ENKA AS A MARKER OF SOCIAL DIFFERENCE:

UNDERSTANDING TRADITION AS TASTE

TONG KOON FUNG

(B.A. (Hons.), NUS)

A THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF JAPANESE STUDIES

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

2014

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and has been written by
me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information
which have been used in the thesis.

This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university
previously.

Tong Koon Fung

13 January 2014

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Although many graduate students and advisors have described the

thesis writing process as a lonely one, a large number of individuals and
groups have in various ways throughout the course of this research provided
crucial information and assistance, without which this thesis would not have
been possible. I have incurred large debts of kindness, and this note of
acknowledgement only begins to scratch the surface of my gratitude towards
everybody who has helped me through the research and writing process.

I have been immensely fortunate to work under the supervision of Dr.

Timothy David Amos, who provided extremely valuable ideas and comments
on every part of the research and writing process, even though its theoretical
and disciplinary leanings were not in his area of academic specialisation. By
placing rigorous standards, from the crafting of the research topic to the
eventual writing of the thesis, and granting me much intellectual freedom and
autonomy, I have been able to research and write in the most highly
challenging yet stimulating environment. His prompt reviews of my drafts and
other academic assignments have also allowed me to carry out my work in the
most efficient manner possible.

Other faculty of the Japanese Studies Department of the National

University of Singapore also contributed greatly in the conduct of my research.
Participating in Dr. Lim Beng Choos graduate research seminar pushed me
towards consistent research on theoretical and methodological frameworks to

iii

use in the research. Dr. Lim also provided much advice on the conduct of the
research, and important information about grants and scholarships that allowed
me to make considered financial decisions throughout my candidature and
field research. Dr. Morita Emi and Dr. Nakano Ryoko helped greatly in
crafting invitation letters and questionnaires used in the field research. Thanks
to their patient vetting of my initial document drafts, I was eventually able to
enlist the help of many research participants in the field. Other faculty
members, such as Dr. Hendrik Meyer-Ohle, Dr. Thang Leng Leng, Dr.
Deborah Shamoon and Dr. Christopher Michael McMorran, also provided
important critiques of my field research data and interpretations. Outside the
Department, I am grateful to Dr. Chua Beng Huat, who provided insightful
comments while I took part in his Cultural Studies in Asia course, and kindly
maintained an interest in my research even after my participation. Dr. Vineeta
Sinhas Reading Ethnographies course also introduced me to much of the
methodological framework that I eventually utilised for my field research and
thesis writing.

Also providing much crucial intellectual critique and emotional

support were the graduate students and alumni of the Department. I was
fortunate enough to go through the research and writing process together with
Huijun, who provided much intellectual discussion and emotional support
through our chats in and outside class. I also have to thank Eve, who
introduced me to some very important contacts in Japan, and Edwin, who
shared with me whatever he found on the Internet that could help with my
research. Finally, I am very grateful to Noel, who graciously offered to read

iv

through and critique drafts of this thesis within his busy schedule, and allowed
me to tap upon his brilliance to make it better.

Fieldwork is always a group undertaking, with many people coming

together to make knowledge possible. In the course of my field research, I was
fortunate to be helped along by many people both within and outside academia.
Firstly, much of the research would not have been possible without the
fantastic guidance of Professor Fujii Hidetada at Rikkyo Universitys Japanese
Literature Department. His expertise on Japanese nostalgia and the utilisation
of journal and magazine resources were essential in my documentary research.
Professor Fujii and his graduate class also graciously provided me with the
chance to present my research findings before I returned to Singapore. Also, I
am hugely grateful to Professor Mri Yoshitaka, Matsuoka-san and the rest of
the Musical Creativity and the Environment seminar class, for also providing
me with the chance to take part in their classes and present my research
findings. Professor Mri also provided opportunities to take part in the
conferences held by the Japanese Association for the Study of Popular Music
(JASPM), where I was able to receive critiques of my data and analysis, and
was introduced to a large number of Japanese cultural studies scholars,
including Professor Minamida Katsuya and Wajima Ysuke, and their works.
Finally, I am indebted to Mio, who patiently worked with me in drafting up
research documents and interview questionnaires. That I could conduct my
observations and interviews without any real issues is a testament to her
expertise at conducting field research.

Just as crucial were the many people who agreed to take part in the
field research: without them I would not have been able to learn anything
about how they enjoyed music. Firstly, I am truly grateful to the Friday
afternoon regulars at the karaoke kissa SC, who took me in warmly and
participated enthusiastically in the ethnographic research, even though I came
from a totally different cultural and generational background, and left so soon
after we had started to get to know each other deeply. The same can be said
for the participants at the Internet karaoke clubs K-club and NSK, who also
graciously gave me their time during our interviews and karaoke sessions. I
can only hope that I have done justice to their experiences through my
narrative in this thesis. I would also like to thank Shiraishi Takaaki from Guan
Barl Co. Ltd., Jeros management agency, and Fukuo-san from Victor
Entertainment Co. Ltd., for their kind assistance in allowing me to utilise some
of the singers copyrighted images in this thesis, and even setting up an
opportunity to talk with Jeros management staff that I had to unfortunately
turn down due to scheduling conflicts.

The field research was carried out around the Tokyo area from March
to July 2013, and funded by the Graduate Student Exchange Programme Grant
from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. My candidature from January
2012 to December 2013 has also been supported by the National University of
Singapore Graduate Research Scholarship. I am truly grateful for the
Universitys and Facultys financial support that has made this research
possible.

vi

Finally, I would also like to thank my family, Mio and God for being
so supportive and understanding, and providing much needed peace of mind
throughout the research and writing process to make it all happen. But, of
course, all shortcomings of this thesis are mine and mine only.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Declaration

ii

Acknowledgements

iii

Table of Contents

viii

Summary

ix

List of Figures

Note on Translations and Use of Names and Pictures

xi

Introduction: Enka, Japan and Fandom

Chapter One: Enka, a National Musical Tradition?

24

Chapter Two: The Socio-Historical Development

of Musical Taste for Enka

41

Chapter Three: Appreciating Popular Music through Karaoke

61

Chapter Four: Performing Enka in Various Karaoke Settings:

The Ethnographer as Observer and Observed

78

Conclusion: Enka as a Marker of Social Difference

111

Bibliography

118

viii

SUMMARY
In being labelled the sound of Japanese tradition and the heart and
soul of the Japanese, the popular music genre of enka has been discussed in
both popular and academic discourse as a representative of an essential and
authentic Japanese traditional identity. However, such an understanding is
insufficient in explaining its marginal position within the Japanese music
industry and audience. Instead, I argue that musical preference for enka serves
as a marker of social difference. Utilising sociological frameworks of musical
taste, community and musicking rather than culturally essentialist
understandings, I show how enka marked off a unique musical space
populated by a specific social demographic in its infancy in the later 1960s,
via a socio-historical investigation of the genres development. I also show
how such demarcation continues today via an ethnographic study of three
karaoke settings in the Greater Tokyo area.

(141 words)

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Cover photo for Umiyuki

30

Figure 2: Cover photos for Yakusoku, Serenade and Covers 6

33

Figure 3: Floor plan of SC

65

Figure 4: Karaoke participants at SC

67

Figure 5: Floor plan of karaoke box for K-club gatherings

70

Figure 6: Floor plan of large karaoke box used for NSK gatherings

74

Figure 7: Some participants at NSK gatherings

75

NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS AND USE NAMES AND FIGURES

All translations, photos and diagrams in this thesis belong to me,

unless where otherwise stated.

All European and American names in this thesis are presented in the
Western style (ie. first names before last names), while East Asian names are
presented in the East Asian style (ie. last names before first names). Also, the
names of field research participants and venues have been changed to
pseudonyms in order to protect their privacy.

xi

Introduction
Enka, Japan and Fandom

The Japanese popular music genre known as enka has been roughly
described as a genre of Japanese-sounding songs.1 Although such a broad
definition does more to express the ambiguity within the genre than signify a
concretised musical form, singers, composers, intellectuals and fans have
labelled it the heart and soul of the Japanese [nihonjin no kokoro], the
song of Japan [nihon no uta] and the sound of Japanese tradition [dent
no oto].2 Its sorrowful ballad melodies and lyrics evoking days and places
gone by has held fans in an imagination of Japaneseness rooted in a yearning
for an idealised past. 3 Enka has thus been coupled with ideas of Japanese
traditional identity and culture in Japanese musical discourse. Ideas of
traditional culture have also been equated with Japanese national, ethnic and
racial identity, in contemporary discussions of a homogenous and timeless
Japanese identity that have taken great hold in Japan and elsewhere,
particularly in the post-Second World War (hereafter referred to as the
postwar) period.

Alan Tansman, Misora Hibari: The Postwar Myth of Mournful Tears and Sake, Anne
Walthall (ed.), The Human Tradition in Modern Japan, (Wilmington: SR Books, 2002), p.223.
I use such a provisional definition in this section as a compromise between various texts that
provide a number of ways to define enka, but nevertheless agree that it at least signifies a
sense of Japaneseness through its sound, within the Japanese postwar musical context.
2
Christine R. Yano, Raising the ante of desire: Foreign female singers in a Japanese pop
music world, Allen Chun, Ned Rossiter and Brian Shoesmith (eds.), Refashioning pop music
in Asia: Cosmopolitan flows, political tempos and aesthetic industries, (London and New
York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), p.161. See also Wajima Ysuke, Tsukurareta Nihon no
Kokoro Shinwa: Enka wo Meguru Sengo Taish Ongakushi [The Created Myth of The
Heart of Japan: A History of Postwar Popular Music Focusing on Enka], (Tokyo: Kbunsha
Shinsho, 2010), pp.8-9 and Aikawa Yumi, Enka no Susume [On Enka], (Tokyo: Bungei
Shunj, 2002), p.185.
3
Christine R. Yano, Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song,
(Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 2002), pp.14-17,
Tansman, Misora Hibari, p.227.

Thus, enka has generally been discussed within a culturally essentialist

framework of musical understanding, which assumes that the genres musical
form and practices (such as consumption, performance and consumption) is
grounded in and expresses an essence of Japaneseness.4 Such a framework of
understanding posits enka as a source of cultural authenticity. Of course,
competent performances by non-Japanese enka performers complicate these
claims towards cultural tradition. But even without such glaring juxtapositions
of cultures, essentialist portraits of enka that claim that it is a traditional
Japanese genre already present serious problems for cultural studies scholars
in understanding the genres position within the Japanese cultural soundscape.
If enka possesses some inherent Japanese essence, why and how do some
sectors of the Japanese music audience express disdain for it, while
simultaneously claiming their own identities as Japanese? How does it
reconcile with descriptions of the Japanese music market as being highly
segregated? Who exactly are these enka fans (and non-fans)? What are the
emotional connections that fans and non-fans make with the music? How, and
by whom, is Japaneseness determined?
In this thesis, I answer the first four of the above questions. I argue that
enkas appeals towards Japaneseness are ultimately built upon specific
musical and social discourses developed during Japans period of high
economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s. This period saw a schism occur
4

Ralph Grillo uses the term cultural essentialism to mean a system of belief grounded in a
conception of human beings as culturalsubjects, i.e. bearers of a culture, located within a
boundaried world, which defines them and differentiates them from others. For example, Chua
Beng Huat deconstructs ideologically-driven assumptions of shared essential Confucian
values to assert a common identity among East Asian states and their difference from other
cultures. Ralph D. Grillo, Cultural essentialism and cultural anxiety, Anthropological
Theory, Vol.3 No.2, (2003), p.158.; Chua Beng Huat, Conceptualising an East Asian popular
culture, Chen Kuan-Hsing and Chua Beng Huat (eds.), Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Reader,
(London: Routledge, 2007), pp.115-7.

within both Japanese music producers and audiences, in which enka producers
and fans coalesced around an idealised nostalgic longing of a pre-modern
Japan. Enka thus effectively marked off a unique musical space populated by a
specific social demographic. In fact, as my field research of various karaoke
settings from March to July 2013 in the Greater Tokyo area shows, enka
consumption continues to demarcate an exclusive demographic. By
understanding enka fans and non-fans behaviour surrounding karaoke
participation through the conceptual lenses of taste, community and
musicking, I argue that the two groups, in their exclusive spaces of
communal musicking, continue to build divergent musical tastes. Enka
should thus be understood as a musical marker of social differences based on
age, education, locale and family wealth.
As such, through this argument I suggest that the fifth question, How,
and by whom, is Japaneseness determined? is a complex and difficult
question to answer. The highly diverse nature of Japanese music listeners I
introduce in this thesis already greatly problematizes this question, but is only
the tip of the iceberg, as similar diversities of people and influences are also at
work within contemporary production of enka. The discussion of production
issues in enka is indeed another highly interesting field of research on
contemporary conceptualisations of Japanese musical tradition and identity,
but unfortunately it is an area into which I was unable to gain in-depth access,
and is hence out of this thesiss scope of discussion.

