To Curl Is Human; To Watch Is Divine

Ever since the top management of my company decided to be extravagant and installed flat screen TVs in the office last year, we have been bombarded with 24 hour financial headline news at work. As our CFO said, it is to show the visiting clients our dedication to our business by staying up-to-the-second updated with the industry. Funny since all the TVs in the office have been, understandably, muted, does it mean being able to read lips is also part of the professionalism in our business too? So far the crew have been well behaved and the channel stayed mainly in CNN but that might have more to do with the remote control is being under the Facility Manager's supervision. However, with the on-going Winter Olympics game the temptation is too much and thus we were treated with full week coverage of --- Curling (冰壺)



It was only three Olympics ago that curling had become an official competing event. Even for a sport crazed country like U.S. curling is not big a sport. The coverage we have this week probably could last us a decade and most of the folks in the office have never played the game before. However, all the real athletic events (such as ice dancing) will have to be saved for prime time TV, so in the office we will have the settle with curling. Fortunately curling is a relatively fast moving sport and rather easy to follow, if not to play. The goal is to place the curling stone (a.k.a. rock) closest to the circle at the end of the game. It is sort of like the combination of pétanque you see in European public gardens and air hockey kids used to play in amusement park.

The Vancouver game marks the first foray of China into curling. Just like almost all non-traditional Chinese sports, the Chinese women team outperforms their male counterpart by winning the bronze. The only match of the Chinese men I got to watch is the round robin match against host and defending world champion Canada. The Chinese team was blown away right off the bat and trailed Canada 0-4 in the first end. To give them some slacks this match is a dead rubber which means by then the Canadian has already confirmed advancing to semi-final (as the top seed) and the Chinese is eliminated regardless the result.



While the match is far from being competitive, it still good to get the (rare) chance watching the Chinese team in action. Comprised of 王奉春, 徐曉明, 劉銳 and 臧家亮, the entire team hailed from, unsurprisingly, Heilongjiang (黑龍江)


Chinese men curling team member 王奉春


Chinese men curling team (l. to r. 臧家亮, 徐曉明, 劉銳)

Particularly pleasing in the eyes is second thrower (二壘) 徐曉明. Some Chinese online news and forums have erroneously listed him as 徐小明, probably due to the English name Xu XiaoMing in his Olympics profile



In recent years Chinese national athletes are getting more and more star build-up to promote both the sport as well as personal endorsement. For an obscure sport like curling exposure would be limited around the world. In a city like Hong Kong where the temperature hardly ever dips below five degree Celsius, winter sport will be a hard sell to say the least (I must confess before moving to Boston I didn't even know there is such a thing called Winter Olympics). However, if you get bored with the posters of 陳一冰, 林丹, 田亮 or 王皓 one day you might want to check out 徐曉明


If 徐曉明 is to get star makeover he will really need to do something about his hair, which always looks like just getting off from the wrong side of the bed

If all the photos have wetted your appetite for some real action, the bad news is due to copyright you won't be able to find any clip of real Olympics competition in Youtube. Fortunately Vancouver Island News had done a segment on the Chinese Curling team just before the Olympics when the team had chosen Vancouver Island as their pre-Olympic tune-up destination. Stay with the clip, toward the end you will see 徐曉明 in motion, if not exactly in action

What's in a Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Juliet, Romeo and Juliet

It was a few days ago I read from online news that former football star 尹志強 has passed away. I have never been a fan of football or (until I immigrated) any sport but it is a pity for anyone to go at a relatively young age. On the brighter side is he is in a better place and free from the pain now. However, what really caught my attention to the article is the name of the reporter - 誦言(meaning eloquent speech). Even more inspiring is that her (it is a 'she', I have googled the name) surname is 談, 談誦言. All three characters are under the radical '言', and she got into working in journalism. I don't know if this is her realname but even if it is a pen name you have to give her the credit for combining it with her surname, which is not easy since not every Chinese surname has meaning.

