ENKA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK9u_5KP8XE

filmed last year. this is more ichikawa yukino, singing a recent composition of dusty heroic enka, based on the heroics of highwayman kunisada chuji, or the later dramatization of his give-to-the-poor heroics and eventual execution, or even the catalogue of traditional songs and enka numbers about him. speaking as a dilettante, this kind of number—regressing into premodern heroism—is popular in the genre at present, overrepresented along with nostalgic evocations of rural japan—and setting aside, i would argue, the grand weeper, the tears in my sake cup, the doomed romance, which are more social songs... as if the genre is losing touch with reality. but what a performance! i wish i knew the term for that tempo break or time change midway through (here, again, i struggle with not having any musicological language) (this on the lyrics "semete katami no...")

Yesss thank you d