Paths towards studying fandom

My original interest in enka was sparked by African-AmericanJapanese singer Jeros debut in early 2008. Born on 4 September 1981 as
Jerome Charles White, Jr. in Pittsburgh, USA, Jero initially made headlines as
an unlikely enka success. Extensively promoted by media outlets as
simultaneously a perfect grandson to his Japanese grandmother Takiko and a
foreign intruder of enka looking to shake up the genre with his racial
background and flashy hip-hop attire, Jeros debut single Umiyuki [Ocean
Snow] entered the Oricon charts (Japans counterpart to the American
Billboard charts) in fourth place and eventually sold over 300,000 copies,
numbers unprecedented in enka.5 His debut year culminated in an invitation to
perform at the prestigious year-end music extravaganza, Khaku Uta Gassen
[Red-White Song Battle].
Jeros early performances provided much food for thought about prior
assumptions of enkas Japaneseness. Many academic and popular analyses
of his performances have analysed how Jeros African-American heritage
negotiates the Japanese musical soundscape of enka.

But while

Jero: Shij Hatsu no Kokujin Enka Kashu ga Kataru Enka no Kokoro: Ichigo Ichie de
Khaku Mezasu [Jero: The First Black Enka Singer Explains The Spirit of Enka: Aiming
for Khaku as Once in a Lifetime], Mainichi Shimbun, (14 March 2008),
http://mainichi.jp/enta/geinou/graph/200803/14_5/?inb=yt., Accessed on 10 March 2011;
Oricon, Inc., Enka no Kurofune, Tsui ni Deby: Yume wa Khaku [The Black Ship of Enka
Finally
Debuts:
My
Dream
is
to
appear
on
Khaku],
(2008),
http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/music/52167/full/, Accessed on 22 November 2012. I explain in
more detail the connotations of cultural collision/invasion that the term black ship on page
36.
6
See Kosakai Masaki, Enka wa Kokky wo Koeta: Kokujin Kashu Jero no Kazoku Sandai no
Monogatari [Enka Crossed National Borders: A Three-Generation Acount of Black Singer
Jeros Family], (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2011); Shelley D. Brunt, When Black Tears Fall:
Image-Making and Cultural Identity in a Case Study of the Hip-Hop/Enka Singer Jero,
Catherine Strong and Michelle Phillipov (eds.), Stuck in the Middle: The Mainstream and its
Discontents: Selected Proceedings of the 2008 IASPM-ANZ Conference, (Auckland: UTAS,
2009), pp.58-67; Kiuchi Yuya, An Alternative American Image in Japan: Jero as the CrossGenerational Bridge between Japan and the United States, Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.42
No.3, (2009), pp.515-29; and Christine R. Yano, Marketing Black Tears: Jero as African

deconstructing Jeros performances and enka according to culturally

essentialist imaginations of race and music highlights important questions
about the assumed Japaneseness of enka, it does not provide any insight into
the actual ways in which the Japanese music audience appraise Jero and enka.
There has been little effort to profile Jeros, or more crucially enkas, fanbase
utilising theories of musical consumption, in order to understand how music
audiences enjoy music.
Indeed, such research has rarely been attempted in studies about the
genre in general. Even Christine Yanos seminal text, Tears of Longing:
Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song, focuses mainly on
analysing the content of enka songs and performances, with its sole chapter on
consumptive practices not displaying the same in-depth analysis. 7 Other
ethnomusicologists have concentrated solely on textual analyses to prove
enkas links to traditional, pre-modern Japanese musical forms.8 Meanwhile,
another strand of enka research has adopted a genealogical approach to
investigate the socio-historical and musical influences behind songwriters and
performers. 9 These approaches, however, are inadequate in understanding
enkas cultural positioning among both fans and non-fans within the Japanese

American National Singer in Japan, (Working Paper: 2010). I discuss these works in greater
detail in my analysis of Jeros enka career in Chapter One. I also thank Professor Yano for
graciously sharing her ongoing research with me.
7
Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.124-47.
8
See Aikawa, Enka no Susume, Koizumi Fumio, Kaykyoku no Kz [The Structure of
Kaykyoku], (Tokyo, Japan: Heibonsha, 1996).
9
See Mitsutomi Toshir, Media Nihonjinron: Enka kara Kurashikku Made [Media
Nihonnjinron: From Enka to Classical Music], (Tokyo, Japan: Shinchsha, 1987); Ben Okano,
Enka Genry K: Nikkan Taish Kay no Si to Sni [Thoughts on Enkas Origins:
Similarities and Differences between Japanese and Korean Popular Music], (Tokyo, Japan:
Gakugei Shorin, 1988); Deborah Shamoon, Recreating traditional music in postwar Japan: a
prehistory of enka, Japan Forum, (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2013.824019,
Accessed on 4 September 2013; and Wajima, Tsukurareta.

music audience, even as they contribute to our understanding of the forms and
history of its production.
I argue that the study of enkas relationship to Japanese national
identity and tradition must involve enka consumption, because of the
importance of everyday social practice in the construction of identities at all
levels, including the national. As Montserrat Guibernau argues via a wideranging study of various nationalisms in Europe and North America, national
identity is a shared collective sentiment of similarity and belonging to the
same nation and difference from other nations. 10 Eric Hobsbawm has
discussed how such a shared sense of national identity has been created
(particularly in the era of European imperialism) by socio-political elites
through the manipulation of national memory to invent new traditions as a
focal point of shared national sentiment and identification.11 In this model of
national memory and identity, Hobsbawm clearly situates creative agency
firmly in the hands of these elites, whom Gibernau suggests have greater
access and control over mass media and political institutions. 12 But these
structures of meaning, memory and identity cannot be created or circulated
without social interactions, as Maurice Halbwachs argues through his concept
of collective memory.13 Recent scholars on nationalism such as Guibernau and
Jackie Hogan argue that these social interactions are not exclusively top-down.
Guibernau notes that elites had to make concessions and incorporate certain

10

Montserrat Guibernau, The Identity of Nations, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007), p.9.
Eric J. Hobsbawm, Introduction: Inventing Traditions, Eric J. Hobsbawm and Terence O.
Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition, (Cambridge; New York, Cambridge University
Press, 1983), p.6.
12
Guibernau, The Identity of Nations, p.18.
13
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, Lewis Coser (trans.), (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1992). Cited in Astrid Erll, Memory in Culture, Sara B. Young (trans.), (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p.16.
11

elements of popular culture into what was to be designed as national culture,

in order for the masses to identify and recognise the elites constructed
national culture as their own. 14 And in Hogans study of contemporary
nationalism in Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, she
argues that for the masses, social negotiation and contestation of national
identity and memory occurs most frequently (and crucially) at the level of the
mundane and quotidian.15
Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington have described
fandom as one site for such everyday-level social negotiations and
contestations, as part of the fabric of our everyday lives that is inextricably
linked with the cultural practice and structures people are situated in. 16
Fandom, as Sandvoss and Daniel Cavicchi argue, can be defined at its very
base as the regular, emotionally involved consumption of cultural texts. 17
Through such a mode of cultural consumption, which is always contextually
situated, fandom is an aspect of how we make sense of the world, in relation
to mass media, and in relation to our historical, social, cultural location, and a
way through which fans negotiate and construct identities. 18 My choice of
studying enka fandom to understand the genres links to national identity is

14

Guibernau, The Identity of Nations, p.18.

Jackie Hogan, Gender, Race and National Identity: Nations of Flesh and Blood, (New York:
Routledge, 2009), p.2.
16
Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington, Introduction: Why Study Fans?,
Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington (eds.), Fandom: Identities and
Communities in a Mediated World, (New York and London: New York University Press,
2007), p.9.
17
Cornel Sandvoss, Fans: The Mirror of Consumption, (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2005), p.8.
See also Daniel Cavicchi, Loving Music: Listeners, Entertainments, and the Origins of Music
Fandom in Nineteenth-Century America, Gray, Sandvoss and Harrington (eds.), Fandom,
pp.248-9.
18
Joli Jensen, Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterisation, Lisa A. Lewis
(ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, (New York: Routledge, 1992),
p.27. See also John Fiske, The Cultural Economy of Fandom, Lewis (ed.), The Adoring
Audience, pp.46-48; and Lawrence Grossberg, Is There a Fan in the House? The Affective
Sensibility of Fandom, Lewis (ed.), The Adoring Audience, pp.64-65.
15

thus motivated by such links, both conceptually and in praxis, between

identity and fandom.

Enka fandom as a taste community

Particularly, I look towards sociological and ethnographic approaches
in understanding enka from audiences perspectives. The concepts of taste,
community

and

musicking

provide

productive

framework

for

understanding fans and non-fans attitudes towards and utilisation of enka, in

terms of their individual agency within social settings, by highlighting the role
that the genre plays in generating individual and collective identities. This
understanding is crucial in considering enkas claims to an authentic Japanese
identity.
In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Pierre
Bourdieu uses the results of two large-scale questionnaire surveys conducted
in 1963 and 1967-8 to show how cultural tastes (including music) among the
French public were stratified according to social distinctions based largely
upon the kind of educational training received, which was in turn dependent
on possession of economic, social and cultural capital. 19 He argues that
differences in cultural tastes are self-perpetuated through class distinctions
made by the various class groups:

Through the economic and social conditions which they

presuppose, the different ways of relating to realities and
fictions, with more or less distance and detachment, are very
19

Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Richard Nice
(trans.), (London, Melbourne and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984), pp.13-18.

closely linked to the different possible positions in social space

and, consequently, bound up with the systems of dispositions
(habitus) characteristic of the different classes and class
fractions. Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social
subjects,

classified

by

their

classifications,

distinguish

themselves by the distinctions they makein which their

position in the objective classifications is expressed or
betrayed.20

Later studies on taste have criticised Bourdieus overly-deterministic

use of class to explain taste differences. For example, Michle Lamont, by
investigating

American

and

French

classes

upper-middle

cultural

consumption in the 1980s, argues that factors such as wider access to higher
education and increased lower middle-class and upper working-class incomes
have dismantled older class-based status distinctions. 21 Meanwhile, social
markers such as gender, ethnicity and age have become as important as class
in understanding cultural consumption differences.

22

However, these

criticisms have not taken away the importance of understanding the habitus in
which cultural consumers are situated to explain how they arrive at their
consumption choices.23 As such, in Chapters Two to Four I discuss the kinds

20

Ibid., pp.5-6. Brackets in original.

Michle Lamont, Money, Morals, Manners: The Culture of the French and American
Upper-Middle Classes, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
22
Michle Lamont and Marcel Fournier (eds.), Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries
and the Making of Inequality, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
23
I use habitus in the manner defined by Bourdieu: systems of durable, transposable
dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as
principles which generate and organise practices and representations that can be objectively
adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express
mastery of the operations necessary in order to attain them. Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of
Practice, Richard Nice (trans.), (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), p.53.
21

of social differences, such as age, education, family income and location,

which can be observed between enka fans and non-fans. Such audience
segregation is most observable in the various types of settings that have
developed in the karaoke industry, as socialisation processes at each setting
involving music have created and maintained divergent musical tastes.
On the other hand, within cultural studies there was growing discontent
with Stuart Halls, John Fiskes and David Morleys early critical works on
media consumption. These argue for audiences individual agency (via the
active audience concept) in interpreting and creating meaning out of media
texts, and the socio-discursive possibilities and constraints that shape the ways
in which these could be done. 24 However, the heavily theoretically-centred
analyses led scholars in the 1980s, such as Phil Cohen, to lament them as
simply the site of a multiplicity of conflicting discourses[with] no reality
outside its representation.25 Such discontent led later scholars to look towards
ethnographic methods of conducting empirically-based research on audiences
relationship with media texts.
Particularly, Simon Frith asks, how is it that peoplecan say, quite
confidently, that some popular music is better than others?26 Examining such
value judgements as expressions of individual choices and preferences (even if
24

Kagimoto Y, diensuron Saik: Oto wo Fureru Keiken Kara [Rethinking Audience

Theory: From the Experience of Encountering Music], Soshioroji [Sociology], Vol.48 No.3,
(2004), pp.5-6. See also Stuart Hall, Encoding/Decoding, Simon During (ed.), The Cultural
Studies Reader (Second Edition), (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), pp.507-17; John
Fiske, Reading the Popular,(London and New York: Routledge, 1991); David Morley,
Television, Audiences and Cultural Studies, (London: Routledge, 1992); Nicholas
Abercrombie and Brian Longhurst, Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and
Imagination, (London: Sage, 1998).
25
Phil Cohen, Rethinking the Youth Question, (London: Post 16 Education Centre, Institute of
Education, 1986), p.20. Cited in Andy Bennett, Researching youth culture and popular
music, British Journal of Sociology, Vol.53 No.3, (2002), p.455. Brackets in Bennett (2002).
26
Simon Frith, Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music, Simon Frith (ed.), Popular Music:
Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies: Volume IV: Music and Identity, (London
and New York: Routledge, 2004), p.42.

