True Life Seek

While it may be Family Day in some Canadian provinces, it is Presidents Day in America. There is no actual federal holiday called Presidents Day, the federal holiday is technically Washington’s Birthday. But George was born on February 22 and today is February 18. Oh well.

Our northern brothers may choice to honor and respect the family, but we like to praise some of the great presidents in our past. Men like Warren Harding, one of the most corrupt presidents ever, who would often get drunk in office, and this was during the Prohibition Years. What about the whole wave of presidents from 1841-1861 that sat on their hands while the country degraded into civil war? My favorite of that period was William Henry Harrison. He died in office and even had a curse placed on him by a Native American. The curse was that every president who was elected in a year ending with 0 (Harrison was elected in 1940) would die in office. It came true for Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Roosevelt and Kennedy! Regan and Bush avoided it. Another great man was Andrew Johnson, who set back the country decades because of his personal grudge against Reconstruction. Then there is the current man in office.

But I don’t want to preach an American history lesson to you. I got better plans. We are supposedly suppose to be taking time today to honor our forefathers. Obviously many of these man deserve no praise whatsoever. So whose history should I honor today?

I am taking a crash course on the history of Japanese culture. One of the books I am reading right now is Mark Schilling’s The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture. I’ll keep citations throughout this entry in case anybody that reads this ever views the book. Why am I studying the culture? I don’t want to just state my opinions on this blog. Instead of merely stating why I like or dislike an entertainment act, I want to be able to better express why. Unfortunately, there is a lot to cover. Japanese entertainment has considerable Western influence. I believe that is why we have a whole wave of people who hold it in high regards. It is a discussion for another day though.

Today, I am documenting my foray into the Foreidols of Japan. At times, it’ll be a history lesson of its own. That’s because I am learning many things about the past on my own. Hopefully, there’ll be some spice to it.

Hibari Misora

There are some cultural figures who become an icon of the times. Watching icons like Elvis, The Beatles and even Tupac can sometimes give a better description of a subculture than a history book. For Japan after World War 2, Hibari Misora was a symbol. Her career begin in 1949 and lasted all the way until her premature death in 1989. She was “indelibly identified with the early postwar period, when people were trying to scratch out a living in the rubble and find hope in a society whose values had been lasted into oblivion together with its cities” (Schilling 129).

What was the appeal in Misora? Her qualities were not exactly was I’d define as classic pop star appeal. She was able to express “steely will, strong family loyalty, deep loneliness and a streak of self-destructiveness” (Schilling 130). Never being this situation, I still think I can see how these qualities could connect to a devastated postwar audience. Will and hope are qualities needed in rebuilding. Family loyalty can help restore faith in people, as they may not be feeling so loyal to their home country. Loneliness and self-destructiveness just make sense and go along with the despair of losing a war. Furthermore, in an industry that was changing due to Western influence, Misora stood out as a true Japanese act. She was the “old-fashioned Japanese girl, who betrayed no hint of foreign influence in speech or song and stood foursquare for traditional values” (Schilling 131).

It wasn’t a fairy book tale for Misora. A deranged fan, who admitted to like her voice, threw hydrochloric acid on Misora’s because the fan wanted to make the star “an ugly, boring girl like me” (Schilling 132). Misora’s mom was brash and sometimes vulgar and her brother would get into problems with the police (hello Yuki Goto). Because of the family loyalty, Misora kept her mother and brother around, even though it was harmful to her image. Due to her brother’s law issues, NHK rejected Misora for Kohaku Uta Gassen one year after 17 straight appearances, and Misora swore to never appear on the show again. She never got along with the media and critics, who rejected her from the very beginning.

Misora’s career stood out for her traditional values and her enka, which was devoid of the Western influences coming in, career. However, the elaborate joke is she wasn’t traditional enough for the male-dominated society of Japan. We will see this later with another foreidol, Seiko Matsuda. Her first and only marriage, in 1962 to Akira Kobayashi, only lasted two years. Despite getting married in the “hope of of living a normal life out of the media glare” (Schilling 134), Kobayashi said of her after the divorce that she “lacked humility and a sincere attitude toward life” (Schilling 134). While this can be narrowed down to petty celebrity squabbles in the media, I get the impression that Misora did not truly want to be a traditional Japanese wife.

