Mike Maki, Folk Singer of Flowers and Wind, 1971

Mike Maki, Folk Singer of Flowers and Wind, 1971
Mike Maki was a Japanese folk singer who emerged from the 1960s and was widely known for his signature song "Roses in Bloom. The song depicts small happiness and new beginnings through flowers blooming in everyday life, and its simple words and bright melody were loved by all generations. The song's natural reach into the living room, coinciding with the popularization of television, brought comfort to people tired of city life, and it had a universality that could be sung by the whole family.

Around 1971, Japan's music scene was divided into two extremes: politically charged protest songs and lifestyle-oriented folk songs that depicted everyday scenes. As the fervor of the student movement waned, Mike Maki was the standard-bearer of the latter, singing about the warmth of daily life and human connections rather than protest, and his songs were accepted by a wide range of people. His position was one that would win the hearts and minds of the general public, far from newspapers and lectures.

While his contemporaries, Nobuyasu Okabayashi and Takuro Yoshida, sharply confronted political and social contradictions, and the Folk Crusaders, including Kazuhiko Kato, brought satire and a spirit of experimentation to the fore, Mike Maki emphasized lightness and openness. He established a pop-folk style suitable for home television and radio, greatly expanding the scope of folk music and symbolizing its gentleness and audibility.