10

they may be socially shaped), Frith views taste as a marker of difference.

Explaining preferences and tastes, he notes:

Personal preferences are themselves socially constructed.

Individual tastes are, in fact, examples of collective taste and
reflect consumers gender, class and ethnic backgrounds...But I
do believe that this derivation of pop meaning from collective
experience is not sufficientwe still need to explain why some
music is better able than others to have such collective effects,
why these effects are different, anyway, for different genres,
different audiences, and different circumstances.27

Through taste, Frith is pointing at the highly nuanced, localised and

subjective ways in which music and cultural practice align in everyday
contexts.28 For Frith, the value of popular music is derived from how well
(or badly), for specific listeners, songs and performances fulfil (social)
functions. 29 These functions, performed via the experience of music as
something which can be possessed, are namely: the creation of both
individual and collective identity, managing the relationship between private
and public emotions, and shaping popular memory by acting as a marker in the
organisation of time through remembrance.30
Thus, Frith locates musical meaning away from the musical text itself,
and within musics social functions and the settings in which it is consumed.
27

Frith, Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music, p.46.

Andy Bennett, Towards a cultural sociology of popular music, Journal of Sociology,
Vol.44 No.4, (2008), p.429.
29
Frith, Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music, p.42. Brackets mine.
30
Ibid., pp.38-41.
28

11

Musicologist Christopher Small, in describing the act of musicking, further

discusses the sociality of music:

The act of musicking establishes in the place where it is

happening a set of relationships, and it is in those relationships
that the meaning of the act lies. They are to be found not only
between those organised sounds which are conventionally
thought of as being the stuff of musical meaning but also
between the people who are taking part, in whatever capacity,
in the performance; and they model, or stand as metaphor for,
ideal relationships as the participants in the performance
imagine them to be: relationships between person and person,
between individual and society, between humanity and the
natural world and even perhaps the supernatural world.31

In other words, musicking defines music and its meaning as being

derived socially, as it describes how musical meanings are made through
audiences interaction with musical texts, and with each other through musical
texts. Such a view of musics sociality thus also questions how it is utilised in
allowing people to make associations with each other, putting the concept of
community into relevance. Community, as noted by Jernej Prodnik, is a
notoriously difficult concept to define. 32 However, I draw attention to his
objection of a clear dichotomy between real communities based on
31

Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening, (Middletown,

Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1998), p.13.
32
Jernej Prodnik, Post-Fordist Communities and Cyberspace : A Critical Approach , Harris
Breslow and Aris Mousoutzanis (eds.), Cybercultures: Mediations of Community, Culture,
Politics, (Amsterdam, New York: Rodolpi: 2012), p.77.

12

relationships structured in the material world, and virtual communities based

on interactions mediated by cyberspace.33
Prodnik

cites

Benedict

Andersons

argument

that

since

all

communities are imagined, they should not be distinguished in terms of

authenticity, but rather in the style in which they are imagined. 34 This means
that rather than dismissing associations built upon Internet communication as
not being communal, such forms of interaction should be seen as one of
many other avenues through which community ties can be built and
sustained.35 Andersons argument also supports the relevance of community as
a concept to study human associations of not just the place-based, groupfocused and emotionally intimate Gemeinschaft type, but also of the more
interest-based, self-centred and emotionally distant Gesellschaft type.36
Jose van Dijck, studying anime and heavy metal fans on YouTube who
share their cultural preferences with other anonymous users, combines the
concepts of taste and interest-based community into the term taste community
to denote groups with a communal preference in music, movies and books.37
He draws this definition from Antoine Hennions discussion on the importance

33

Ibid., pp.77-78.
Ibid., pp.78-79. See also Benedict R.OG. Anderson, Imagined Communities, (London:
Verso, 1991), p.6.
35
This discussion is important, given the importance of the Internet as a medium through
which the Internet karaoke clubs I investigated as part of my field research congregated (see
next section and Chapters Three and Four).
36
For the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft analytical dichotomy, see Ferdinand Tnnies,
Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft [Community and Society], (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 2005), (reprinted from Leipzig: Fues's Verlag, 2nd ed. 1912; 8th edition,
Leipzig: Buske, 1935). For discussions on communities of place, see Jerry W. Robinson, Jr.
and Gary Paul Green, Developing Communities, Jerry W. Robinson and Gary Paul Green
(eds.), Introduction to Community Development: Theory, Practice and Service-Learning, (Los
Angeles, CA, London, Delhi, Singapore: SAGE Publications, 2010), p.2. For discussions on
communities of interest, see France Henri and Batrice Pudelko, Understanding and
analyzing activity and learning in virtual communities, Journal of Computer Assisted
Learning, Vol.19, (2003), p.478.
37
Jose van Dijck, Users like you? Theorizing agency in user-generated content, Media
Culture Society, Vol.31 No.1, (2009), p.46.
34

13

of taste-building in community life and communal participation to build

taste.38 This discussion brings us back to Frith, Bourdieu, Lamont and Small,
who suggest the sociality of cultural products such as music through their
various arguments. Thus, the study of musical taste should be grounded in
investigations into communal settings of consumption, in which musical and
communal meanings are negotiated by participants. It is within such a
framework of the taste community, focusing on communal taste-building,
that I approach the study of enka consumption by fans and non-fans in Chapter
Four.
Such approaches have already been suggested by scholars working on
popular music in Japan. For example, Minamida Katsuya, Tsuji Izumi and
Tya Mamoru champion approaches that pay attention not only to theoretical
interpretations of song texts. 39 Of particular importance is Kagimoto Ys
suggestion that a focus on the actual experience of audiences interaction with
music is important in analysing how music gains meaning.40
Crucially, scholars researching on enka, such as Christine Yano,
Wajima Ysuke, Mitsui Toru, Mitsutomi Toshir and others, recognise that
the genre is essentially a form of popular music: songs are circulated and
consumed through mass media such as the CD, cassette tape, television, radio
and karaoke. This recognition provides justification for a sociological and
ethnographic investigation of enka consumption driven by the latest

38

Antoine Hennion, Those Things That Hold Us Together: Taste and Sociology, Martha
Poon (trans.), Cultural Sociology, Vol.1 No.1, (2007), p.103, 111-2.
39
Minamida Katsuya and Tsuji Izumi (eds.), Bunka Shakaigaku no Shiza: Nomerikomu Media
to Soko ni Aru Nichij no Bunka [Viewpoints on the Sociology of Culture: The AllEncompassing Media and The Everyday Culture Within It], (Tokyo, Japan: Minerva Shobo,
2008); Tya Mamoru (ed.), Kakusan Suru Ongaku Bunka wa Dou Toraeru ka? [How Do We
Study the Expanding Music Culture?], (Tokyo, Japan: Keis Shobo, 2008). pp. i-ii.
40
Kagimoto, diensuron Saik, pp.3-18.

14

theoretical concerns in popular music research. This thesis thus focuses on

investigating activities of musicking and communal taste building through
karaoke. Particularly, I ask the following questions: Who are these enka fans?
How did they come to develop their taste for enka? How do they identify with
each other through enka? On what terms do they make connections with and
generate meaning for enka? How are ideas of tradition and Japaneseness
expressed, negotiated, rejected and/or reaffirmed in their consumption
behaviour? Are these mechanisms specific only to enka and its fans? These
questions will allow us to better understand the cultural position that enka
occupies in contemporary Japanese music, and how enka fans and non-fans
create and sustain musical tastes through communal consumption.

Karaoke ethnography: Transgressions of the ethnographer

To investigate actual practices of musicking and communal taste
building for both enka fans and non-fans, I conducted participant-observation
studies of behaviour surrounding musical preferences in various karaoke
settings from March to July 2013, although my initial interactions with one of
the communities stretched back to 2010. Karaoke provided a logical fieldsite,
because firstly karaoke participation performs a major role in enka
consumption, with many songs being released with karaoke versions,
marketed as easy to sing [utaiyasui] and urging listeners to try singing the
songs at karaoke [chsen shite mitekudasai]. Furthermore, as a
predominantly social activity (although there is a recent phenomenon of
hitori-karaoke [karaoke alone]), it allows music fans to partake in musical
consumption and amateur performance within a communal setting. In fact,

15

entire books on rules of karaoke conduct, listing out taboos such as

monopolising the microphone and selecting the wrong songs, among others,
highlight the communal nature of karaoke participation by discussing
socialisation processes, such as regulation of behaviour, that occur during
karaoke.41
Other methodological and epistemological concerns directed the
selection of specific karaoke settings as my research fieldsites. During the
course of the ethnographic research, I participated in and observed the
activities of three karaoke settings: SC, a karaoke kissa situated in Asaka City
on the north-western outskirts of Tokyo, and two Internet karaoke clubs, Kclub and NSK, which organised monthly gatherings in cramped rooms inside
karaoke box establishments near Kawasaki Station just south of Tokyo. 42 The
choice of a karaoke kissa was influenced by popular accounts from the Enka
Renaissance Association and Tsuzuki Kyichi, who point out the integral roles
of karaoke kissas as a venue where enka fans gather to enjoy and perform their
favourite music.43 In contrast to the kissa is the karaoke box, which attracts a
largely non-enka demographic.44 NSK and K-club provided box settings which

41

See Maruyama Keizaburo, Hito wa Naze Utaunoka [Why Do Humans Sing?], (Tokyo:
Asuka-shinsha, 1991); Miyake Mitsuei, Karaoke Kokoroe Ch: Karaoke Enka Bunkaron
[Lessons from Karaoke: Karaoke and Enka Culturalism], (Tokyo: Hakushoin, 2004); Ueno
Naoki, Karaoke wo Motto-motto Umaku Miseru Hon [Book for Singing Karaoke Much
Better], (Tokyo: KK Longsellers, 1993).
42
A kissa can roughly be translated as caf, although kissas are typically older
establishments located away from trendy neighbourhoods serving an older clientele. Kissas
may also provide other kinds of services besides food and drinks, such as communal karaoke
or manga. Boxes are establishments that contain many smaller rooms in which customers can
participate in karaoke in more private and intimate spaces. See Chapter Three for an in-depth
comparison between these two kinds of establishments.
43
Enka Runesansu no Kai [Enka Renaissance Association] (ed.), Enka wa Fumetsu da [Enka
Will Not Perish], (Tokyo: Sony Magazines Shinsho, 2008), pp.126-9, Tsuzuki Kyichi, Enka
yo Konya mo Arigatou: Shirarezaru Indzu Enka no Sekai [Thank You For Tonight Again,
Enka: The Unknown World of Indies Enka], (Tokyo, Japan: Heibonsha, 2011).
44
Mitsui Toru, The Genesis of Karaoke, Mitsui Toru and Hosokawa Shuhei (eds.), Karaoke
Around the World: Global Technology, Local Singing, (London and New York: Routledge,
1998), p.39. The All Japan Association of Karaoke Entrepeneurs survey conducted in 1995

16

particularly played up the role of musicking in communal participation,

rather than non-music-related forms of socialisation, because membership was
predicated upon the appreciation of songs from the Showa period for the
former and karaoke in general for the latter. Thus, these settings would
provide fertile ground for analysis of musicking behaviour. Chapter Three
provides a more in-depth explanation of the three settings, particularly key
members in the research, and the segregation of karaoke consumers and
musical tastes between kissas and boxes.
In these settings, I participated and observed other participants
behaviour in communal karaoke. I noted their song preferences to identify
which songs were most popular in each setting, particularly focusing on the
year in which songs were released and the singers most represented. I also
paid attention to the conversations and behaviour that we would engage in
between songs. I then conducted individual interviews, where I asked about
karaoke participants musical preferences. The questions included the
following: What are your favourite songs and singers? How did you come to
like them? What kind of frame of mind, or emotions, do you have when you
listen to these songs and singers? What do you think is their appeal? What
kind of personal meaning do the songs and singers take on for you? Finally, I
also asked if they liked enka, and what they thought about enkas claim to
represent an essentialist Japanese identity through tradition. Although the
sample size of participants (around forty) was small, limiting the

showed that young consumers (university and high school students, and young adults)
consisted over 70% of karaoke boxes clientele, while working-age and elderly men consisted
86% of karaoke snacks customers. Zenkoku Karaoke Jigyosha Kyokai [All Japan Association
of Karaoke Entrepreneurs], Karaoke Hakusho [White Paper on Karaoke], (Tokyo: Zenkoku
Karaoke Jigyosha Kyokai, 1996). Cited in Oku Shinobu, Karaoke and Middle-aged and Older
Women, Mitsui and Hosokawa (eds.), Karaoke Around the World, pp.54-55.

