Voice of Snow and Passion--Sayuri Ishikawa, Songs of a Woman Across the Straits and Mountain Pass (1973-)

Voice of Snow and Passion--Sayuri Ishikawa, Songs of a Woman Across the Straits and Mountain Pass (1973-)

Sayuri Ishikawa, real name Kinuyo Ishikawa, was born on January 30, 1958, in Sakuto County, Kumamoto Prefecture, and made her impressive debut in 1973 with "Kakurenbo. At first, she wore the guise of an idol and sang soft melodies similar to those of songs. However, it was "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyunkei" (Winter View of the Tsugaru Straits), released in 1977, that changed her fate dramatically. This song elevated Ishikawa from a mere popular singer to the queen of enka, a song of Japanese sentiment.

Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyunkei (Winter View of the Tsugaru Straits)" tells the story of a woman who is thinking of her ex-lover while riding on a night train from Aomori to Hakodate in Hokkaido. The song begins with the words, "Aomori Station has been covered in snow since I got off the night train from Ueno." The song overlaps the falling snow and the heart sinking into silence. The "ah" in the chorus, "Ah Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyunkei (Winter scenery of the Tsugaru Straits)," is a heartache that cannot be expressed in words. A voiceless cry, thoughts drowned out by the snow, and the loneliness of travel. The three elements of enka (traditional Japanese balladry) - place, season, and emotion - are beautifully crystallized in this song.

Ishikawa's singing during this period, while still youthful, struck a chord with listeners with his melancholy voice. Her fists were subdued, and in the narrative-like verses, a girl's face and a woman's resolve coexisted.

In 1986, "Amagi koshi" was released to the world. The woman's heart, as she crosses the Amagi Pass in the mountains of Izu, is a passion itself. The beginning of the song, "The scent that cannot be concealed has seeped into you for some time," is a lingering scent of a past tryst. The woman knows she has made a mistake, but she still pursues the shadow of the man she cannot forget. The climax, "I want to go over the castle with you," is a condensation of the irresistible persistence of love that tries to transcend ethics, common sense, and even life.

In this song, Ishikawa is no longer a girl. Her voice is filled with emotion, and her verse is bold and precise. Her fists do not rotate but rather blend into the melody as if they are entwined with it. Her voice is reserved, silent, and full of high notes. This is what it means to pour one's soul into the enka form. It was as if they were no longer singing a song, but performing a play.

Over time, Ishikawa's songs evolved to a deeper level, and in the 2000s she showed a different kind of "woman" in quietly sexy works such as "Whiskey, Don't You Love Whiskey," and also collaborated with Ringo Shiina. In addition, "Kanyo no shinchuju-juchushate," co-written with Ringo Shiina, fused the traditional with the modern, presenting a new form of enka.

The clear voice of her youth and the bass and fist of her maturity. Sayuri Ishikawa never once lost sight of her core, even as she continued to change. Who else could have sung so beautifully and sometimes so intensely about Japan's four seasons, its landscapes, and women's passions? The songs of Sayuri Ishikawa are a journey that transcends time and place, leaving behind a mountain pass to be crossed in the listener's heart.