Connecting with Misora the way the Japanese population did in the 50s will be impossible for me. For one, enka is something that never interested me. But more specifically, those 4 qualities that Misora was described to have are just something I can’t relate to. Even in Japan, the next generation did not get into Misora: “younger fans, who had no memory of anything but prosperity, found her dark image a drag, her kimono-clad stage presence and ‘Queen of Enka’ repertoire hopelessly old-fashioned” (Schilling 130).

Unfortunately, Misora’s life did not have a glamorous end. Most of her fortune was destroyed due to taxes and debts and she developed a drinking habit. She never got over the loss of her mother in 1981. She said herself that “a star never attains true happiness” (Schilling 134). Even with the sad ending, she has a lasting legacy. Enka is still popular today and is very much where it is because of Misora bringing it there. Her funeral was attended by 42,000 people at the Aoyama Funeral Pavilion and 30,000 more around the country also mourned her. Most of these people were “matrons in their fifties, fans who had grown up and suffered with her” (Schilling 130).

(I am going on good faith that youtube links are labeled correctly by the posters)
Ave Maria
Yawara
Kawa no nagare no you ni
Omatsuri Mambo
Koibito yo

Pink Lady

Admittedly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Misora and enka. Our next foreidols, I am definitely a fan of. I don’t know the whole discography of Pink Lady and haven’t listened to it. Pink Lady was the duo of Mitsuyo Nemoto and Keiko Masuda. What I have heard, I’ve liked. Pink Lady was a commercial juggernaut, and I have no shame in saying that I like the group for it.

The rise and fail of Pink Lady is a story to tell. At one point, they were all that mattered in the Japanese entertainment industry. It was a short reign, but nothing is ever going to take away the late 70s dominance of the group. 9 straight #1 singles. A movie and cartoon soon followed. They were pitchwomen for an incredibly wide array of products. In fact, there so influential that you could say their attachment to a product was more important than whether or not the product was of high quality. In fact, “when a shampoo maker used them in its ads, suddenly kids all across the country were demanding to have their hair washed with the Pink Lady brand” (Schilling 188). I’d have found it funny if this shampoo had pink dye in it.

Fittingly, I am not going to spend much time on their success as it was only a period from 1976-1978. The fall of Pink Lady encompassed disastrous decisions as spectacular as their rise. They turned down an invitation to Kohaku Uta Gassen to run their own countdown. This isn’t like declining to go on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. It as “the equivalent of passing on the Grammy awards show to perform on a cable TV telethon in the same time slot” (Schilling 189). The ratings showed Pink Lady lost - 72.2% to 8.2%.

They never came back from that. The next few singles didn’t reach the top of thee charts. Then, as their popular at home was decreasing, they decided to test the waters outside of Japan. They had a sitcom on NBC called Pink Lady and Jeff. Jim Varney (Ernest) was on the show. It was a summer replacement show, which are usually throwaways for the networks as it is. I need to find copies of this show because, from all accounts, it was a disaster. They had a single that reached #37 on the Billboard charts, A Kiss in the Dark, but barely any sales. They disbanded by 1981. All of the people that worked behind the scenes to make Pink Lady what they were simply moved on.

Pink Lady was an important step in the progression of the Japanese music industry through. It wasn’t a direct leap from Misora to Pink Lady, but the progression is evident. As Misora spoke to the generation and culture of her times, Pink Lady represented the younger generation. They were ready to have fun. Their dancing stood out from the crowd. It was an “odd combination of youthful vitality, sexy movies, and robotic precision” (Schilling 187). Misora was an early staple of the Japanese music industry as a business, but Pink Lady put the idol in foreidol. Even though their dances were definitely sexy, there was an “utter lack of suggestiveness” (Schilling 187). Adults and kids alike could enjoy the Pink Lady phenomenon.

