Two famous Japanese died in 1989. One was Emperor Hirohito, now known posthumously as Emperor Showa. The other was enka singer Hibari Misora (which translates as “beautiful skylark” – the artist’s real name was Kazue Kato). Without meaning any disrespect to the late occupant of the Chrysanthemum Throne, it could be argued that Misora – known as the Queen of Enka -- was more widely mourned than Hirohito. Misora started out as a child actress in the late ‘40s, and her cheerful gamine persona struck a chord with Japanese trying to survive the realities of everyday life in postwar Japan. Misora, who like many Japanese entertainers was ethnically Korean, was born in Yokohama in 1937 (her father was a fishmonger) and displayed an interest in music from an early age. She made her professional debut as a singer at the age of 12, scorings hits with typical period fare such as
Kappa Boogie Woogie. Misora’s specialty was enka: weepy, sentimental ballads with melodies based on the Japanese minor pentatonic scale. You could call enka “crying-in-your-sake” music – in fact one of Misora’s biggest hits was titled
Kanashii Sake (Sad Sake). Besides being one of the postwar era’s biggest recording acts, Misora was also a movie star, appearing in dozens of films. One measure of her fame is that in 1956 several people were seriously injured when an audience waiting to get into one of her concerts rushed the hall. And in 1957, a 19-year-old girl threw hydrochl...
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Two famous Japanese died in 1989. One was Emperor Hirohito, now known posthumously as Emperor Showa. The other was enka singer Hibari Misora (which translates as “beautiful skylark” – the artist’s real name was Kazue Kato). Without meaning any disrespect to the late occupant of the Chrysanthemum Throne, it could be argued that Misora – known as the Queen of Enka -- was more widely mourned than Hirohito. Misora started out as a child actress in the late ‘40s, and her cheerful gamine persona struck a chord with Japanese trying to survive the realities of everyday life in postwar Japan. Misora, who like many Japanese entertainers was ethnically Korean, was born in Yokohama in 1937 (her father was a fishmonger) and displayed an interest in music from an early age. She made her professional debut as a singer at the age of 12, scorings hits with typical period fare such as
Kappa Boogie Woogie. Misora’s specialty was enka: weepy, sentimental ballads with melodies based on the Japanese minor pentatonic scale. You could call enka “crying-in-your-sake” music – in fact one of Misora’s biggest hits was titled
Kanashii Sake (Sad Sake). Besides being one of the postwar era’s biggest recording acts, Misora was also a movie star, appearing in dozens of films. One measure of her fame is that in 1956 several people were seriously injured when an audience waiting to get into one of her concerts rushed the hall. And in 1957, a 19-year-old girl threw hydrochloric acid on Misora’s face, resulting in minor injuries to the singer. Misora’s woes also included getting divorced from singer/actor Akira Kobayashi in 1964 after the couple had been married for just two years. At one point in her career Misora, despite her superstar status, was not allowed to perform on NHK TV’s “Red and White Song Contest” New Year’s Eve show, because of her brother’s underworld associations. In 1989 Misora died, with pneumonia given as the cause of death. In 1997, one of Misora’s best-known numbers,
Kawa no nagare no yo ni (As the River Flows), was voted the best Japanese song of all time in a 1997 NHK poll. Just as Elvis Presley will always be the King, Misora is still the Queen as far as her many fans are concerned.
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