suck, don't they? Luckily, I don't usually suffer from them. What I do need though is a bit more sleep.
Anyways, the above is a not-so-subtle intro for a song by slightly raspy-voiced singer-songwriter Kazuhiko Bando（播東和彦）. Hailing from Akita Prefecture, according to his website, he started a band in his teens and then worked as a DJ from 1980 to 1986. However, during that time, he was able to cut a single and then an album. The 1984 single is "You Make Me Sick" which was created by Bando who also shares arranging credits with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. It's a bit of an intriguing song in that it starts off as a fairly galloping tune with a reggae beat but then does a quick shift into a verse that sounds like something out of Shigeru Matsuzaki's（松崎しげる）"Ai no Memory"（愛のメモリー）before making another zig-zag into hot-footed jazz. I guess that there really are those split-personality tunes. I certainly hope that the provocative title merely means that the protagonist is simply love sick over a new encounter. "You Make Me Sick" was also included in Bando's first album"Jealous Heart" which has a mix of rock and soul.
In 1987, Bando joined the cast of the Japanese production of the hit Broadway musical "Golden Boy" which earned him some direct instruction from Sammy Davis Jr. who had been in the original version. Then in the 1990s, the singer visited New Orleans since he'd fallen hard for the R&B emanating from The Big Easy. Since then, he's had a very friendly relationship with the musicians there.
Welcome to August! I first came across the word "coma" from the 1978 cinematic adaptation of Robin Cook's novel "Coma" whose poster originated from the cover of the book: a chilling display of a naked body held up by strings. Until then, I'd though that the word was merely mistaken spelling of a punctuation mark but of course the meaning was far more serious. I was way too young and too much of a fraidy-cat to watch something like that at the theatre, but I've heard over the years that it made for a great hospital thriller with Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas and Tom Selleck (yep, some years before he was immortalized as the first Magnum PI).
Cue ahead a couple of decades and what we've got is "Coma", the lead track on rock band SEAGULL SCREAMING KISS HER KISS HER's"17" album from September 1998. It's quite the hard art rock song with vocalist and songwriter Aiha Higurashi（日暮愛葉）creating the first third of the song as a nonchalant almost child-like spoken-word approach to the lyrics against the background of a brooding electric guitar before things go thumping melodically along.
Not sure how you feel about "Coma", but hearing Higurashi intoning and then singing the lyrics, I think it's either about someone who can't be bothered to get off the couch and relies on the significant other for various favours or the person really is in a coma with her still active mind in a locked body while a med tech may be taking some horrible advantage with her. It's not exactly Rammstein, but still...