During the 粵語殘片 era there was a comic actor named 伊秋水, obviously derived from the phrase 秋水伊人 (A beauty with enchanting eyes). I've always thought this is a stage name since '伊' doesn't sound like a surname but then he has a son named 伊雷 who was also an actor. For years I wonder if he named his son's name after his own stage name. Turn out, according to Chinese wikipedia, '伊' is indeed his surname and his real name is 伊景榮. By the way, whoever wrote that entry has been very professional, it lists all newspaper reference and even page number, a rarity in Chinese Wiki.

A few years back it had been a public outcry for lack of supervision when it came to adult content being printed in Hong Kong mainstream newspapers. Some kind of committee was pushing for law to regulate adult material in mass media. Heading that movement was a guy named 黃克廉. Someone quipped that he was born to play that part.

Just because combining the surname to give an extra meaning is not necessary a good name. 亦舒 is a writer I never warm up to. One of her more famous novels, 《玫瑰的故事》, happened to be one I dislike the most. It is contrived even by her standard. Basically it is about how a woman destroys the lives of the men who cross her path with her devastating beauty. If that reads like the wet dreams of some airhead bimbos it is because that is exactly what the book is. And such shamelessly trite story has to be repeated four times because the book is divided into four different stages of the heroine's life. 亦舒 named her 玫瑰, as if that is not nausea inducing enough, her surname is '黃', 黃玫瑰. Thanks god 亦舒 is not my mom.

My surname is 梁, which is one that has a meaning because 梁 is actually what 樑 was in the ancient time. So if I want to take advantage of my 'meaningful' surname to name name, the obvious will be 梁作棟 but 作棟 would be the butts of endless jokes. Alternatively I can go for 梁上君, how is that for a little black humour? :-)

Blessed Are The Forgetful?

電影回顧: 情人節首選《無痛失戀》



How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd

Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

From Vertigo to L'Année dernière à Marienbad to Blade Runner to Twelve Monkeys to Memento, memory has always been a subject that fascinated filmmakers. Our perceptions of reality are molded as much by our memories as by facts. It has been said that memory tends smooth out the edges of a rough history. However, getting there often means a painful ordeal. If memory would eventually obscure truth over time anyway, wouldn't it be easier just erase it to begin with?

If there is one movie that perfectly blends the enigma of memory and Valentine's Day it is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With its specific time frame setting, it is a movie people who had been in love or through a break-up can relate to on the special day. After all who wouldn’t share the same pain and longing Joel had after the love of your life left abruptly without sufficient reason.



Heavily influenced by, by director Michel Gondry's own admission, a rarely watched Alain Resnais’ movie Je t’aime, je t’aime, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also shares the subjectivity and mutability of memory theme that permeates throughout Resnais’ films.



Nevertheless, what separates Gondry's movie from Resnais' is the injection of an aura of romance and warmth. Instead of overwhelming us with an intriguing but alienating study of the complex relationships between time and memory, audiences are invited into the Joel’s world and to share his affection for Clementine, the regret of his impulsiveness and his longing for a second chance.

"Remember me" as Clementine told Joel, an advice came just a little too late

Through Joel’s memory we saw the intimate moments Joel and Clementine shared together. We felt sorry for Joel’s impetuous decision to erase Clementine from his memory. We rooted for him to somehow revert the procedure through his sheer will. We cheered for Joel following through the promise he made to Clementine to meet her in Montauk through the new memory he created during the operation, in spite of the inexplicability on Clementine fulfilling her part of the deal to show up for the rendezvous because we believe they are meant for each other



However, I felt that audience who are so quickly sold on the fact that Joel and Clementine should belong together might have romanticized their relationship a little too much to notice that most of these intimate moments only exists in Joel's head. Moments such as Joel takes up Clementine’s suggestion to hide her in his memory of humiliation, or when Joel and Clementine seek refuge in a painful childhood episode where Clementine comes to Joel’s rescue. These moments of heartfelt intimacy never actually appear when they are together. The exception is when Clementine asks Joel if she is ugly.