17

representativeness of the research in providing an overall picture of the

Japanese music audience, nevertheless my comparative approach presented an
important shift away from existing enka research, which has thus far focused
on production practices (and in rare cases, consumption) solely within the
genre.
Contemporary researchers are confronted with methodological,
epistemological and ontological issues about the ethnographic research and
writing process. Critical ethnographers such as James Clifford, George Marcus
and Michael Fischer have questioned the intellectual and relationship contexts
in which ethnographic research is conducted and written up.45 Jennifer Mason
convincingly argues that ethnographers need to acknowledge that their
knowledge is generated only via their participation in and embodiment of the
behaviours and processes being studied.46 Within my research, I found that my
very presence within the karaoke settings generated certain reactions and
modes of thinking unavailable to other researchers. 47 I characterise my
experiences within these settings as a series of culturally and generationallyframed transgressions, as my biographical, cultural and academic background
always contrasted in some way with those of other karaoke participants. These
transgressions proved methodologically important in highlighting musical and
cultural identities and meanings held by both enka and non-enka fans.

45

See James Clifford and George E. Marcus, Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of
Ethnography, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986); George E. Marcus and
Michael Fischer, Anthropology as Cultural Critique, (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago
Press, 1986).
46
Jennifer Mason, Qualitative Researching (Second Edition), (London: Sage Publications,
2002), pp.87-90.
47
I hesitate to use the terms native or insider in comparing myself with other researchers,
particularly Japanese, because of the multiple loci through which ethnographers are identified
according to the research setting. See Kirin Narayan, How Native is a Native
Anthropologist?, American Anthropologist, Vol.95, (1993), pp.671-86 for a concise
argument about the problems of ethnographer identity in the fieldsite.

18

Transgression, as Chris Jenks defines, is to go beyond the bounds or

limits set by a commandment or law or convention, it is to violate or
infringe. 48 However, transgressions are manifestly situation-specific and
vary considerable across social space and through time, despite appeals to
their universality. 49 Instead, drawing upon ideas of social constructionism,
Jenks proposes the importance of the context of the acts reception in
understanding instances of transgression.50 For this research, I draw attention
to disconnects in my age, nationality, upbringing and education from the
karaoke participants with whom I interacted. I am a young academic
researcher born in 1986, and have been brought up in Singapore for the vast
majority of my life. I did not try to hide my cultural and academic background,
although I also did not reveal them when first meeting other karaoke
participants. Once revealed, however, my cultural and academic background
began to also factor into how other participants viewed my karaoke
performances and social interactions within the settings.
In fact, when karaoke participants analysed and talked about my
karaoke performances and involvement in their social relationships against
these biographical, cultural and academic characteristics, truly insightful
observations about their views on enka and musical tradition were borne. This
was possible because of the effects of transgressive behaviour that Jenks
describes:

But to transgress is also more than this (a violation), it is to

announce and even laudate the commandment, the law or the
48

Chris Jenks, Transgression, (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), p.2.
Ibid., pp.2-3.
50
Ibid., p.8.
49

19

convention. Transgression is a deeply reflexive act of denial

and affirmation. Analytically, then, transgression serves as an
extremely sensitive vector in assessing the scope, direction and
compass of any social theory51

Here, Jenks suggests the possible uses of transgression as a

methodological tool in understanding social behaviour and settings. As such, I
decided against conforming to the norms of being a young foreign academic
researcher. Instead, I found that a more fruitful approach towards
understanding karaoke participants musical understandings was to enact, in
various ways, performances that they did not expect from young foreign
researchers, using my limited but still substantial knowledge of local
behaviour and various Japanese popular music genres including enka.
Although such performances might have affirmed, as Jenks suggests,
commonly-held conceptions of musical tradition, they also allowed me to
create stronger rapport with karaoke participants, through the creation of a
sense of surprise, in order to facilitate in-depth critical discussions about these
commonly-held conceptions later on. These transgressive performances
also created a sort of spectacle, not unlike Jeros enka performances, which
provided opportunities for reflections on prior assumptions of musical
meaning.

51

Ibid., p.2. Brackets mine.

20

Towards a new framework for understanding enka

The following chapters present my exploration of enka from the
audience- and taste-based theoretical framework described thus far. In Chapter
One, I introduce enkas stylistic forms, showing how these have been
described as links to a pre-modern musical tradition and an authentic
Japanese identity. I then analyse Jeros enka career, as an example of how a
particular kind of performer has destabilised culturally essentialist
understandings of the genre. Audience reactions towards his enka
performances also highlight the need for alternative theoretical frameworks,
based on taste, to explain audiences connection to enka.
In Chapter Two, I provide a socio-historical look at the development of
musical taste for enka, and argue that such musical taste is held only by a
specific segment of the Japanese music audience. I first show how
contemporary enka is a relatively recent construct borne out of struggles
among Japanese music producers and intellectuals of the 1960s, and became
attached to notions of Japanese tradition.52 I then describe the development
of nostalgic longings among older segments of the Japanese population for a
furusato [hometown] positing the rural locale of the past as an ideal vision of
Japan during the 1960s and 1970s, and their gravitation towards enkas
themes of rural longing. Effectively, a division in musical tastes within the
Japanese music audience developed around this time.
In Chapters Three and Four, I highlight karaoke as a social music
consumption setting to understand how communal musicking activities have
highlighted and entrenched such segmentation of musical tastes not only in
52

This is an important topic in understanding enkas development as a music genre worthy of

in-depth research on its own, but ultimately outside of the audience-centred focus of this
thesis.

21

terms of age, but also education, locale and family income. I first describe
karaokes historical development in Chapter Three, as an example of how the
divide in musical tastes and audiences has persisted through a communal
musicking activity. I also introduce the three karaoke settings, SC, K-club
and NSK, and key participants in the research, to show the social and musical
segregation between them. Chapter Four then analyses the musicking
activities occurring within each setting. I argue that the communal tastebuilding and musicking behaviour of karaoke participants, particularly with
regards to enka, continue to highlight and entrench social differences based on
age, locale, family income and education. I first explore the different ways in
which I transgressed in my participation in each setting, to tease out the
generational and culturally essentialist terms in which both fans and non-fans
explained their views towards enka. I also show how non-fans used culturally
essentialist frameworks to also discuss other Japanese popular music genres.
Finally, I make a contrast between how enka fans and non-fans create musical
and communal identities and relationships through musicking and tastebuilding activities surrounding genre, in a manner that produces further
segregation. These participant observations are supplemented with anecdotal
data from interviews, and I read their behaviour and anecdotes against their
social life-histories and socio-musical experiences.
I conclude by pointing out the inability of existing enka research to
provide an accurate picture of the peripheral position the genre and its fans
occupy within the Japanese popular music industry, and highlight how my
sociologically- and ethnographically-based methodologies show that Japanese
music listeners have developed differing opinions and attitudes towards the

22

genre. By pointing out the specific socio-historical origins of both the genre
and its fandom, and also the diverse ways in which karaoke participants in
different settings approached the use of enka in their gatherings, I argue that
enka performs the more socially divisive role of marking off a certain fan
demographic, within a heavily segmented Japanese music audience that
conceptualises Japan in various ways.

23

Chapter One
Enka, a National Musical Tradition?

In this chapter, I destabilise culturally essentialist assumptions that

enka unquestionably represents an essential Japanese traditional identity. I first
introduce how both Japanese and Euro-American academic discourses have
coupled the genre to notions of Japanese tradition, in terms of its formal styles
and content. However, I show that culturally essentialist narratives are unable
to fully explain the fluidity and dynamism of musical performance and
consumption. This is done by highlighting how audiences have viewed the
racially- and culturally-defined spectacle of Jeros enka performances in noncultural terms of musical appreciation. Audience reception towards Jeros
performances suggests that an alternative framework for understanding enka
consumption and audiences, based on taste, is needed.

Enkas traditional features

In describing the musical content and form generally found in enka
songs and performances, Christine Yano explains kata as a recognisable code
of the performance action. 53 She defines kata as stylised formulas and
patterned forms, and suggests that the concept reflects the deeply embedded
structural approach to production, performance and consumption in the
genre.54 In other words, enka relates compositional and performance motifs to
certain ideals and values deemed traditional, through katas highly structured
and explicit semiotic code. This approach to the analysis of enka songs is also
53
54

Yano, Tears of Longing, p.25.

Ibid., pp.24-25.

24

prominently utilised by publications such as Okada Makis Musical

Characteristics of Enka and Koizumi Fumios Kaykyoku no Kz
[Structure of Kaykyoku], which operate on the assumption that the
authenticity of such songs as a representation of tradition rests on its
faithfulness to kata. 55
Yano discusses an exhaustive list of ideas and images cued by
specific kata. They work to aestheticise and glorify nostalgia for a Japan
situated in an idealised rural past. In textual/lyrical kata, this Japan is most
succinctly referenced in the word furusato. 56 In enka, furusato does not
necessarily mean a physical location (although Mizumori Kaori (1973- ),
dubbed the queen of locale songs, has had a lucrative career singing many
songs that reference actual places and sceneries), but rather a setting in which
an idealised traditional Japan can be visualised through a process of
nostalgia and longing.57 Lyrical kata serve as signifiers of the people (such as
mothers, stoic men and jilted lovers) inhabiting the pristine, rural furusato
setting full of natural goodness, and the intimate and emotionally intense
interpersonal relationships that bind traditional Japanese together. Even the
lyrical structure, which is highly influenced by the pre-modern Japanese poetic
form of waka, provides a sense of tradition.58
Ideas of tradition are also expressed through performative kata. Firstly,
vocal techniques, drawn from pre-modern Japanese forms such as jruri,
55

See Koizumi, Kaykyoku no Kz, pp.148-81; Okada Maki, Musical Characteristics of

Enka, Gerald Groemer (trans.), Popular Music, Vol.10 No.3, pp.283-303.
56
Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.148-79.
57
Jennifer Robertson, The Culture and Politics of Nostalgia: Furusato Japan, International
Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol.1 No.4, (1988), pp. 494-518; Marilyn Ivy,
Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan, (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1995), p.104. I discuss the furusato concept in greater detail, when detailing the social
upheaval of 1960s and 1970s Japan in Chapter Two.
58
Yano, Tears of Longing, p.92, 103.

25

miny and naniwa-bushi, signify gendered expressions of melancholy,

stoicism, grief or pain.59 The most prominent technique is the kobushi, a vocal
ornamentation described by Okada as a melismatic kind of singing. 60
Yoshikawa Seiichi argues for the sensuality that is experienced in utilising
kobushi, and proclaims it as the life-blood of enka. 61 Several fans that I
spoke to during fieldwork echoed such views about kobushi. Also, embodied
kata provide visual indicators of emotion and gender ideals. Yano provides a
list comparing the fashion styles (encompassing both traditional Japanese and
Western dress), poses and stage movement of female and male enka singers
during performances, to show how the genre clearly differentiates between
otoko-michi and onna-gokoro [the path of a man and the feelings of a
woman].62
Compositional kata, meanwhile, play an important role in generating
feelings of nostalgia by aurally signifying ideas of the past through
instrumentation. This is most prominently done through the use of yonanuki
scales, particularly the minor.63 These scales share many characteristics with
traditional music, but were actually developed in the Meiji period as music
practitioners and educators sought to fit Japanese musical modes into their
newly acquired knowledge of Western musical theory.64 Also, the imitation of
sounds produced by traditional instruments, such as the shakuhachi and
shamisen, in song arrangements work to create a faux traditional feel to the
music.
59

Ibid., pp.109-14; Koizumi, Kaykyoku no Kz, pp.172-80.