UFO
SOS
South Paw
Wanted
Stop in The Name of Love (They covered a Supremes song - wow!!)

Momoe Yamaguchi

In the legend of the Greek hero Achilles, he has a decision to make about going to war at Troy. He could go to battle in Troy, die young but be famous forever. Or, he could stay home, live to an old age but lose the fame. He went to fight in Troy and we still talk about him today.

Momoe Yamaguchi is a perfect example that vocal talent is not the be-all end-all for defining a star. Yamaguchi wasn’t the worst singer but she wasn’t the best. She was discovered on a talent show like many other musical acts. She didn’t have the best looks, described as “gloomy-looking and dull” (Schilling 296) by many at CBS Sony.

As a 13 year old, she was recording singles. Her original popularity was somewhat controversial. Some lyrics included “if you want, I’ll let you do anything to me” in Aoi Kajitsu and “give you a girl’s most important thing” in Hito Natsu no Taiken It’s hard to say what really made Yamaguchi appealing. But “without really trying, she was soon melting hearts of teenage boys from Hokkaido to Kyushu” (Schilling 297).

An image change marked her popularity soaring to the top of the charts. She went from a very young, tempting teenager to “claiming she was no longer a girl who could be used by men but a woman ready to stand on her own two feet and take charge of her own life” (Schilling 297). Her career was never critically acclaimed, but she never complained about that. This endeared her to her fans even more.

Yamaguchi began to star in movies. Alongside Miura Tomokazu, they made 11 successful motion pictures. As time went on with Miura, she grew tired of the entertainment industry. Eventually, in 1980, she married him. She also announced that she was retiring from show business altogether. There were those that look at this as a bad example to the Japanese people, that she was doing harm to the Japanese women’s movement. The majority saw this as a noble act though. Many thought “she was doing the pure thing, the right thing, the romantic thing by giving it all her for her man” (Schilling 300).

Achilles went out in a blaze of glory and there is an allure to him for it. Yamaguchi followed suit. Leaving the industry young, at age 20, and for reasons that fit into traditional Japanese society, her story is now infamous. Rumors are always persisting of a return and all of them are seemingly unfounded.

Cosmos
Ai no Arashi
Sayonara no mukougawa
Yokosuka Story
Be Silent

Seiko Matsuda

The polar opposite of Yamaguchi is Seiko Matsuda. Out of all the foreidols in this, I think I like Matsuda the most. This is coming from someone who has never listened to a recording of Matsuda before. However, her story is something I find myself more interested in.

As a Hello!Project fan, I have been subjected to the various “scandals” of the idols I enjoy. They range from the culturally significant (Kago smoking) to the absurd (Abe drowning a turtle). I thought that I had seen it all and nothing would surprise me. The sheer enormity of scandals Matsuda saw amazes me. “As of August 1995, some 3,313 mostly negative stories had appeared about her in Japanese magazine, the highest total for any postwar figure” (Schilling 114). One scandal for a UFA member can lead to a 1 year suspension and probable end to a career. Matsuda had roughly over 3,000.

I’ve talked a little bit about tradition in Japanese society in this entry. Misora, Pink Lady and Yamaguchi all have shown traits that would appeal to traditional values in Japan. Matsuda broke all the rules. She was “romantically linked with more than thirty (men), not including her husband” (Schilling 115). To many young Japanese women, she was appealing for what she represented. They didn’t have to throw away their career aspirations to become the model housewife that society said they should become. Matsuda was married for 12 years in fact, and still kept her personality and career the same.

She was a rebel from the start. She started her career behind her father’s back. She had 30 million yen invested in her by the Sun Music talent agency and CBS-Sony. “In her first year as a professional singer, total sales from her records amounted to eight billion yen” (Schilling 116). Seiko wasn’t merely a puppet though, “insisting on her own clothes and hair style. Her handles had wanted to make her look older than her eighteen years. Instead, with her miniskirts, frilly blouses, and soft bands, Seiko came across as a coy child in a woman’s body” (Schilling 116).