We can see why Joel yearn for Clementine since he believes she had him pegged (By the way it is from this movie I learned the phrase "pegged". It meant Clementine had Joel figured out). However, it is hard to argue what in Joel that appeals to Clementine. Except in this sequence where it shows Clementine needs Joel as much as he needs her, if only she could remember this when she decided to erase Joel as a lark. Interestingly according to the DVD commentary with Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman, in the original script Clementine was supposed to quote a passage of The Velveteen Rabbit in this scene instead but somehow it didn't work and so they changed her dialogue. I wonder if they realize how much this change affects the dynamic between Joel and Clementine in the movie.

It could be argued that it was only Joel's yearning for Clementine that is being projected onto Clementine in his imagination. We never really sure if Clementine actually want to stay in his memory. The truth is in their actual relationship Joel and Clementine never really communicate with each other. None more evident than the scene when Clementine complains about Joel not opening up himself to her


He said/She said: Sharing is what intimacy is but constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating

I like the way how Jim Carrey stole a glance at Kate Winslet when he inferred that she constantly babbled while she was looking away but then quickly closed his eyes to feign sleeping while she was looking at him. It underscores the fact that Joel cannot look at Clementine eyes to eyes to express his feeling (good or bad) to her while Clementine cannot accept criticism with an open mind. These moments are indeed the actual events in their relationship. In fact audiences are so smitten with the quirky chemistry between Joel and Clementine in Joel's imagination that they tend to overlook or ignore the third act of movie – the history between Mary and Howard.



Those who think the Mary/Howard subplot is unnecessary probably think their past has no place in the intrigue whether Joel and Clementine will get back together but the truth is Mary/Howard’ story is as much as Joel/Clementine’s. Just like Joel and Clementine, Mary believe erasing unpleasant chapters in one’s life allows them to move forward, ‘to let people begin again’ (Mary compares having memory erased as a pure, clean baby while adult is a mess of sadness and phobias). But what Mary failed to realize is that it is only through sadness and pain that one comes to learn from his mistakes, as she herself fall for Howard once again after she had his memory erased. In the monologue in his imagination as the erasure process comes to a close, Joel confessed that now he wished he’d done a lot of things because he had learned his lessons.


And so Joel goes, but not before taking one last look at the memory of, um, just a girl.

Sadly when he woke up in the morning all the lessons will be gone with the memory with Clementine. If Mary’s story is any indication, history will repeat itself with Joel and Clementine even when they did get back together second time around.

If sunshine was eternal then you would never remember it since you wouldn't notice it in the first place.

加藤和彦 (1947 - 2009)

This tribute has been in my mind for months already but due to my procrastination it is not completed until now.


Kato Kazuhiko (1947 - 2009)
On Oct 16th, 2009, musician Kato Kazuhiko was found hanged at Karuizawa hotel after the hotel was unable to contact him and called the police in the morning. According to the police, a suicide note has been left at the site. Reportedly Mr. Kato has been suffering from depression in recent years. The coverage of his suicide in Hong Kong media, if any, only mentioned that Kato Kazuhiko was the composer to the theme song of Macross, 愛・おぼえてますか. However, Kato Kazuhiko’s place in Japan music industry is remembered more for fronting two very influential but diverse bands, ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ (The Folk Crusaders) and サディスティック・ミカ・バンド ( Sadistic Mika Band), than his music for a long running Manga anime series. Both bands are before my time but thanks to YouTube and Internet I have the privilege to appreciate and enjoy Kato’s work that are otherwise unavailable to us through mainstream media. In light of the recent tragic turn of event I would like to take the opportunity to share my discovery from my cyber exploration. But first I must confess that I don’t speak Japanese and information of such bygone era in English is unreliable to say the least. Any feedback and corrections are most welcome.

The Folk Crusaders

The story begins in 1965, when the Civil Rights Movement and the War in Vietnam had fueled the folk revival with protest music in college campus around America. Such resurgence in the genre has spilled over to Japan. Kato Kazuhiko, then a student at Ryukoku University, had placed an ad in the magazine recruiting members for a folk group. Four other college students, Osamu Kitayama (北山修), Yoshio Hiranuma (平沼義男), Mikio Imura (井村幹生) and Maki Ashida (芦田雅喜) had responded and a band was formed. It was a time when mainstream success and career ambition took a second seat to the love of performing and getting their voices heard. Although Mikio Imura and Maki Ashida would soon drop out, the other three continued to be active in the Kansai (関西) underground scene.


l. to r. 平沼義男, 北山修, 加藤和彦

Eventually in 1967 they decided the group has run its course and all good things must come to an end, so they (independently) recorded and produced an album named ハレンチ (Harenchi) as a souvenir to their time together.