Okada, Musical Characteristics of Enka, p.288.
61
Yoshikawa Seiichi, Kanashimi wa Nihonjin: Enka Minzokuron [Grief is Japanese: Enka
Ethnology], (Tokyo, Ongaku no Tomo Sha: 1992), pp.35-37.
62
Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.114-22.
63
Okada, Musical Characteristics of Enka, pp.284-6.
64
Ibid., pp.285-6.
60

26

Even production and consumption practices are portrayed as markers

of tradition and marginality, as Yano describes. 65 Firstly, she notes the
strict apprenticeship system and senior-junior [senpai-khai] hierarchy
practiced in enka, with budding singers undergoing extensive and gruelling
training periods as live-in disciples. Also, many songs are still released on
cassette tapes, matching enkas older fan demographic and their reliance on
older technology. Performers also exhibit their hard effort by travelling
extensively across Japan to perform at small-scale venues that allow for close
personal interaction with fans (a practice that has precedents in pre-modern
itinerant performers).66
In terms of consumption as a marker of marginalised tradition, Yano
notes that enka sales occupy a miniscule portion of the Japanese music market
(less than one percent in 1998). 67 Also, enka sales patterns provide a stark
difference to the instant consumption and disposal dominating the Japanese
musical scene today: typically rising through the charts slowly and gradually,
songs usually take months or even years to achieve hit status. Together, these
production and consumption traits are valorised as expressions of
perseverance, hard work and a Japanese spirit, as seen in a music industry
journal article which describes enka as being like a marathon, just as Japan is
a marathon country that emphasises spirit and effort.68

65

Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.45-76.

Ibid., p.74.
67
Oricon, Inc., Orikon Nenkan 1998 Nenban [1998 Oricon Yearbook], (Tokyo: Orijinaru
Konfidensu, 1998).
68
Anonymous, en shitakunaru kashu no jken to wa? [What Makes a Singer Incite Your
Support?], Konfidensu, Vol.26, (1992), pp.21-37.
66

27

Enka is thus a nostalgia built on what Yano calls a memory of pain

aestheticised into something desirable. 69 By coupling marginalised rural
experiences with images of the past, enkas nostalgia presents a kind of
internal exotic that preserves temporal, spatial and cognitive distance from
modern urban Japanese lifestyles, while preserving a longing to return to
such an essentialised traditional Japan. 70 Enkas aesthetic appeal is thus
explained as a structured representation of an essential traditional Japanese
musical identity, compared to rock, pop and other genres seen as more
modern and Western-derived. Indeed, Yano cites an explanation often utilised
by enka fans in explaining its lack of popularity in younger audiences: those
Japanese who do not like enka are either insufficiently experienced,
particularly in lifes hardships and sorrow, or not true to their innate
Japaneseness.71
But paradoxically, Yano also concedes that a culture-based approach
towards enka understanding, through the primacy of structured forms dictated
by kata, cannot totally explain how certain enka singers are better received
than others. Instead, she suggests that kosei [individual character], which she
uses to explain individuality and originality in performances, is what makes a
star a star. 72 Successful singers break out little by little, showcase their
mastery over kata, and convey the impression that no one can sing quite like
them: their kata is not only distinctive, it is elusive. 73 Yanos explanation

69

Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.14-5; David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p.8.
70
Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.15-6. Cf. Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing.
71
Christine R. Yano, The Marketing of Tears: Consuming emotions in Japanese popular
song, Timothy J. Craig (ed.), Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, (New
York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000), p.61.
72
Yano, Tears of Longing, p.123.
73
Ibid. Emphasis in original.

28

implies that despite the primacy of kata as structure in understanding enka

thus far, the genre cannot be seen as a totally static genre determined by form.
In fact, while her explanation of kosei has been conducted in terms of the
production and performance of enka thus far, I suggest, through the previous
discussion in the Introduction (pages 8 to 15) on sociological approaches to
studying music consumption, that there is no reason why audiences should be
excluded from any kind of agency in their consumption of the music. For the
rest of this chapter, I will analyse Jeros career developments, and how
audiences have viewed them, to show the need for a non-culture-based
understanding of the genre.

Jeros enka career

Jeros early media appearances provide vivid examples of the raciallyand culturally-bounded discourse in which his performances are situated. For
example, in an appearance on Nippon Hs Kykai [Japan Broadcasting
Corporation, abbreviated as NHK] programming in 2008 to perform Misora
Hibaris (1937-1989) 1950 hit Echigojishi no Uta [Echigo Lion-Dancer
Song], Jeros first sentence in his explanation to the hosts quizzing of his
connections to the song My grandmother was Japanese, so provides the
greatest hint about the framework through which he negotiates enkas musical
meanings.74 To hammer home the point, a photo of Takiko embracing a young
Jero is superimposed on the screen not only during the chat, but also the actual
song rendition. A year later, in a television appearance to promote his third
single Tsumeato [Nail Marks], he again cites his grandmother as his main
74

shenyuetao, Jero Echigojishi no Uta [Jero: The Echigo Lion-Dancer Song], Youku,
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzI2NTY5MzY=.html, Accessed 22 November 2012.

29

influence in performing enka, while a family portrait including Takiko is set as

a prominent backdrop as he performs. 75 These attempts at legitimising his
performance of enka also act to discursively assert the Japaneseness of the
genre, as it is seemingly only through Takiko that he obtains the cultural
licence to perform.

Figure 1: Cover photo for Umiyuki (Courtesy of Victor Entertainment Co.

Ltd.)

Jero and his producers also crafted his initial visual image, which
provides the most visible reason for the interest surrounding his enka career,
within a culturally essentialist understanding of music genres. Indeed, Jeros
appearance in hip-hop fashion, with his baseball cap, baggy shirts and trousers,
large chains, sneakers, and occasional dance moves, panders to existing
Japanese musical stereotypes about African-American inspired hip-hop culture
(See Figure 1).76

75

gbc025026, Jero: Tku & Tsumeato [Jero: Talk & Nail Marks]
Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtXJfimG1fk, Accessed 22 November 2012.
76
See John Russell, Race and Reflexivity: The Black Other in Contemporary Japanese Mass
Culture, Cultural Anthropology, Vol.6 No.1, (1991), pp.3-25; Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan:
Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalisation, (Durham and London: Duke University Press,
2006), p.25.

30

Describing his thoughts on performing enka in hip-hop fashion in a

2008 interview, Jero expressed some reservations about such a fashion choice,
but conceded that it would be even stranger for him to wear a kimono on
stage. 77 He also mentioned that this choice of fashion was the best way to
allow him to perform comfortably as himself. 78 His producer, Kawaguchi
Norihiro, suggested in Jeros 2011 biography that such ideas of himself and
normal were most probably based on a recognition of dominant cultural
discourses in Japanese society about African-Americans and Japanese.79
As such, Jeros early attempts to introduce his own kosei into the genre,
through his fresh and unique visual appeal, were overwhelmingly based on
a culturally-defined framework of enka as Japanese music. Through the
usage of visual markers of African-American hip-hop culture, including his
own dark skin, Jero transgressed into a soundscape deemed exclusively
Japanese, and created a culturally-defined spectacle through his performances.
These performances also had the effect of reaffirming the racial and cultural
categories and boundaries of fashion and music, by skilfully adhering to both
established performance kata and conventional notions of African-American
hip-hop fashion and culture, and calling into question for audiences the
(in)compatibility of both cultural styles.
Jero has released several more singles, and six cover and two original
albums, since Umiyuki. He and his producers have looked to expand on his
early artist image, while retaining some unique elements separating him from
other enka singers. Firstly, the development of a trademark Jero sound can
77

Shoshin Wasurezu, Kokky wa Wasurete Enka no Kokoro wo Utaitsuzuketai [Wanting to

Continue Singing Enkas Spirit, Without Forgetting Roots but Forgetting National
Boundaries], Fujin Kron, Vol.93 No.11, (22 May 2008), p.153.
78
Kosakai, Enka wa Kokky wo Koeta, p.64.
79
Ibid.

31

be observed in his releases since 2009, starting from Yancha Michi [The
Way of the Brat]. Jeros later single releases have exhibited increasingly
modern sounds and arrangement styles. For example, Serenade, released in
February 2013, has little trace of enkas trademark motifs. Instead, the song
features a highly stripped down arrangement style focusing on the sorrowful
lead piano melody backed by a mellow bass-line and dramatic guitar solos.
This musical direction is a significant departure from Umiyuki, which
showcased considerable allusions towards instantly recognisable traditional
Japanese musical motifs, such as the shakuhachi flourish at the beginning of
the song and rapid ascents and descents along the pentatonic scale.
Even his cover releases offer such departures from the stereotypical
enka sound. His version of the 1970s hit Hisame [Sleet], for example,
prominently features an electric guitar riff backed by a strings section. Also,
songs usually associated with more urban and modern genres, such as the
1970s new music hit Katte ni Shiyagare [However You Want It] and the
popular 1980s rock ballad Wine Red no Kokoro [Wine-red Heart], are
included in his cover albums. While Jero still employs certain performative
kata, especially melismatic vocal ornamentations like kobushi and yuri (a slow
and broad vibrato), numerous collaborations with performers and composers
from other popular music genres, including Hitoto Y, Nakamura Ataru,
Tamaki Kji and Marty Friedman, have allowed him to develop a distinctly
more urban and modern sound.

32

Figure 2: Cover photos for Yakusoku (top left), Serenade (top right) and
Covers 6 (bottom) (Courtesy of Victor Entertainment Co. Ltd.)
Jeros visual imagery has also undergone significant, although gradual
change, as he started to appear more frequently in suits from the release of
Yakusoku [Promise] in 2009. The preference towards a full suit is evident
today. In the Covers 6 album released in July 2013, Jero stands in a side
profile with a wistful and faraway look, decked in a black blazer jacket and
pants matched with white shirt and grey necktie. He has his left hand in his
pocket, while his right hand grabs his jacket. In Serenade released in
February 2013, he is dressed in a black woollen winter jacket, while adorning
a colourful silk scarf (See Figure 2).
While these moves can be read as a shift towards more orthodox enka
fashion, Jero still adorns a number of trademark accessories. Firstly, he is still

33

never seen without headgear, with a do-rag topped off by a cap, or more
frequently in recent years a fedora hat. Jero also wears ear studs and a big
chain around his neck, reminiscent of the bling worn by African-American
hip-hop artists, in his appearances. He finishes off his suit with hip-hop
sneakers, rather than formal shoes. As such, while Jeros changes in fashion
style towards enka orthodoxy presents a seeming contradiction to his musical
departure from stereotypical enka, he still maintains his unique visual appeal
as a singer with African-American heritage, and as a cool, chic and
modern enka performer.
Jero has also played up his African-American heritage in live concerts
and appearances, by performing Euro-American music, particularly soul. At
his special live event held in Yokohama in late June 2013, for example, Jero
started off with a rendition of the 1970 soul classic, The Spinners Its a
Shame, followed by Bobby Caldwells What You Wont Do for Love. He
also performed Michael Jacksons Human Nature later in the 75-minute
show. These songs appeared in the set-list with numbers from enka and 1980s
and 1990s pop-rock ballads, creating a prominent juxtaposition between
Japanese and African-American. Jero also self-deprecatingly referred to his
bilingualism when talking about the set-list by commenting, Well now that
Im done with a couple of songs in English which Im poor at, lets move on
to some songs in Japanese which Im also poor at. Thus, Jero has not
completely discarded the kind of culturally essentialist juxtaposition that
earlier media appearances and promotional material highlighted. His linguistic,
ethnic and cultural backgrounds are still valuable tools through which he (and

34

his producers) expresses his kosei, and differentiates himself from other enka
singers.
Jeros stated aim in pursuing this image and sound is to encourage
more listeners, particularly younger ones, to develop a liking for enka.80 In his
biography, he recounts his disappointment as a teenager in how young
Japanese turned away from what he considered an expression of the wonderful
ideals of Japan by dismissing it as old-fashioned. Jero thus seeks to
experiment with various sounds and fashion styles in his enka performances as
a professional singer, in order to entice new (and younger) fans to the genre.81
Jeros experimentations may also be read as a way to overcome
problems of declining popularity, as his releases after Umiyuki experienced
increasingly slow sales, failing to capitalise on its success. 82 But these
experiments in Jeros sound and fashion apparently have not worked to rebuild
his initial stardom, nor entice more fans to his music. His releases from 2010
onwards generally peak in the lower regions of Oricons top 200 charts. 83 Jero
has also missed out on NHKs Khaku since 2010, a widely-held marker of
general popularity, with some media reports dismissing him as a one-hit
wonder.84

80

See for example Kashu Jero-san: Nengan no Enka Kashu toshite Karei ni Bureiku Ch
[Singer Jero: Having a Big Break as the Enka Singer He Always Wanted to Be], Nikkei
man, (August 2008), p.96; and Monthly Pick Up!: Jero, Gekkan Za Terebijon, (August
2008), p.40.
81
Kosakai, Enka wa Kokky wo Koeta, pp.32-33, pp.170-1.
82
Oricon, Inc., Jero no Shinguru Rankingu [Jeros Singles Ranking], (2013),
http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/445413/ranking/cd_single/; Oricon, Inc., Jero no Arubamu
Ranking
[Jeros
Album
Ranking],
(2013),
http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/445413/ranking/cd_album/, Accessed on 10 November
2013.
83
Ibid.
84
Enka Waku Dai Sakugen de Khaku ni Risutora no Fubuki!: Gakeppuchi ni Tatsu
Kobayashi Sachiko, Mikawa Kenichi, Hosokawa Takashi, Godai Natsuko [A Flurry of
Retrenchment as Enka Slots are Lessened: Kobayashi Sachiko, Mikawa Kenichi, Hosokawa
Takashi, Godai Natsuko on the Brink], Shkan Shinsh, (18 November 2010), p.35.

