*Runs to Spotify to compile a playlist of everything you mentioned here in hopes I can find more clearly enunciated Japanese lyrics that are also groovy to listen to because right now I still only have Asako Toki on repeat*
Im def gonna have to dig into Takeushi now. As for someone who just fell down a rabithole of city pop this year and keen on getting them on vinyl, this was an insightful read.
I was first in Japan in June 1976. Then in 1990 - then for most of the period 1991-2009. Enka appealed when I was taken out by people my age (in their 40s+) - the kind of blues of nostalgia for those long ago days and lost loves and opportunities - the music - but at the same time I was teaching and my students (adults, university, high school) were teaching me their favourite singers of that era - Chage & Aska, Nakajima Miyuki, Doriko? (Dreams Come True) folkloric music from Okinawa (some of my students nephews or friends from some noted singers/groups from their) - so many tapes were dubbed for me - and all of it helped me get the kind of feel for for Japan I really needed to feel it - beyond "konnichi-wa aka-chan" or the early 20th century (I hope I get it right): "Uchi no haha hige ga aru" or all the children's songs - tunes brought back from Scotland and other places set with Japanese words - ANNO Mitsumasa did a marvellous picture book with the lyrics and printed music I worked with during my time in Shimane-ken as an exchange teacher from Australia - the other end of the prefecture from Tsuwano where Anno Mitsumasa was born - and further away from Ube-shi in Yamaguchi-shi where he did his secondary and university studies...in fact I taught the daughter of one of his cousins...and exchanged a couple of letters with him. "Akatonbo" among others - "Furusato" - the heart of a child's early years swells with those "nursery rhymes".... So my time was the 1990s and the 2000s - though enka appears almost timeless - with a foundation of the late 19th and early 20th-century children's songs - preparing me for the kind of J-Pop/ballads - Takahashi Mariko? and others... about whom/which you have written so well... (I'm in Coffs Harbour on the north coast of NSW for three days - a contemporary's 70th birthday party this coming Saturday. Walking to the nearby surf beach I got into conversation with two young couples - two vehicles - preparing a barbecue dinner in the local car park. From Japan - here already six months - after time in Queensland - now gradually moving south to finish up in Tasmania... From Ōsaka...but they knew well the Nichinan surfing coast of southern Miyazaki-ken - the region of some of my Japanese kinfolk connections!) Jim
Mahalo for sharing your experiences in such an interesting article! 🙂
I didn't know Enka is mostly associated with the Boomer generation in Japan. Enka was my grandmother's favorite music, and she was born here in Hawaii in the 1920's, though her parents were born in Japan
Perhaps she was an unusual example, or maybe it's just Japanese-Americans in Hawaii, but I had always associated Enka with her generation
My father is a Boomer, and most of his peers liked American music. Though "Sukiyaki" is a sentimental favorite of his
Ha, I remember that sake commercial like it was on TV yesterday. The music of that period will forever stay with me. Some of the music reminds me of people that mattered to me during that time, other songs give me a feeling of relaxing in summer.
*Runs to Spotify to compile a playlist of everything you mentioned here in hopes I can find more clearly enunciated Japanese lyrics that are also groovy to listen to because right now I still only have Asako Toki on repeat*
Thanks for another great dive Hiroko!
Im def gonna have to dig into Takeushi now. As for someone who just fell down a rabithole of city pop this year and keen on getting them on vinyl, this was an insightful read.
I was first in Japan in June 1976. Then in 1990 - then for most of the period 1991-2009. Enka appealed when I was taken out by people my age (in their 40s+) - the kind of blues of nostalgia for those long ago days and lost loves and opportunities - the music - but at the same time I was teaching and my students (adults, university, high school) were teaching me their favourite singers of that era - Chage & Aska, Nakajima Miyuki, Doriko? (Dreams Come True) folkloric music from Okinawa (some of my students nephews or friends from some noted singers/groups from their) - so many tapes were dubbed for me - and all of it helped me get the kind of feel for for Japan I really needed to feel it - beyond "konnichi-wa aka-chan" or the early 20th century (I hope I get it right): "Uchi no haha hige ga aru" or all the children's songs - tunes brought back from Scotland and other places set with Japanese words - ANNO Mitsumasa did a marvellous picture book with the lyrics and printed music I worked with during my time in Shimane-ken as an exchange teacher from Australia - the other end of the prefecture from Tsuwano where Anno Mitsumasa was born - and further away from Ube-shi in Yamaguchi-shi where he did his secondary and university studies...in fact I taught the daughter of one of his cousins...and exchanged a couple of letters with him. "Akatonbo" among others - "Furusato" - the heart of a child's early years swells with those "nursery rhymes".... So my time was the 1990s and the 2000s - though enka appears almost timeless - with a foundation of the late 19th and early 20th-century children's songs - preparing me for the kind of J-Pop/ballads - Takahashi Mariko? and others... about whom/which you have written so well... (I'm in Coffs Harbour on the north coast of NSW for three days - a contemporary's 70th birthday party this coming Saturday. Walking to the nearby surf beach I got into conversation with two young couples - two vehicles - preparing a barbecue dinner in the local car park. From Japan - here already six months - after time in Queensland - now gradually moving south to finish up in Tasmania... From Ōsaka...but they knew well the Nichinan surfing coast of southern Miyazaki-ken - the region of some of my Japanese kinfolk connections!) Jim
Mahalo for sharing your experiences in such an interesting article! 🙂
I didn't know Enka is mostly associated with the Boomer generation in Japan. Enka was my grandmother's favorite music, and she was born here in Hawaii in the 1920's, though her parents were born in Japan
Perhaps she was an unusual example, or maybe it's just Japanese-Americans in Hawaii, but I had always associated Enka with her generation
My father is a Boomer, and most of his peers liked American music. Though "Sukiyaki" is a sentimental favorite of his
Ha, I remember that sake commercial like it was on TV yesterday. The music of that period will forever stay with me. Some of the music reminds me of people that mattered to me during that time, other songs give me a feeling of relaxing in summer.