ハレンチ (Harenchi)

Originally only a modest 300 copies were slated to be released, ハレンチ was not expected to reach any widespread recognition if not for the song 帰ってきたヨッパライ(The Return Of The Three Drunkards). (Unconfirmed) Sources said through a freak accident, “Kaette Kita Yopparai” were recorded with an increased rotation which resulted in bizarre and psychedelic feel. Such a gimmick paid off and the song became a favorite among midnight DJs. The sudden exposure has prompted EMI to sign the group but by then Yoshio Hiranuma has decided to go his own way. Therefore Osamu Kitayama invited Hashida Norihiko (端田宣彦) to fill his place and the hitherto nameless band was reborn as ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ (The Folk Crusaders).


ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ/The Folk Crusaders (l. to r. 端田宣彦, 北山修, 加藤和彦)

Back by the corporate push 帰ってきたヨッパライ was formally released as a single, went to number one in ORICON chart and eventually sold 1.31 million copies, one of the most successful singles in the pre-CD era of Japan.



Maybe because of the zany energy of 帰ってきたヨッパライ, the iconoclastic cult director Nagisa Oshima (大島渚) was inspired to cast the three non-actors in his next movie of the same name. Considered a minor piece among the renowned director’s works at the time, 帰ってきたヨッパライ(Three Resurrected Drunkards a.k.a. Sinners in Paradise) the movie nonetheless received some favorable reviews worldwide and its reputation has grown ever since(Sadly I missed the opportunity to catch the movie when the Oshima retrospective In the Realm of Oshima was making its round in the art house circuit two years ago).


Three Resurrected Drunkards (a.k.a Sinners in Paradise)



With its anarchic setting and quirky humor featuring an ‘in’ musical group that often drawn comparison to the Beatles’ own cult classic ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, 帰ってきたヨッパライ centered around a trio of trio of hapless college students who have their clothes stolen while cavorting in the sea and mistaken for Korean stowaways. It is a biting satire of the racist and chauvinist assumptions of postwar Japan. Below is a snippet of the movie where the three heroes are belting out the tune イムジン河 (Imuji Gawa), another hit song from the album ハレンチ



As big a hit as 帰ってきたヨッパライ was, what first caught my attention of The Folk Crusaders is really イムジン河 but it turned out to be one of the most controversial songs ever in Japanese pop history. In Chinese イムジン河 will be translated to 臨津江, a river that divided North and South Korea. It was originally a folk song from North Korea that conveys the longing for reunification between the two countries. Because of its soothing melody the group has covered the song with Japanese lyrics in their album ハレンチ initially and become a hit. After they have been signed by EMI, イムジン河 was scheduled to be released as the follow-up single to 帰ってきたヨッパライ and the group even taped a TV appearance performing the song. However, in the last minute it was deemed that the song is too politically sensitive and was pulled from both sales and public airing. Subsequently イムジン河 was missing from the re-release of ハレンチ but by then the song had so been ingrained into the public pop culture already that its omission is just an unimportant technicality. Thirty four years later, the ban of the song was finally lifted in 2002 and so is the TV performance of the song



While it is pity that イムジン河 was pulled from circulation, its replacement, 悲しくてやりきれない (Unspeakable Sorrow), is equally memorable and it has become yet another classic of the group's repertoire. It had been covered by various artists numerous times over the year but I am partial to the arrangement of the original, particularly the melancholic string conclusion that suggests a certain the Sun has set on you feeling, very scenery and cinematic. Written by Kato Kazuhiko himself, the song has sounded even more profound after his suicide.


