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American Country Music in Japan: Lost Piece in the Popular Music History Puzzle

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03007760701682383

1740-1712

Michael Furmanovsky,

Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics

Abstract American country music has a surprisingly large number of practitioners and fans in Japan, but the subculture around it has received very little attention from ethnomusicologists or historians of Japanese popular culture. This article looks at the origins of the genre—especially cowboy or "western" music and rockabilly—in the two decades after the war, and attempts to explain and describe how and why it came to challenge jazz as the leading non‐western musical genre for young college age students in the decade before pop music revolutionized popular culture in the mid 1960s. It also discusses possible reasons for the failure of the genre to go beyond its current status as a style of "oldie" for the original fan base, while also exploring its resiliency and continued appeal for the now mostly affluent middle‐class retirees who have so carefully nurtured and preserved it over half a century. Notes 1. Teramoto Keiichi (1933–) first heard country music on the Grand Ole Opry show on WVTR while still at Keio high school, and formed a semi‐professional band while a student at the elite Aoyama University in Tokyo, where he was a contemporary of Kamayatsu Hiroshi. Unlike some of his country‐music‐playing contemporaries, he was attracted as much to the lyrics as to the music and made a point of carefully memorizing and understanding the words of the songs he sang. His early band, the Wagon Aces, played in most of the American bases and service clubs in the Kanto area, usually traveling to gigs by bus. Unimpressed by the rokabiri boom and never much influenced by the emphasis on the cowboy image of some groups, he was determined to stick with "real" country music and in the early 1960s formed a backing band called the Country Gentlemen. Despite the rapid decline in the popularity of country in the late 1960s, Teramoto has been able to make a living from playing the music for more than 50 years and has played in the United States several times. He also appeared on stage in Japan with Buck Owens on the latter's tour in the mid‐1960s. Often explaining the lyrics of the classic songs he performs to his audiences, Teramoto admitted to losing interest in rock‐oriented American country in the 1980s but remains fully committed to preserving what he considers the "real" country music of his youth. 2. Tokita Keisuke (1936–2000), known as Jimmie Tokita, taught himself to play on an old guitar by listening to songs broadcast on FEN. Adopting the name Jimmie from his hero Jimmie Rogers, he formed the Mountain Playboys, a cowboy‐style country group whose members included graduates of Aoyama Gakuin (Thompson Thompson, Stephen I. 1992. "American Country Music in Japan.". Popular Music and Society, 16(3): 31–38. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] 33), in his early 20s. The group would go on to record hundreds of American country covers in the late 1950s and provided the model for most of the amateur and professional country groups that emerged during the heyday of country music. Like many boys of his generation, Tokita was attracted to the sound and image of Gene Autry whose formulaic movies were a staple of American bases. His highly proficient group not only included the talented electric guitarist Terauchi Takeshi—who would go on to a career as a Group Sounds pop artist and producer—but for a brief period provided a performing outlet for Ikariya Chosuke, who would later found the Drifters comedy troupe and become one of Japan's most important TV personalities until his death in 2004 (Brassor Brassor, Philip and Ikariya, "Chosuke. The Professional Amateur.". Japan Times, 11 Apr. 2004 [Google Scholar]). 3. Nagatomi Kenji (1941–), a lifelong resident of Kyoto, listened to cowboy and western‐swing music on radio station WVTQ in the early 1950s and, after entering Doshisha University, formed the "Tennessee Five." The group became a fixture at university music events in the early 1960s. After training as a dentist and opening his own practice, Nagatomi continued to pursue his interest. In the 1970s he opened his own live house above his dental practice, where he and his highly proficient group perform every weekend. Nagatomi has made numerous self‐funded visits to Nashville to perform and record—often taking a handful of Japanese fans with him. In 1994, he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, the Holy Grail for