is a Japanese musical genre.貴志俊彦『東アジア流行歌アワー――越境する音 交錯する音楽人(The East Asia Pop Song Hour: Border-Crossing Sounds, Entangled Musicians)』岩波書店, 2013, The term originally denoted any kind of "popular music" in Japanese, and is the sinic reading of hayariuta, used for commercial music of Edo Period. Therefore, imayō, which was promoted by Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the Heian period, was a kind of ryūkōka. Today, however, ryūkōka refers specifically to Japanese popular music from the late 1920s through the early 1960s.Ewbank, Alison J. and Papageorgiou, Fouli T. Whose Master's Voice?: The Development of Popular Music in Thirteen Cultures. Google Books. via Greenwood Publishing Group. 1997. 160. Some of the roots of ryūkōka were developed from Western classical music. Ryūkōka ultimately split into two genres: enka and poppusu.Roberson, James E. and Suzuki, Nobue. Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan. Google Books. via Routledge. 2003. 78. Unlike enka, archetypal ryūkōka songs did not use the kobushi method of singing. Ryūkōka used legato. Bin Uehara and Yoshio Tabata are considered to be among the founders of the modern style of kobushi singing.
Many composers and singers of ryūkōka went on to earn official distinctions; Ichiro Fujiyama and composers Masao Koga and Ryoichi Hattori received the People's Honour Award in later years.
Although enka branched off from ryūkōka, many singers of the latter genre proclaimed strong disdain for its stylistic descendant. In a 1981 interview, Noriko Awaya said "Whenever I hear enka, I have to get away from the music because I feel like vomiting."Original text: "演歌を聴くと胸がムカムカするから、あれが聴こえてくると逃げ回るんです。"
History
1914–1927: Origin
In 1914, Sumako Matsui's song "Katyusha's song", composed by Shinpei Nakayama, was used as a theme of the rendition Resurrection in Japan. The record of the song sold 20,000 copies. One theory holds that this was the first ryūkōka song, which was made by Hogetsu Shimamura's order: "the tune between Japanese popular folk music and Western music".Original text: "日本の俗謡と西洋歌曲の中間のような旋律" However, street performers called had been popular until record labels such as the Victor Company of Japan began to produce songs in the early Shōwa period.
Although Matsui committed suicide after Shimamura's death, Nakayama continued to develop his music. During his career, he composed about 3,000 songs such as the 1921 song "Teru teru bozu". Nakayama transferred Japanese traditional music to staff-style by main force. His 1921 song was later covered by various singers, but was at first best known for being covered by violin enka-shi featuring Orchestra. The pentatonic scale used in this song was "Minor scale without forth and seventh degree". However, the music based on the scale had difficult in presenting chord and harmony because traditional Japanese music didn't adopt equal temperament.
Nakayama's songs were based on Japanese folk music called min'yō, but also adopted Western musical style. Therefore, his music was called .
1928–1930: Beginning of popularity
In the early Showa period, the microphone was introduced into the popular music of Japan. Teiichi Futamura released his cover version of in 1928. The song was originally composed by Fred Fisher. Chiyako Sato's 1928 song , composed by Nakayama, sold 100,000 copies. The song was also sung by singer Yoshie Fujiwara. Chiyako Sato's 1929 song "Tokyo March" sold more than 300,000 copies.Atkins, Taylor E. Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Google Books. via Duke University Press. 2001. 66.
1931–1937: Rising popularity
Some of the country's first major stars were singer Ichiro Fujiyama and composer Masao Koga. Koga attempted to initiate fusion of Western jazz and Japanese dodoitsu. Fujiyama's 1931 song , composed by Koga, became a major hit in Japan. This song created a fusion of Fujiyama's crooning and Koga's guitar play. Using the vocal technic Mezza Voce with a microphone, Fujiyama sang the song by the deep voice of not Opera's G minor but D minor. Fujiyama's song sold 600,000 copies. However, Fujiyama was an elite student, who specialized Western classical music in the Tokyo Music School. Ryūkōka songs often dealt with the "Ero Guro Nansensu" things. Since his school regarded ryūkōka as bad form at that time, Fujiyama was once suspended from the school, though Fujiyama was not dismissed from the school because Klaus Pringsheim Sr., a professor of the school, opposed the proposal of Fujiyama's expulsion.
This period also saw the popularity of geisha singers such as Ichimaru and Katsutaro Kouta. Katsutaro became famous when Fujiyama was turned out of ryūkōka. Her song sold 600,000 copies. Katsutaro and Issei Mishima recorded duet song "Tokyo Ondo". The song was composed by Shinpei Nakayama and was released in 1933. The single "Tokyo Ondo" sold 1,200,000 copies.
When Fujiyama sang Western classic lied songs, those songs were called "kayōkyoku", but the term "kayōkyoku" went on to be used as another name of ryūkōka in NHK. At first, Koga was a good co-worker for Fujiyama but they moved apart from each other because Koga sought "Japanese" music. On the other hand, Yoshie Fujiwara drew a clear line between him and ryūkōka and established the Fujiwara Opera in 1934, launching the establishment of Japanese Opera. Baritone singer Taro Shoji's 1934 song also became popular, though he did not know Kunisada Chūji, the theme of the song.
Soprano singer Noriko Awaya also sang ryūkōka, but the Toyo Music School once annulled her graduation. However, her song became a hit in 1937. The song was composed by jazz composer Ryoichi Hattori. She was called "Queen of Blues", though term "blues" was just a song title.
