Itsuki Hiroshi - From the Showa to the Heisei era, a national singer who spun lyricism 1970s - 2000s

Itsuki Hiroshi - From the Showa to the Heisei era, a national singer who spun lyricism 1970s - 2000s

Hiroshi Itsuki (real name Kazuo Matsuyama, born in 1948 in Mihama-cho, Mikata-gun, Fukui Prefecture) emerged from the rural areas after World War II and has remained a beloved national singer in both enka and uta. In the early 1970s, when rapid economic growth reached its zenith and people began to feel lonely in urban life while seeking affluence, his songs drew great sympathy as a mirror reflecting the sentiments of the common people.

His debut in 1971 with "Yokohama Tasogare (Twilight in Yokohama)" was a vivid one. Lyrically depicting the nightscape and loneliness of a port town, this song established a new genre of urban enka, and made Itsuki's name known throughout Japan. Its sophisticated melody with a hint of urban melancholy overlapped with the image of a person from the countryside surviving in the city, and resonated deeply with the Japanese people of the time. He continued to produce numerous hit songs, including "Yozora," "Kiri," and "Hosoyuki." In particular, "Kiri" won the Japan Record Award as one of the most popular songs of the 1980s, cementing his position as one of the most influential singers of the era.

While his contemporaries Shinichi Mori and Saburo Kitajima embodied the earthy, emotional enka songs and the sorrows of the common people and the power of enka, respectively, Itsuki emphasized a more urban, smart style of expression. His singing focused on emotion and smoothness rather than power, and he established a unique position by skillfully walking the line between enka and pop music. As a result, he was widely accepted by the general public in addition to traditional enka fans.

Even as enka gradually declined in popularity after the 1980s, Itsuki continued to take on new challenges through his concert activities and media appearances. In the transition from the Showa to the Heisei era, his songs became a bridge between the urban and the rural, the traditional and the modern, and remained close to the hearts of the Japanese people.

Through his masterpieces, Hiroshi Itsuki reflected the atmosphere of the times, while at the same time radiating a distinct personality different from that of his contemporaries, and firmly established himself as a national singer who lived through the end of the Showa era and into the Heisei era.