musicians of his generation. Adopting the refined and immaculately dressed gentleman balladeer image epitomized by Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, and Jim Reeves, he has played a major role in keeping country music alive in the Kansai area—organizing the so‐called "Kyoto Opry", an annual event which has showcased numerous semi‐retired American country artists including Ray Price, Charlie McCoy, Jim Ed Brown, Hank Thompson, Connie Smith, Charlie Louvin, and Skeeter Davis. Nagatomi has clearly played a major role in the live music country revival of the past decade and his Nashville‐based daughter Mari has developed into an accomplished country‐pop artist. He has, however, also played a role in solidifying country into an essentially "oldies" genre, entirely removed from recent developments in the US (Kenny's Country Station Kenny's Country Music Station. n.d.. Profile of Nagatomi Kenji 14 Oct. 2005. [Google Scholar]). 4. Fujiyama "Tomi" (1940–) can rightly call herself Japan's first female country music artist and is one of the few singers to emerge from a working‐class family. Born Yamaji Tomoko, she began singing Japanese popular songs (kayokyoku) while still a child in Nagoya, but in 1953 moved to Tokyo and at the age of 14 was given a chance to sing a song in English in front of some soldiers. With almost no exposure to English, Yamaji struggled to memorize the lyrics and unfamiliar melody and it was no surprise when, in spite of the advantage of her cute demeanor and cowgirl outfit, her performance received a lukewarm reception. Her singing, however, displayed enough potential to persuade an American FEN announcer to give her some English lessons and her pronunciation made rapid strides. Within a year of her debut, Yamaji had become a fixture at military bases and in the late 1950s she adopted her mentor Fujiyama Ichiro's family name and the nickname (Tomi) given to her by soldiers, to create her catchy stage moniker. Immaculately dressed in full western regalia and ten‐gallon hat, Fujiyama specialized in mid‐tempo and slow sentimental ballads. In the late 1950s she became known for her accomplished yodeling ability, a skill that led to a contract to appear on one of the first ever Japanese TV commercials (for Oriental Curry) and a recording contract with Nippon Columbia. In 1959 she had a hit with "Tennessee Yodeling Polka" and in the following five years made several records under the direction of Mountain Playboys guitarist Terauchi Takeshi. In 1964 she performed in Las Vegas and began a serious effort to make a career in the US, becoming the first Japanese artist to appear on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and placing two songs—"In the Beginning" and "Lonely Together"—in the lower reaches of the Country Music Top 40, a feat still unequalled by any Japanese country artist. Fujiyama retired to raise a family in the early 1970s but re‐emerged in the mid‐1990s and released a CD compilation of her best‐known songs. She followed this with a new CD, recorded at her own expense in Nashville with some of Music Row's leading session musicians (Fujiyama Fujiyama, Tomi. 2004. Korobi Korobuyo Ongaku (Jinsei), Tokyo: Bungeisha. [Google Scholar] Korobi). 5. Charlie Nagatani (1936–), the organizer of Japan's largest annual country music event, "Country Gold Country Gold. n.d.. "Charlie Nagatani.". 17 July 2006 [Google Scholar]" in Kumamoto, did not become interested in country music until the age of 20 when he first heard a local country group called Hillbilly Jamboree. A student at Chuo University at the time, he immediately left his studies to join the band and in 1958 participated in the week‐long Western Carnival in Tokyo. He later formed the Western Cannonballs and in the early and mid‐1960s the group became regular performers at US bases throughout the country, entertaining American troops on their way to or from Vietnam. Nagatani, who opened a club in Kumamoto, was one of only a small number of Japanese country artists able to make a living during country's decline in popularity in the 1970s. He emerged in the late 1980s as the main organizer of "Country Gold Country Gold. n.d.. "Charlie Nagatani.". 17 July 2006 [Google Scholar]" to help promote a mini‐revival in country music in the 1990s. He has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in the US several times and made a number of appearances on Japanese TV. In 2004 he received the Nashville‐based Jim Reeves Memorial Award, given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the acceptance of country music throughout the world (Country Gold Country Gold. n.d.. "Charlie Nagatani.". 17 July 2006 [Google Scholar]).