35

Evaluating Jeros enka performances

Most media appraisals of Jeros enka career have been conducted in
culturally-bound frames of comparison. Reports early on heavily portrayed
him as not only the first black enka singer [hatsu no kokujin enka kashu],
but also the black ship of enka [enka no kurofune].85 The use of the term
black ship is an allusion to his African-American heritage and skin colour,
and also the arrival of the gunships of Commodore Matthew Perry to Tokyo
Bay in 1853 which forcibly opened up the Tokugawa Shogunate to foreign
trade and cultural influences. Jeros presence in enka is thus portrayed largely
in the same vein as Perry, in opening up the genre to foreign elements.
Cross-cultural comparisons still abound in later reports. An article in
the womens weekly magazine Josei Jishin, dated 18 October 2011,
introduces his musical knowledge by quoting him (in bold) as follows: I
started listening to enka at a young age due to my Japanese grandmothers
influence, but I also got used to the sound of the jazz and R&B music from
older times. I like the rhythm. Its another point of musical origin for me.86
Another article in the January 2013 edition of Ch Kron shows that Jero
continues to frame his own career within such comparative terms, as he states
his connection to Echigojishi no Uta (discussed on pages 29 and 30) as
follows: my grandmother is Japanese, and moved to America after getting
married in the postwar period. She loved Misora Hibaris songs, and always
85

Jero, Mainichi Shimbun; Oricon, Inc., Enka no Kurofune; Teimei suru Enkakai ni Kita
Kurofune: Jero wa Kyi no Nihonts [The Black Ship That Came Into a Struggling Enka
Industry: Jero is Frighteningly Knowledgeable About Japan], Shkan Asahi, (7 March 2008),
p.134.
86
Jh HojjiPojji: Konsh no Shinkychi: Enkakai no Kurofune ga Myjikaru ni Chsen,
Butai ni Nozomu Sutamina Gen wa Gohan ni Natt! [Information Hodgepodge: This
Weeks Newly Explored Area: The Black Ship of Enka Tries Out Musicals, The Source of
His Stamina as He Prepares for the Stage is Rice and Natt!], Josei Jishin, (18 October
2011), p.123.

36

played them whenever I was visiting her place87 Thus, both articles posit
Jeros links to enka firmly through Takiko. It is via Takiko that Jero claims
links towards Japanese cultural knowledge, and obtains legitimacy as an enka
singer. In utilising such an explanation, the articles effectively portray enka as
unquestionably Japanese.
There have been articles that put issues of culture in the background,
such as in the enka-specific magazine Music Star (formerly known as Enka
Journal) dated August 2011, where both the author and Jero talk about the
attractions of his release, TadaNamida [ButTears], in terms of the
universality of emotion and musical characteristics.

88

While Music Star

tends to portray him like a run-of-the-mill young enka star, such portrayals of
Jero are a rarity, and occur only in such genre-specific publications that have
limited reach.
Much of the academic discourse on Jero has sought to understand his
enka career in similarly culturally essentialist understandings. For example,
Kiuchi Yuyas analysis of Jero as an alternative image of African-Americans,
by using Japanese culture as a means of self-expression, describes enka as
part of a monolithic Japanese cultural identity that is xenophobic and
isolationist, while positing Jero as a representative of the African-American
racial and ethnic identity. 89 Shelley Brunt argues that Jero provides a new
way of thinking about Japans place in the world, by examining his image in
relation to Japanese cultural identity.90 The coupling of enka with Japanese

87

Jero, Tokush: Showa no Uta: Echigojishi no Uta [Focus: Showa Songs: The Lion
Dancer Song], Ch Kron, (January 2013), p.148.
88
Junsuika: Jero TadaNamida[Song for the Season: Jero OnlyTears], Music Star,
(August 2011), pp.16-17.
89
Kiuchi, An Alternative African-American Image, pp.515-27.
90
Brunt, When Black Tears Fall, pp.58-67.

37

cultural identity based in traditional old Japan, and Jero as a young black
hip-hop/enka singer, is left unquestioned.

91

Christine Yanos ongoing

research on Jeros performance also displays such an analytical frame, as she

states: singing enka, then, symbolises far more than musical engagement, but
by extension includes performing Japan, if even in hip-hop clothing. In this,
Jero becomes an ironic bridge to the past.92
However, Neriko Doerr and Kumagai Yuris 2012 paper raises
questions about the dominant culturally-framed discursive mode in which
Jeros enka performances have been evaluated. They argue that such
evaluations, whether positive or negative, only serve to reinforce regimes of
cultural difference, as they have the following discursive effects: 93

The discourse (1) established their (the audiences) authority

as the authenticator or judge of Jeros Japaneseness, (2) ignored
the division between enka lovers and enka detractors in Japan
and presented enka as the representative of homogenised
Japanese culture, (3) contrasted his Japaneseness to his
African-Americanness, (4) marked the aberration of Jeros
subject position, and (5) domesticated Jeros suggestion of an
alternative way to be Japanese by making it a spectacle.94

91

Ibid., p.60.
Yano, Marketing Black Tears, p.11.
93
They refer to regime of difference as a system of categories in which an item is defined in
relation to the other item that it is contrasted to. Neriko M. Doerr and Kumagai Yuri,
Singing Japans heart and soul: A discourse on the black enka singer Jero and race politics in
Japan, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol.15 No.6, (2012), p.600. For further
discussion on regimes of difference, see Neriko M. Doerr, Meaningful Inconsistencies:
Bicultural Nationhood, Free Market, and Schooling in Aotearoa/New Zealand, (London:
Berghahn Books, 2009).
94
Ibid., p.610. By domestication, Doerr and Kumagai refer to how the marking of Jeros
performances as an exotic spectacle allows Japanese audiences to view him as trying to copy
92

38

Thus, they argue for a different discursive framework, in terms of taste,

style, etc., to evaluate Jeros performance of enka, in order to understand
better the kind of cultural positions that individuals like him occupy in the
Japanese popular music scene. In particular, Doerr and Kumagais second
point that culture-based understandings ignore the heterogeneity within the
Japanese music audience is crucially important in understanding how
audiences have reacted to Jeros performances. That Jero has failed to garner
greater prominence, even though a continued utilisation of racial- and
culturally-marked spectacle in terms of his physical features, fashion and
bilingualism, suggests that an alternative discursive framework, outside of
issues of national culture, is needed to understand the musical appeal, and
also decline in popularity, of both Jero and enka. 95
Strikingly, many enka fans I interacted with over the course of my
field research around Greater Tokyo were indifferent about, or even disliked,
Jero. 96 Conversely, Jero fans at the Yokohama live event talked about his
attractiveness in non-cultural terms, and confessed their indifference to enka
otherwise. For example:

I dont listen to enka much; only to his songsI like his voice.
It has a very unique flavour, which is hard to describeAnd I
think Jero also seems very smart? He also has his own
character [jibun wo motteiru], and is not afraid to go against
conventionsIt doesnt have anything to do with him being
Japanese, and reaffirm the superior characteristics of Japaneseness over the cultural Other
through such attempts at copying. Ibid., p.609.
95
Ibid., p.608.
96
I discuss my observations of these fans from page 80 in Chapter Four, when discussing the
musical preferences of regular patrons at the karaoke kissa SC.

39

African-American and coming to sing enka, but rather a very

individual kind of thing. Like how he doesnt go all out trying
to appease all his fans superficially. He is sincere, as a human
being [ningen toshite].97

I find his voice very soothing, and in fact I sometimes listen to

his songs whenever I cant sleepHe also seems to be a very
smart personI never liked enka before, as I preferred
kaykyoku songs, but I have come to appreciate it thanks to
Jero.98

These observations were based on personal value judgements of the

aesthetics of performance. That Jeros and enkas fandom cannot be simply
explained in terms of a culturally-bounded discursive frame, I argue, is the
most important contribution of understanding Jeros enka career within the
Japanese cultural landscape. Particularly, it questions how enka has come to
be loved by its fans. A sociological approach towards investigating taste
provides a more productive framework of understanding such attraction. With
this approach in mind, I first trace the socio-historical development of musical
taste for enka in Chapter Two, before studying actual musicking behaviour
in communal taste building and affirmation in karaoke settings in Chapters
Three and Four.

97

Kanako, Conversation, 29 June 2013.

Oba, Conversation, 29 June 2013. I provide a discussion of the differences and relationship
between kaykyoku and enka in Chapter Two, when describing the historical development of
the postwar Japanese recording industry.
98

40

Chapter Two
The Socio-Historical Development of Musical Taste for Enka

Sharing a concern with sociologically-informed scholars for the social

conditions and processes, or habitus, surrounding musical texts and audiences,
I argue in this chapter that musical taste for contemporary enka is only
enjoyed by a specific segment of the Japanese music audience. The genre is
highly rooted in specific musical and social discourses that arose out of
Japans period of high economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, rather than a
pre-modern/Meiji tradition as ethnomusicologists such as Okada Maki,
Koizumi Fumio and, to a lesser extent, Christine Yano have posited (discussed
in Chapter One).
I first outline the struggles within 1960s Japanese musical discourse
and production practices, explaining how contemporary enka as a musical
genre was developed by certain Japanese music producers and intellectuals.
These producers and intellectuals posited contemporary enka as a defence of
existing musical styles and production methods, against the supposed threat of
newly-introduced Western-derived styles and production.99 I also examine the
development of nostalgic sentiments, in reaction to problems of rural neglect,
urban overcrowding and environmental pollution and centred on a longing for
the idealised rural past in terms of the furusato, among some parts of the
Japanese population in the 1960s and 1970s. I then explain how such
audiences developed a musical taste for enka. Thus, I show how the genre was
99

The development of enka production processes is important in understanding the genres

place within the Japanese musical soundscape. However, the discussion in this thesis is kept to
an overview of the struggles between different producers, with more focus given to
discussions of audience-related developments in the 1960s and 1970s due to the audiencecentred nature of my research.

41

borne out of schisms that arose within communities of both musical producers
and consumers during the 1960s and 1970s.

Inventing a traditional popular genre

How did enka become coupled with an image of good old traditional
Japan? Scholars such as Yano, Michael Bourdaghs and Wajima Ysuke all
suggest a traceable historical process through which such a coupling
developed, even as they dispute enkas history and etymology.100 In particular,
they identify the 1960s as a defining moment, and the Japan-West cultural
dichotomy as the guiding conceptual force, that set into motion the creative
process leading to contemporary enka.
Musicologists and cultural historians have pointed out the existence of
an earlier form of politicised enka from the Meiji and Taisho period which
shared the same referential term, denoted by the kanji , as contemporary
enka. 101 While they have disputed the influence of its songs and itinerant
performers on the early Japanese recording industry, they agree that with the
de-politicisation and romanticisation of Meiji-Taisho enka, marked by the
homophone kanji , the use of the kanji was phased out until the late
1960s.102
Instead, scholars such as Wajima and Yano trace the origins of
contemporary enka to developments in Japans music recording industry,

100

It is important to note here that the Japanese language has a large number of homophones
that allow for different writings of the same sound. This allows for individuals to utilise
different characters to denote a single spoken word, which alters the meaning of the word. I
discuss the case of enka shortly.
101
Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.31-34; Wajima, Tsukurareta, pp.49-64.
102
Yano, Tears of Longing, p.41; Wajima, Tsukurareta, p.49; Soeda Tomomichi, Enka no
Meiji Taish Shi [The History of Enka in the Meiji and Taisho Periods], (Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1982), pp.163-4.

