UEHARA Toshi - Voices of Youth Scattered in Michu Uta (1937 - 1944)

UEHARA Toshi - Voices of Youth Scattered in Michu Uta (1937 - 1944)

Born in Odate City, Akita Prefecture, Toshi Uehara was a talented young man who contributed to the spring league championship as a pitcher on the baseball team while studying at Senshu University's School of Commerce. After graduation, he worked for a pharmaceutical company and played baseball for working adults, but fate led him to the path of singing. In 1937, "Tsuma Koi Dochu" was originally scheduled to be sung by Taro Tokai, but Uehara was suddenly assigned to sing it, and it became an unprecedented hit, selling over 400,000 copies upon its release. His unique style of singing, which incorporated the bars of nankyoku, resonated with the common people, and was more accessible than Tokaihin's classical vocal style, making him an instant favorite.

His "Tsuma Koi Dochu" (Wife's Love Road Trip) is a masterpiece of the road trip genre that depicts travel and righteousness and humanity, and he vividly sang about the world of chivalry that the common people of the prewar era yearned to see. While "Meigetsu Akagisan" by Taro Tokai and "Sake wa Nada ka Sigh ka" by Ichiro Fujiyama were popular at the same time, Uehara's song was more muddy and had a more popular sound. His clear and humane voice resonated more strongly with people in rural areas than in the cities, and he added his own unique color to the song culture of the early Showa period.

However, the era quickly turned toward war. As the Sino-Japanese and Pacific wars escalated, entertainers were forced to visit the front lines and go to war. Toshi Uehara was also called up and sent to the Philippine front at the height of his popularity. In 1944, his singing voice, which should have echoed after the war, was swallowed by the flames of war, and he died an untimely death at the age of 33. If he had survived, he would have become one of the central figures of postwar music and would have supported the male singing world before Hibari Misora. His untimely death is still regretted as a lost possibility in the history of Showa music.