There were detractors. They called her a burikko. A burriko is “a woman who acts childish and cute - eighteen going on twelve - often to win male approval” (Schilling 117). I don’t view it as a negative look though. It was an act, a gimmick, a show. Furthermore, it was such a departure from what was normally seen that was appeal to it.

Hiromi Go understood the appeal. In fact, Go and Matsuda were close to being married, but Go inssited that Matsuda went the way of Yamaguchi and give up her career. Matsuda was not going to do this. She married Masaki Kanda, her costar from the movie Caribu: Ai no Symphony. He was willing to let her continue with her career. This didn’t stop Matsuda though. I’m not going to sit here and support adultery. But that is what Matsuda did. She was soon linked to other directors and actors.

Like Pink Lady before her, Seiko tested the American waters. Like Pink Lady, she failed to take over the American entertainment industry like she did the Japanese. The burriko image was dropped, over fears that it “would strike Americans as simply childish” (Schilling 119). Much of the act was dropped and she became an outspoken woman. Her agency, Sun Music, didn’t appreciate the new image and dropped her.

Matsuda took some serious hits in the early 90s. Akina Nakamori, another pop star, “slashed her wrists in the Ropongi apartment of her lover, Masahiko Kondo” (Schilling 120). She was dropped from Kohaku Uta Gassen. Her album in America flopped, even after a collaboration with Donnie Whalburg. The Japanese media was trying to spy in on her affair sessions.

She was able to make a comeback though. In 1994, she appeared on Kouhaku. She was able to hit the top of the Oricon charts again in 1996. She is the only active foreidol today. In March, she will release her 66th single. She has another 45 albums to her name. It would be an incredible undertaking to delve into her music and career as a fan. But I am so captivated by her story, I may end up doing it.

Rock’n Rogue
Natsu no dobira
Anata ni Aitakute~Missing You~
Sweet Memories
A medley of Seiko performances

Onyanko Club

I said that Pink Lady put the idol in foreidol, but Onyanko Club is most similar to what one would see in an idol in today’s Japanese music industry. It started out as a group of 24. Like Momoe Yamaguchi, the girls in Onyanko Club were packaged as “average.” The “girls sand, danced, chated with the emcee and otherwise did normal TV variety-show things. But what impressed viewers- and made the show (Yuyake Nyan Nyan) a hit - was the girls’ averageness” (Schilling 167). They were all amateurs. They didn’t have the professional training that other pop stars would get. If anything, the girls of Onyanko Club were more similar to their viewers than their peers. In fact, many of their viewers could probably sing and dance better than Onyanko Club.

Onyanko Club’s dominance did not last long. It makes sense as “the sight of average girls behaving in an average way became … nothing extraordinary. Japanese viewers may like the amateurish, but they like the new even better” (Schilling 168). In their two years of existence, they did manage to make an impact in ratings and sales though.

What may be more important is that they proved that there was an audience for the amateurish acts. This has been a definite image of many idols since then, and especially lately. When I see Morning Musume sitting around and watching Moutube videos, I now know why exactly they are doing it. I may even have to rethink my labeling of the segments as “NO BUYS.” … well maybe not.

Oyoshi ni Natte ne Teacher
Otto CHIKAN!
Merry X’mas for You
Jaa Ne

There is more to learn about these 5 acts if you want to get into them. I am still learning myself. I may not dive deep into the enka scene, but I am quite fascinated with Seiko Matsuda. I remember having a Momoe Yamaguchi MP3 labeled as a song from the brilliant green for years, and I still listen to it occasionally when I found out it was a Yamaguchi track. Onyanko Club may be an interesting group, if only to compare members to current H!P and AKB48 members.

Posted on February 18th, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Articles.
Tags: Hibari Misora, Idol Theory, Keiko Masuda, Mark Schilling, Mitsuyo Nemoto, Momoe Yamaguchi, Onyanko Club, Pink Lady, Seiko Matsuda