42

which can be traced back to the dawn of the Showa era in the 1920s when
Western (mainly American) record companies started to license Japanese
subsidiaries.103 Particularly important for the early recording industry was the
development of a system of in-house musical production by record companies,
with strict hierarchical relationships between producers, songwriters and
singers, and a highly devolved and compartmentalised song-writing process.104
The popular music created under this production system was labelled under
the umbrella term kaykyoku. 105 In-house production dominated Japanese
popular music well into the postwar period, as the American occupation
authorities did not demand a wholesale restructuring of the recording
industry.106 However, the emergence of the electric guitar and American folk
music posed a particularly strong challenge to the in-house production system
in the 1960s. These influences gave rise first to the Group Sounds (GS)
genre around 1966, a compromise between the new electric sound and existing
in-house song-writing processes, and a few years later to Japanese rock and
folk music, which embodied an individualistic and anti-establishment ideology
based on independent self-production.107
Such musical ideology and practice placed these later forms of music,
increasingly popular with youths, at odds with existing kaykyoku and its

103

Kurata Yoshihiro, Kindai Kay no Kiseki [The Development of Modern Popular Music],
(Tokyo: Yamagawa Shuppansha, 2002), pp.53-60; Mitsui Toru, Interactions of Imported and
Indigenous Musics in Japan: A Historical Overview of the Music Industry, Alison J. Ewbank
and Fouli T. Papageorgiou (eds.), Whos Masters Voice? The Development of Popular Music
in Thirteen Cultures, (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1997), pp.158-9;
Wajima, Tsukurareta, p.46; Yano, Tears of Longing, pp.41-42.
104
Wajima, Tsukurareta, pp.24-26.
105
Ibid., p.24.
106
Ibid., p.29.
107
Mitsui, Interactions, p.168; Michael K. Bourdaghs, Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon:
A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), pp.122-7,
137-55; Linda Fujie, Popular Music, Richard G. Powers and Kato Hidetoshi (eds.),
Handbook of Japanese Popular Culture, (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989), p.208.

43

musical production practices. 108 Wajima describes this opposition firstly in

terms of an organisational struggle between different factions of record music
producers in the 1960s and 1970s. 109 Japanese recording companies of the
period generally shared a similar organisational structure, dividing their
operations into separate labels in charge of the production of Japanese
kaykyoku [hgaku] and foreign popular music [ygaku].110 But GS products,
which were original material sung in Japanese, were not produced under the
kaykyoku production system of hgaku labels, but fully produced under
ygaku labels instead.111 This development had roots in the mutual antagonism
held by music producers on both sides towards each others methods and
products, as the younger GS and ygaku producers and performers dismissed
kaykyoku as being outdated and dull [furukusai], while producers of the
in-house kaykyoku system derisively labelled the young upstarts as unkempt
youngsters creating noise [kegarawashii wakaz no yakamashii ongaku] .112
Japanese record companies resistance strategies towards increased capital
involvement from their licensers in America also played a large role in
determining ygaku labels production of GS and other Japanese music
deemed Western-influenced, as Japanese record companies such as Nippon
Columbia worked to soften the stance of their American licensers (for
example, Columbia Records) by starting production of GS songs under ygaku
labels, which were under greater American control.113 This eventually led to a

108

Bourdaghs, Sayonara, pp.155-6; Yano, Tears of Longing, p.42.

Wajima, Tsukurareta, pp.30-37.
110
Ibid., pp.30-31. Ygaku labels usually produced covers or remakes of foreign popular
songs into Japanese versions.
111
Ibid., pp.32-33.
112
Ibid.
113
Ibid., p.33.
109

44

general division of the Japanese music industry in terms of production

methods: hgakus kaykyoku production against ygakus production.
Wajima then notes how the various elements in kaykyoku production
and content were put together into a coherent nationalistic ideology by
Japanese neo-leftist intellectuals.114 These intellectuals posited the music and
practices of the in-house production system as a counter-culture against
dominant elite leftist ideals in 1960s Japan deploring such feudal and
backward methods of musical expression. For example, Yamaori Tetsuo and
Takenaka Tsutomu link Misora Hibaris 1950s and 1960s songs back to
traditional Japan in its themes and musical characteristics, claiming that they
mourned the suffering of many Japanese in the war effort, and represented a
desire for cultural independence from increasingly influential American styles
and practices.115
Both Bourdaghs and Yano also examine the kaykyoku-ygaku
opposition in terms of a Japan/traditional-West/modern dichotomy. Bourdaghs
cites Yamaoris suggestion of Hibari as an encapsulation of various Japanese
emotional qualities such as melancholy, to show how contemporary enka was
built up, with the increasing portrayal of Hibari as a symbol of Japaneseness
as a central factor, as a challenge towards perceived American cultural
imperialism.116 Images of Hibari as a marker of Japanese traditional identity
reached a peak with two of her most famous songs in the mid-1960s,
Kanashii Sake [Mournful Sake] and Yawara [Gentle], recognised today

114

Ibid., pp.186-219.
Takenaka Tsutomu, Misora Hibari: Minsh no Kokoro wo Utatte Nijynen [Misora Hibari:
Twenty Years of Singing the Peoples Heart], (Publisher Unknown, 1965); Yamaori Tetsuo,
Misora Hibari to Nihonjin [Misora Hibari and the Japanese], (Tokyo: Gendai Shokan, 2001),
pp.83-89.
116
Bourdaghs, Sayonara, pp.51-52, 63-69.
115

45

as premier examples of the contemporary enka form. 117 Meanwhile, Yano

explains that record companies sought to differentiate between the more
indigenous forms of Japanese popular music and other Western-influenced
forms.118 She further posits this differentiation within a general discourse of
cultural nationalism, and the emergence of nihonjinron literature, in the late
1960s and 1970s.119
However, it was essayist and music commentator Itsuki Hiroyukis
1966 novel Enka that melded the musical, thematic and production concepts
discussed thus far into a coherent whole named enka. The novel equated the
term with the old-fashioned kaykyoku system of in-house production,
produced the image of a marginalised genre practiced by similarly
marginalised individuals, and glorified it through its morally triumphant
ending for the enka practitioners. 120 This image of contemporary enka was
brought into real-life musical practice through the successful debut of singer
Fuji Keiko (1951-2013) in 1969. Her artist image was sculpted carefully by
producers according to the bricolage of concepts portrayed in Itsukis novel.121
As Fuji was explicitly promoted as an enka star, Itsuki himself positively
critiqued Fuji according to the ideas he espoused in the novel Enka, and most
media reports described her as a singer right out of Itsukis novel [Itsuki
Hiroyuki no shsetsu ni detekuru youna shjo kashu].122 The resulting Fuji

117

Ibid., pp.69-70.
Yano, Tears of Longing, p.41.
119
Ibid., p.42. Nihonjinron refers to a body of literature that seeks to explain Japanese
uniqueness based on a variety of socio-cultural and physical peculiarities. For a critical
overview of the genre, see Yoshino Kosaku, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A
Sociological Enquiry, (London and New York: Routledge, 1992).
120
Wajima, Tsukurareta, pp.220-51. Itsuki uses the kanji, , denoting romanticisation
and eroticisation.
121
Ibid., pp.252-70.
122
Ibid., p.257. Fujis producers utilised the kanji , but the en- in this instance was used
to denote meanings of performance, rather than politicised speech as in Meiji-Taisho enka.
118

46

Keiko boom produced other similar enka idols, such as Koyanagi Rumiko
(1952- ), and solidified such a musical practice and product as a dominant
trend in the early 1970s. It was with Fujis appearance on the Japanese musical
scene that the coupling of contemporary enka with Japanese traditional
identity, through its identification with marginalised existences rooted in the
past and an anti-elite ideology, became materialised in Japanese musical
discourse.
But Wajima notes that almost immediately after this, enka producers
also sought to sanitise the genre. Songs began to deal less with hostesses,
yakuza and other outlaws, and turned towards more rural and familyoriented nostalgic elements as representations of marginalised traditional
ideals, especially through Koyanagis releases. These songs, celebrating rural
lifestyles and the quaint, natural landscapes of the furusato, were heavily
utilised in then-Japan National Railways Discover Japan tourism campaign
in the 1970s, and has been read by scholars such as Wajima as a co-optation of
the neo-leftist counter-cultural movement by conservative mainstream
forces.123
Contemporary enka also underwent a process of standardisation in
the 1980s, as songs began to be written in a highly formulaic fashion sticking
to the sanitised ideal of good old traditional Japan, in order to better appeal
towards target consumer demographics. Particularly, the growing number of
middle-aged men, and later middle-aged women also, participating in karaoke
at bars and other establishments, were important consumer groups.124 Also, a

123

Ibid., pp.298-300. I discuss the importance of the campaign in constructing a generalised

nostalgia for furusato in the 1970s on page 55.
124
Ibid., pp.304-7, 312-5. I return to a discussion of enkas musical position within karaoke
performance on pages 62 to 64.

47

kaykyoku genre developed, which referred to songs focusing less on an

evocation of Japanese tradition like enka, but were still composed and
performed by the producers and singers of the in-house production system.125
But this kaykyoku term has maintained a highly ambiguous relationship with
enka, sometimes being conflated with the latter while simultaneously being
utilised as an umbrella term for all popular music considered indigenous in
nature.126
However, enka sales began to dwindle from the end of the 1980s, as it
struggled to compete with newer forms of popular music such as new music,
idol pop, and later, J-Pop. 127 Within Japanese musical discourse from the
1990s onwards, there has been a simplification of all 1970s music, including
enka and the increasingly associated kaykyoku, into a Showa Kay genre
held together by a musical nostalgia that has erased the musical and discursive
differences apparent in the 1960s and 1970s musical soundscape.128
Wajimas narrative of contemporary enkas history from 1970 hints at
a concern about the social conditions of enka consumption in describing the
genres rise and fall in popularity, although this concern plays second fiddle to
his discourse-focused approach. In the following sections, I discuss the social
conditions and processes surrounding enka consumption, in order to better
identify its fan demographic, and situate enka within the musical habitus of
both fans and non-fans.

125

Mitsui, Interactions, p.171.

Ibid., pp.171-2.
127
Wajima, Tsukurareta, p.317.
128
Ibid., pp.317-36.
126

48

Urban and rural problems of Japans economic miracle

Stories of material and emotional struggle during the massive social
upheaval of the 1960s to 1970s have come to strongly influence the manner in
which contemporary ideas of Japanese tradition is conceptualised. These
experiences shaped the development of aesthetic ideals and standards for
popular music genres prominent from the 1960s onwards, not least enka. This
section focuses on the social development of the Greater Tokyo region, due to
its positioning as the focal centre of many industries (including the
entertainment business), and the setting for my field research which I discuss
in Chapters Three and Four.
The promotion of industry in urban areas (particularly Greater Tokyo)
in then-Prime Minister Ikeda Hayatos Income-Doubling Plan provided
many new employment opportunities taken up enthusiastically by many fresh
junior and senior high school graduates, both male and female, drawn in by
the glamour of urban lifestyles. Major urban areas such as Greater Tokyo, the
Keihanshin (Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto) region, and Nagoya received new
migrants at an average of a million a year between 1955 and 1970, with the
greatest surges coming in the early 1960s.129 The Youth White Paper of 1960
counted at least 100,000 fresh middle and high school graduates arriving in
Greater Tokyo in the past year, the majority of whom came via the mass
employment trains from the rural countryside of Thoku, Hokkaid,
Jshinetsu and northern Kant areas.130 This large demographic group would

129

Peter Duus, Modern Japan, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p.303.

