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)