悲しくてやりきれない - ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ (The Folk Crusaders)


After a very whirlwind year where they released eight singles (seven if you discount “Imuji Gawa”) within a twelve-month span, The Folk Crusaders announced their split on Oct, 1968. That itself shouldn’t be a surprise since their album ハレンチ was produced to ‘commmemorate’ their union in the first place. Had the unexpected success of “Kaette Kita Yopparai” not happened it is highly likely that they would be disbanded long before that.

Hashida Norihiko

Of the three, Hashida Norihiko had the most commercial success as a performer after the demise of The Folk Crusaders. One year after the breakup, he formed another folk group はしだのりひことシューベルツ (Hashida Norihiko and the Shoe Belts) with 越智友嗣, 杉田二郎 and 井上博. Their first single, Kaze (風) , was a huge success and went to number two in the ORICON chart.


はしだのりひことシューベルツ/Hashida Norihiko and The ShoeBelts (clockwise from top left 越智友嗣, 杉田二郎, 端田宣彦, 井上博)


風 - はしだのりひことシューベルツ (Hashida Norihiko to The ShoeBelts)


風 sold over half a million copies and won them the coveted Best New Artist award in 1969. The song was later covered by the 70s JPop idol キャンディーズ (Candies) and also by our own 民歌王子 Albert Au 區瑞強, also named 風.



Unfortunately the success of Hashida Norihiko and the Shoe Belts was short-lived because 井上博 died in the spring of 1970 and so はしだのりひことシューベルツ had to disband. But in 1971 Hashida Norihiko scored another number one hit, 花嫁 through the group はしだのりひことクライマックス (Hashida Norihiko and Climax), which he formed with 藤沢ミエ, 中嶋陽二 and 坂庭省悟


はしだのりひことクライマックス/Hashida Norihiko and Climax (clockwise from top 藤沢ミエ, 中嶋陽二, 端田宣彦, 坂庭省悟)


花嫁 - はしだのりひことクライマックス (Hashida Norihiko & Climax)


After that Hashida Norihiko continued to front various groups including はしだのりひことエンドレス (Hashida Norihiko and Endless) and はしだのりひことエンドレス(Hashida Norihiko and the Margarettes) before finally turning solo. In recent years he made headline news for being a house husband to nurse his ailing wife

Kitayama Osamu

Kitayama Osamu decided to go back to graduate school to study Psychology after the breakup of The Folk Crusaders. Today he is a Professor of the Department of Clinical Psychology and Community Service of Kyushu University (九州大学) and a prominent figure in the field of Psycho-analysis in Japan.



However, Kitayama continued to contribute greatly in the Japanese music industry as a lyricist. From the late 60s to the early 70s he has penned a series of hits in which more than a few has become classics. Among those are the two hits, 風 and 花嫁, for Hashida Norihiko and also the break-out hit in Japan for ベッツィ&クリス (Betsy & Chris), 白い色は恋人の色 (Shiroi Iro Wa Koi Bito No Iro).


Betsy Curtis (left) and Chris Rolseth (right)

Betsy Curtis and Chris Rolseth were part of the Kaillua High-School Madrigals who toured Japan singing Hawaiian folk songs in the late 1960s. While they were there, Denon Columbia Japan was so impressed by the girls that they offered them a record deal singing Japanese folk music. Their first single is a beautiful folk song (in Japanese) 白い色は恋人の色 written by the foremost folk creative team at the time Kato Kazuhiko and Kitayama Osamu. It reached number two in the ORICON chart and sold over 522,000 copies, the eleventh best selling single in 1970. Because of their impressive Japanese skill the duo enjoyed a very successful career in Japan for the next five years, one of the first foreigners who broke into the country by singing in Japanese, predating 歐陽菲菲, テレサ・テン (鄧麗君) and our own アグネス・チャン (陳美齡). Ironically they couldn’t seem to find the same kind of success in their home country US.