1937–1945: Influences of war
In 1936, NHK started radio program to compete with ryūkōka, which was under the influence of "Ero Guro Nansensu", but it soon began to air war songs around July 1937. The program was renamed to in 1941 and then in 1942. The songs during the war were called . During the war, many musicians were forced to write war songs. Yuji Koseki composed many war songs and was later criticised as a war collaborator, though he seemed to be touched with remorse. Koseki composed released in 1937. Although the song was a B-side song, it sold 600,000 copies.Craig, Timothy J. and King, Richard Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia. Google Books. via Hong Kong University Press. 2002. 235. The 1937 song sold 1,000,000 copies. However, Japanese jazz musicians such as Ryoichi Hattori seemed to be vigorless to compose war songs. His son Katsuhisa Hattori claimed that he was not an antinationalist and he technically were hardly not able to compose war songs even if they wanted to make those because Japanese war songs were musically enka.
On the other hand, former enka-shi Haruo Oka's debut song was released in 1939. Yoshio Tabata also mede his debut with song in 1939. Rōkyoku (naniwa-bushi) was used for enhancing the national prestige.
Although many war songs were made after the beginning of the Pacific War, , sung by Noboru Kirishima and Akiko Futaba, became popular as a lyrical song. When the war was nearing an end, the theme included frightful spectacles such as the Battle of Attu, Guadalcanal campaign and Marshall Islands Campaign. Oka went to Ambon Island, but fell ill and soon returned to Japan. Bin Uehara, who used kobushi of naniwa-bushi for singing, was killed in the New Guinea campaign and Fujiyama was taken prisoner in Indonesia.
After the war, the songs during the war have been regarded as a taboo even in Japan despite those historical importance. One of war songs, , composed by Isao Hayashi, went on to become a theme of Japanese right-wing groups called uyoku dantai. Li Xianglan's "Suzhou Nocturne", composed by Hattori, has remained controversial in China, though it was a non-propaganda song. After the war, Taro Shoji, who heard the Gyokuon-hōsō in Nagano Prefecture, was once banned from singing many of his songs because those were regarded as nationalistic. Rōkyoku faded into the wallpaper with the spread of television in the postwar period. In 1946, NHK revived their music program as "Radio Kayō" and it was later reformed as "Minna no Uta", but NHK was disinclined to mention its former history.
1945–1954: Postwar popularity
Michiko Namiki's song sung by Michiko Namiki and Noboru Kirishima, airing in 1945 movie "Soyokaze", became popular. Haruo Oka also released hit songs such as his 1946 song and his 1948 song . Ichiro Fujiyama, who was falsely reported to have been killed in battle, returned to Japan in 1946.
Ryoichi Hattori, who moved to Shanghai in 1944, contributed to advancing Japanese poppusu music after the war. Shizuko Kasagi's 1947 song "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie", composed by Hattori, became popular. Hattori also composed Ichimaru's 1949 song "Shamisen Boogie-Woogie". Around that time, Hibari Misora became known as an impersonator of Kasagi. She made her debut with song "Kappa Boogie-Woogie" in 1949. Hattori's composed song , which was sung by Ichiro Fujiyama and Mitsue Nara, became a major hit in the early post-war years in Japan.
Yuji Koseki composed and . "Nagasaki no Kane", based on Takashi Nagai's book The Bells of Nagasaki, was sung by Fujiyama in 1949. Fujiyama became the final singer of all singers at the 1st Kōhaku Uta Gassen with "Nagasaki no Kane" in 1951. Chiemi Eri debuted in 1952 and Izumi Yukimura debuted in 1953. Fujiyama moved to NHK in 1954 and returned to his original style―classical music. He went on to become a conductor for "Hotaru no Hikari" at the Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
1955–1963: Transformation of music
New singers such as Hibari Misora, Hachiro Kasuga, Michiya Mihashi and Chiyoko Shimakura became popular when old singers became unpopular. The period between around 1955 and 1964 saw the popularity of "kayōkyoku". Around that time, Japanese composers went on to establish their own genres such as Toru Funamura and Minoru Endo's "Enka", Tadashi Yoshida's "Mood Kayō", and Hachidai Nakamura and Hiroshi Miyagawa's "Jazz". Masao Koga renounced his pre-war musical style, approaching Hibari Misora.
The song "Otomisan" was made for being sung by Haruo Oka, but was eventually sung by Hachiro Kasuga and became a major hit in Japan in 1954. The single sold over one million copies. The song was composed by Masanobu Tokuchi, who came from the Ryukyu Islands. Kasuga's 1955 song "Wakare no Ipponsugi", composed by Funamura, also became a hit song. Funamura also composed Michiya Mihashi's 1955 song "Anoko Ga Naiteru Hatoba". Ryōkyōku singers such as Haruo Minami and Hideo Murata joined Japanese popular music. Hachiro Kasuga, Michiya Mihashi and Hideo Murata went on to form their genre later called enka.
Frank Nagai's 1957 song "Yūrakuchō de Aimashō", composed by Yoshida, also became popular. Around that time, however, Japanese rock and roll movement began and the Nichigeki Western Carnival was opened in 1958. The concerts were taken part in by future popular singers such as Mickey Curtis and Kyu Sakamoto. Against Japanese rock and roll movement, Yukio Hashi shocked Japanese popular music as a young enka singer because singers of the genre were elderly singers such as Hachiro Kasuga and Michiya Mihashi.
Japanese singers such as Kyu Sakamoto, The Peanuts and Mieko Hirota covered American songs at first, but they began to sing their own song. Sakamoto's 1961 single "Ue o muite arukō", composed by Nakamura, became a major hit in Japan. On the other hand, Hideo Murata's 1961 single , composed by Toru Funamura, sold over one million copies in Japan. On June 5, 1962, Saburō Kitajima made his debut with the single "Bungacha Bushi." Funamura composed Kitajima's 1962 hit song . Hiroshi Miyagawa composed The Peanuts' 1962 song "Furimukanaide." The Peanuts also sang "Mothra's Song". The song was composed by Yuji Koseki.