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today i had lunch with my japanese teacher. we're sitting there eating some delicious food while a tv plays in the background. some japanese television show, like a talk show, i assume. then, all of a sudden amidst the commercials, a cartoon-music-video-like. like...a gorillaz video. it was pretty stylized, almost kinda hip-hop-anime-like. the music was like real slow and mellow. the sound of the dudes voice pretty smooth, but the images were like i said, hip-hop-anime-looking and black and white. then, i notice that the dude in the cartoon looks black. baggy jeans, baseball cap (or not, memory is slippin') and full lips. of that i'm sure. i ask Mari-san what it was. She said it's Jero. I'm like, "who?" She says it is a guy named Jero who is now a very famous singer here in Japan. He is from America, but is 1/4 Japanese. His grandma used to play Japanese music for him when he was little. His GRANDMA married an African-American man in the states, had his mom, who was now half Black/half Japanese and married and African-American. It was so interesting to me...So i decided to look him up. Turns out, he was in a karaoke contest and he sang a Japanese song. He was scouted, brought to Japan, given more singing lessons and now he's a star. All hip-hopped out, black and singing Japanese traditional ENKA music.

Had to figure out what ENKA was. What is this ENKA music. Well...it turns out, Enka is like the ONLY traditional Japanese music that's really alive, barely. The instrumentation is a mix of west and Japanese intruments and they use a different scale than that of the West. Then, I find out it started back in 1874, when Japan’s first political party formed. The leaders in the party couldn't go out and speak in public so they wrote songs, gave them to singers who would go out in the street to communicate. Negro Spirituals come to mind. Hip Hoppers telling you to fight the power come to mind. It's no wonder... Now the website says that although, "Enka is no longer primarily used as a tool for political activism, this is thought to be the beginning of the lyrical form."

I read on. Apparently, Enka is very nostalgic to the older crowd. The songs conjure up images of the past, of one's hometown, of the old days. Mariachi comes to mind. It says that most young people don't appreciate Enka, but when they hit their 40s or 50s they start loving it, as if they are genetically programmed. Mariachi comes to mind. The site also says that in Enka, new artists remake songs all the time, but they are not remakes. They try to keep the "kata" of Enka. They re-sing old songs and try to sing it as close to the orginal master who sang it. M-A-R-I-A-C-H-I. Exciting. The site parallels it to Blues music and Country Music...

The site talked about the gender differences in Enka. The men perform in suits, western. The women in traditional Kimonos. And, apparently the lyrics of songs are pretty gender-determined. Wome sing of "unrequited love, drinking, and lonelines, while men's songs tend to focus on standing tall in the face of adversity, honor, and tenacity."


“Hime Uta” (“Secret Song”), a women's song:
A weak woman again wheedles the love
she let die in her heart
If you have compassion, I want you to grant my wish
Even knowing tomorrow will be filled with tears
The length of the night and the yearning of love...
Pouring sake for myself as I'm accustomed
The memories dripping, dripping
With no one to whom to tell
The crimson that fell in the midnight rain
is a sad camellia
If you have compassion, I want you to understand
The secret song in a woman's heart."

First verse, lost love. " Women who stubbornly hold on to romance from long ago and never let it die in their heart are a common recurring theme in women’s enka songs."

Second verse, she pours some liqua' for herself. "The fact that she is pouring it for herself is considered somewhat crude and self-deprecating. Since, in Japanese tradition, you are not supposed to pour for yourself. But, since she is alone...who gon' do it?

Third verse- a woman’s heart- "The idea is that a woman’s heart is loyal and delicate – it is an object that is often irreparably broken in enka songs. Even though she knows that, realistically, her desires for her lost love will never be fulfilled, she allows herself to wallow in her own self-pity and cry – in enka this suffering is considered beautiful. This is in contrast to men’s songs, which often carry the theme of keeping one’s chin up, doing the honorable thing, and moving on. With these two opposing themes in men and women’s songs, it’s no wonder so many hearts are broken in enka." and everywhere else.

In enka this suffering is considered beautiful.

Why isn't it the other way around? Well, some singers do switch! Sometimes, the women sing men's songs which create a sexiness to them and men sing women's songs which have an asexual effect. Interesting...women add sexiness. Men make women's songs asexual. Women sing of unrequited love. Men sing of moving on. Women of loyalty, Men of tenacity. MALE. FEMALE. GENDER. DAMN. Why DO we fall into this dichotomies? Is it our nature? Is it biogical? Is it spiritual? Is it Yin and Yang? Are we destined to be gentrified in the themes we sing of, ultimately, because we're destined to have a different view? Is this necessarily a bad thing? Shit, if i'm unrequited and brotha is moving on, that's doesn't feel or sound like a good thing, yet...in that hurt is beauty...so...how are these two opposing forces complimentary? (note to self: expore the yin and yang.)