白い色は恋人の色 - Betsy & Chris


Besides commercial success Kitayama Osamu also won critical praise for his lyrics for the song 戦争を知らない子供たち (Senso wo Shiranai Otokotachi) from ジローズ (Jiros)



Jiros is one of the many groups spawn in Japan during the late 60s and early 70s folk bloom. Fronted by college student 杉田二郎 (one of the Hashida Norihiko and The ShoeBelts quartet), it went through two incarnations. 戦争を知らない子供たち was released during their second life in the midst of Vietname War in 71. Though Japan wasn't directly involved in the conflict, the country allowed the stationing of American troops on Japanese soil, a decision met with tremendous criticism from the country's intellectual elite and university students, who upheld deep rooted anti-war sentiment because of their experience during WWII. As a result, 戦争を知らない子供たち became an unofficial anti-war anthem for the young generation and reached number eleven in the ORICON chart. It also won Kitayama Osamu the Best Lyrics Award in the 13th Japan Record Awards

In fact, because of the intelligent meaning and pacific message in his writing, Kitayama Osamu’s lyrics speak to the first post-war Japanese generation like no other. The collection of his work has become some kind of a memorabilia of their youth for Japanese in their 50s and 60s now.



In 2002, Kitayama Osamu made one of the rare appearances in front of the microphone after the breakup of The Folk Crusaders for their reunion concert. True to their pacifist folk root, they released the album 戦争と平和. Unable to join them due to his duty of caring his wife, Hashida Norihiko’s place was taken by Sakazaki Kounosuke (坂崎幸之助) of ALFEE fame


戦争と平和

However, my favorite of all his concoctions is the one he devoted to Kato Kazuhiko's marriage to Fujii Mika (福井ミカ) in 1971, あの素晴しい愛をもう一度 (Ano Subarashii Ai Wo Mouichido)



Kato Kazuhiko

One night in the late 1960s, a quirky but charismatic girl crashed into the backstage of Kato Kazuhiko’s performance. Proclaimed herself as a great fan of his, she simply blurted out for guitar lessons from Kato Kazuhiko. Impressed with her straight-forwardness, a courtship has sown. The girl’s name is Fujii Mika (福井ミカ) and in July 1970, Mika and Kazuhiko are married. As a nuptial present, Osamu Kitayama has dedicated the lyrics he has just written to the newly wed, which later Kato Kazuhiko provided the melody for.

The final result is the song あの素晴しい愛をもう一度 (Beautiful Love Affair Once Again), which was released as a single in April 1971. One of the rare Kato/Kitayama collaborations where the music came after the lyrics, あの素晴しい愛をもう一度 eventually reached number ten in the ORICON chart and became the most commercially successful song in Kato Kazuhiko’s post-The Folk Crusaders career as a singer. With its cheerful up-tempo, it is always the crowd pleaser in any live concert, the reunion concert of The Folk Crusaders in 2002 is no exception.



That no. 10 peak position actually belied the popularity of the song. If you do a search in Youtube you can easily found twenty different versions of the song, one of which is contributed by me



The performer in the video is Hiroko-san, who sings in the Porter subway station in the Boston area every Sunday. I've enjoyed her performance for months and I finally gathered up the courage to request あの素晴しい愛をもう一度 from her. She said she actually had made a mistake (of course my Japanese isn't good enough to notice) and offered to sing it again but my train has arrived already and didn't get the tape it the second time

Sadistic Mika Band

Turned out the influence Fujii Mika had on Kato Kazuhiko is more than just personal. A year after their marriage, with Fujii as the lead vocal, Kato Kazuhiko has recruited Takahashi Yukihiro(高橋幸宏) and Tsunoda Hiro (角田ひろ) to form a band named 'Sadistic Mika Band', Tsunoda was later replaced by Takanaka Masayoshi (高中正義) and Ohara Ray(小原礼) completed the line-up(over the years there would be other members rotating in and out of the band) to record their self titled debut album.



The band's name is an obvious parody to John Lennon's own "Plastic Ono Band" after the breakup of The Beatles (Legend had it that Kazuhiko called Mika sadistic because she always forced him to eat her experimental cooking). However, it also undermines the fact that Kato Kazuhiko is comparing the inspiration of Fujii to him as Yoko Ono to John Lennon.


Sadistic Mika Band (l. to r. 高中正義, 福井ミカ, 加藤和彦, 高橋幸宏, unidentified)

What is surprising about their debut album is that it dared to break away the pleasant but conservative folk music which has made Kato Kazuhiko famous. Instead they forayed into the thus far uncharted area in Japan of hard rock while still retaining a distinctive Japanese flavor.




The public reception to the album was best described as bewildered since this was not the kind of sound they expected from a local band. However, their progressive sound attracted the attention abroad and the album was released in UK with some enthusiastic reviews. Eventually the band has won the fan in Chris Thomas, a record producer for Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and other famous bands in UK at the time. Fueled by this unexpected adulation, the band decided that their next album should be recorded London and Chris Thomas volunteer to produce it. The result is the album Kurofune (黒船), their undisputed masterpiece.


Kurofune

Kurofune was actually a concept album. It based on the Japanese byword for the vessels that arrived Japan from the West between the 15th and 19th centuries. In particular it refers to US fleet under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry that sailed to Japan on July 14th, 1853 and eventually opened the country to the Western world, an obvious comparison to the album’s ambition. Kurofune was released in to only modest commercial success but received great critical accolade in UK, which tremendously boosted their stock back home, including nods for number one band and album of 1974 from the Japanese edition of Rolling Stone.



In 1975, they were invited to join Roxy Music for touring around Britain. The exposure turned them into some kind of a cult band in the West. To these days they still enjoy some following among the English speaking audience who aren’t the usual Japanese music followers. They might never have heard of who Nakamori Akina, Utada Hikaru or even Southern All Stars are but they still know about Sadistic Mika Band.



Just when it seems the international market that has long been elusive to Japanese musician was finally about to be broken through, Kato Kazuhiko abruptly quitted the band and returned to Japan the following summer, alone! Shortly afterward Kazuhiko and Mika divorced and Mika has stayed in England with Chris Thomas…The band tried to forge ahead without Kato but whatever synergy it had, it just evaporated with Kato/Mika’s marriage. Eventually Sadistic Mika Band called it a quit in 1977

It is a pity that we will never know how far Sadistic Mika Band could have gone had they stayed together. However, the band has no doubt sown the seeds in Japanese rock scene as several of the members have eventually grown into megastars in Japanese music industry: Takahashi Yukihiro has joined Sakamoto Ryuichi (坂本 龍一) and Hosono Harumoi (細野 晴臣) to form YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) to earn his own share of international fame. Takanaka Masayoshi has come to be regarded as the topmost guitarist in Japan. He also wrote the music for 十戒（1984）, one of the biggest hit of Nakamori Akina. Kato Kazuhiko himself has turned to producing and writing music for many of the pop singers in the 80s, most noticeably is Ai Oboedeimasuka (愛・おぼえてますか), the theme song for the Manga series Macross.



Over the years Sadistic Mika Band has reunited a few times. As each of the former members has become the who’s who in Japanese music industry, the prestige of the band continues to grow and it becomes some kind of honor to be involved. In 1985 Yumi Matsutoya (松任谷由実) and Sakamoto Ryuichi joined former members Tsugutoshi Goto (後藤次利) Kato Kazuhiko, Takanaka Masayohi and Takahashi Yukihiro for a one night union performance as the ‘Sadistic Yumi Band’



Then in 1989 four of the five original members reunited once again except understandably Fujii Mika, who is replaced by Karen Kirishima (桐島かれん). An album featuring new material, Appare, was released, followed by a tour. The ablum eventually reached number 3 in the ORICON chart



Finally in 2006 the band reunited once again as Sadistic Mikaela Band because this time it is with Kaela Kimura (木村カエラ, whose own album Scratch has reached number one in ORICON in 2007 ) as the lead vocal. They released the album Narkissos which peaked at number six in the ORICON chart



It has been a very long journey and I sincerely grateful for your patience if you manage to read through my rambling. I would like to conclude my tribute to Kato Kazuhiko with the original version of my favorite of all his songs. I hope that if you would remember Mr Kato it would be the relentless upbeatness of this song.

あの素晴しい愛をもう一度 - 加藤和彦, 北山修 (Kato Kazuhiko, Kitayama Osamu)