White Paper on Youth 1960, (Tokyo: Youth Affairs Administration, Management and
Coordination Agency, 1960). Cited in Hidetada Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K: Kd Seich no
Tanima de [Thoughts On Nostalgic Kaykyoku: In the Cracks of High Economic Growth],
(Tokyo: NTT Shuppan, 1997), p.82; Shji Wakui, Tky Shinshi: Yamanote Sen Ima to
130

49

come to comprise a big part of the more mature segment of the music audience
in the 1970s, when they entered adulthood and middle-age.
The massive rate of urban immigration caused severe strains on
housing infrastructure. Peter Duus notes that most urban newcomers had to
rely on the private housing market, or company-owned housing.131 Despite
new migrants being squeezed into cramped living conditions, the central
wards of Tokyo were still saturated by the mid-1960s, resulting in an urban
sprawl which rapidly engulfed surrounding prefectures and transformed their
rural areas into homogeneous urban suburbia, often without adequate
infrastructure such as sewage and social facilities.132 Within this process, cities
in areas neighbouring Tokyo experienced a population boom: for example,
Asaka in Saitama Prefecture, the location of one of my research fieldsites,
experienced more than 300% population growth, from 18,812 in 1960 to
64,210 in 1970.133
The strong focus on developing heavy industry also had dire
consequences for the urban environment. Following the Minamata disease
case from the 1960s, toxic discharge from factories in the Greater Tokyo area
also became a major environmental problem in this period. Concerns were
raised over the ecological dangers and health concerns posed by toxic

Mukashi [New Tokyo Almanac: The Now and Then of The Yamanote Line], (Tokyo: Asahi
Shinbunsha, 1969). Cited in Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, p.92.
131
Duus, Modern Japan, p.304.
132
For anecdotal descriptions of accommodation, see Anonymous, Gurn no Kami Tpu
[Green Ticker-tape], Shkan Bunshun (ed.), Watashi no Shwashi [My History of the Shwa
Period], (Tokyo: Bungei Shunj, 1989). Cited in Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, p.83. For
discussions of problems associated with urban sprawl, see Wesley Sasaki-Uemura, Postwar
Society and Culture, William M. Tsutsui (ed.), A Companion to Japanese History, (Malden,
MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp.320-1; Duus, Modern Japan, p.304.
133
Sedai S Jink no Suii [Number of Households and Population Estimate], (Asaka:
Municipal
Administration
Information
Systems
Section,
2013),
http://www.city.asaka.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/13457.pdf, Accessed on 10 October 2013.

50

discharge into Tokyo Bay and the Sumida and Tama rivers. 134 Air quality was
also very poor, attested to by reports of odour from photochemical smog,
sulphur discharge from factories and the large amount of exhaust gases from a
growing automobile population.135
But more intensely and intimately felt were the emotional struggles of
urban life, especially for new urban migrants. The vast majority left the
countryside alone to seek their fortunes in Greater Tokyo. 136 As Duus notes,
individuals were much more isolated and anonymous than in the small-town
atmosphere of villages and provincial towns. No longer were they embedded
in a stable community where their families had lived for generations. 137 Many
were also disappointed by the gritty, unglamorous, tightly-controlled and
unfamiliar environments they found themselves working in, yet felt compelled
to stay for the long haul in Tokyo, often as a promise to their parents in the
countryside.138
These material and emotional struggles in many cases gave birth to a
sense of longing for the rural countryside, particularly for new migrants. But it
would prove increasingly impossible to think about physical returns to rural
hometowns (or furusato) as they knew it: the countryside was also
experiencing serious social changes. The programme of agricultural
rationalisation and streamlining in Ikedas Income-Doubling Plan successfully
pushed out less-efficient smaller farms, essentially driving out many full-time

134

Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, pp.151, 155.

Ibid., pp.155, 169.
136
Ibid., pp.83-86.
137
Duus, Modern Japan, pp.305-6.
138
Anonymous, Gurn no Kami Tpu; Anonymous, Hajimete no Dto [First Date],
Shkan Bunshun (ed.), Watashi no Shwashi. Cited in Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, p.83-86.
135

51

farmers and heirs into the urban workforce.139 This demographic shift led to
greater problems in the sustainability of agriculture as a source of income and
communal identity. The 1962 and 1963 editions of the Asahi Nenkan [Asahi
Yearbook] noted that the mass exodus of agricultural household heads had
necessitated the help of nearby Self-Defence Force troops in the seeding and
cropping of the fields: the elderly and wives left behind in the villages could
not keep up with the amount of work, even with automation. 140 It was
becoming impossible to earn a living through less productive cultivation.
Anthropologist Yoneyama Toshinaos ethnography of villages in the OkuMino region of Gifu Prefecture, carried out from 1962-1969, describes the
drastic depopulation that had occurred. He also notes the decrepit and
abandoned state of many buildings, describing the villages as ghost towns,
especially in winter as families temporarily moved away.141 The continuation
of traditional village festivals and ceremonies became problematic in these
conditions, especially with the mass exodus of young people.142

Thinking about the furusato

In recognition of the traumatic changes in the countryside and
problems of rapid urban expansion, a nostalgic furusato or hometown
boom developed in the 1960s and 1970s. While a main push factor for urban
migration had been the perceived backwardness of the rural village, the
countryside was now portrayed as an ideal setting in which traditional values

139

Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, pp.72-73.

Asahi Nenkan [Asahi Yearbook], (Tokyo: Asahi Shuppansha, 1962 & 1963). Cited in
Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, pp.125-6.
141
Yoneyama Toshinao, Kaso Shakai [Hollowed Out Society], (Tokyo: NHK Books, 1969).
Cited in Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, p.139.
142
Duus, Modern Japan, p.307.
140

52

and communal forms remained. 143 Jennifer Robertson describes furusato as

consisting of both a temporal and spatial dimension, referring to a kind of
generalised hometown based on ideas of a quaint Japanese old village that
generates warm, nostalgic feelings when mentioned, and imbuing whatever
it names or is prefixed to with traditionalness and cultural authenticity. 144 But
Marilyn Ivy suggests, through a consideration of Kamishima Jirs ideas, that
furusato is actually a longing expressing modern desires and problems brought
about by the emotional traumas encountered in the process of urbanisation:

The furusato resides in the memory, but is linked to tangible

reminders of the pastSince the majority of Japanese until the
postwar period had rural roots, furusato strongly connoted the
rural countryside while the urban landscape implied its loss.
Kamishima states further that the notion crystallised in times of
rural emigration to the cities: in Japan, then, the ideal only
gained

notable

strength

in

the

wake

of

late

Meiji

urbanisation145

Furusato is a modern notion. As Kamishima and others have

shown, it attained force in the wake of large-scale changes in
rural Japan, in particular, the exodus of people in search of
work in the cities in the early twentieth century, and, more
recently, in the postwar period. Concern with the furusato
143

William Kelly, Finding a Place in Metropolitan Japan: Ideologies, Institutions, and

Everyday Life, Andrew Gordon (ed.), Postwar Japan as History, (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1993), p.194.
144
Robertson, Furusato Japan, pp.495-6.
145
Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, p.104.

53

indicates a fundamental alienation, a severance from home.

This essential alienation shows up even more clearly in various
local and national movements in Japan to make ones place of
residence a true hometown (summed up in the phrase
furusato-zukuri, or making furusato).146

Indeed, Robertsons discussion of furusato was made in the context of

state attempts at furusato-zukuri to revive rural areas and alleviate problems
caused by urban overextension. Most prominent among these attempts was
Tanaka Kakueis plan to remodel the Japanese Archipelago. In his 1972
publication Building a New Japan, he glorifies furusatos lush nature and
intimate human relations, and seeks to rebuild these. 147 However, Tanakas
rural revitalisation projects, and also those of successive Prime Ministers, were
not concerned with revitalising struggling modes of village life, but building
transportation, industrial and urban infrastructure (such as the Jetsu
Shinkansen to Tanakas home prefecture of Niigata) in rural areas instead. As
such, these projects did little to restore the vitality of Japanese agriculture and
rural lifestyles, which by the 1970s were dependent on automation, tariffs and
governmental support. Instead, the public projects effectively bulldozed over
much of the rural landscape, and facilitated the creation of mini-Tokyos in
outlying parts of Japan by transplanting urban facilities and lifestyles into the

146

Ibid., pp.105-6. See also Kamishima Jir, Intaby: Koky Sshitsu no Genzai
kara[Interview: From the Present Loss of Hometown], Dent to Gendai, Vol.55,
(November 1978), pp.8-9.
147
Tanaka Kakuei, Building a New Japan: Remodeling the Japanese Archipelago, Simul
International (trans.), (Tokyo: Simul Press, 1972), pp.217-20. Cited in Theodore Wm. de Bary
et al. (eds.), The Consumer Revolution in Postwar Japan, 1960, Sources of Japanese
Tradition Vol. 2: 1600 to 2000, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), p.1107.

54

countryside.148 Coupled with the spread of mass culture dominated by Tokyobased media conglomerates that promoted a homogenisation of popular
culture, rural traditions took on an increasingly peripheral and exoticised role
within the spread of modern urban lifestyles.149 One area in which the rural
countrysides image of being an exotic periphery was played up was in
domestic tourism.
The furusato rhetoric was heavily utilised to promote domestic tourism
from the 1970s. For example, the Discover Japan advertising campaign
conducted by then-Japanese National Railways (mentioned on page 47)
promoted domestic travel, alone or in small groups, as not only a means to
self-discovery, but also to discover and absorb the abundant nature, rich
history, tradition, and the intricate intimacies still residing within Japan.150
Discover Japan also stayed away from portrayals of famous landmarks,
instead presenting scenes of momentary encounters and interactions (primarily
by young urban women, who were identified as a target consumer group) with
obscure and often unnamed rural places and people.151 By stressing travellers
interactions with rural nature and tradition as a discovery of the self and its
Japaneseness, the wildly successful campaign built up a picture of a generic
Japanese countryside portrayed as a source of Japanese national tradition. That
such a generic template of the countryside was also heavily employed in enka
was no coincidence, with Koyanagi Rumikos early enka hits such as Watashi
no Jkamachi [My Castle Town, released in 1971], which both Wajima

148

Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, pp.190-1.

Duus, Modern Japan, pp.306-10.
150
Article found in Kokutesu Tsshin [Japanese National Railways Correspondence],
(Publisher unknown, October 1970). Cited in Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, p.172; Ivy,
Discourses of the Vanishing, p.35.
151
Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, p.35, 43.
149

55

Ysuke and Fujii Hidetada both identify as an important template for future
enka songs, being promotional songs for the Discover Japan campaign.152
Ivy and Wesley Sasaki-Uemura also describe how the town of Tno
has attempted to attract tourists by marketing a traditional culture based on
ethnologist Yanagita Kunios popular 1910 publication Tno Monogatari
[The Tales of Tno]. Town officials from the 1960s onwards began actively
reappropriating Yanagitas narratives, turning its romanticised history of
darkness and primitivity into a civic asset, and billing the town as a furusato
for Japanese folklore. 153 Yet, Ivy points out how Yanagitas narratives
themselves had repressed the actual modes of storytelling used in the oral
traditions of the tales, such as narrative devices, dialects and accents, in favour
of more formal rhetoric. 154 Instead, she argues that it is with subsequent
rewritings of these Tales of Tno, particularly Inoue Hisashis Shinsaku:
Tno Monogatari [The Tales of Tno: A New Interpretation] which
reintroduces the use of local dialects and accents and places back into
narrative prominence storytelling devices including exaggeration and fantasy,
that the oral tradition of the tales can be rediscovered. 155 Indeed, SasakiUemura argues that the recreation of traditional settings and practices has been
possible only via tutelage by outside professionals, rather than being
inherited. 156 And even so, Ivy notes how these settings and practices,

152

Wajima, Tsukurareta, pp.298-9; Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, pp.169-86.

Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing , p.100.
154
Ibid., pp.78-79, 89.
155
Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, p.99. See also Inoue Hisashi, Shinsaku: Tno
Monogatari [The Tales of Tno: A New Interpretation], (Tokyo: Shinchsha, 1976), p.8.
156
Sasaki-Uemura, Postwar Society and Culture, p.325.
153

56

promoted by local authorities to boost tourism, are still far removed from the
actual folk traditions that they are supposedly based on.157
As the example of Tno suggests, rural areas struggled to faithfully
pass on their traditional cultural practices in the face of modernisation and
urbanisation. Furusato-zukuri projects were not faithful reproductions of
original rural traditions and lifestyles. Far from being an actual spiritual home
for contemporary Japanese to return to, furusato existed merely as an
idealised and generalised longing for home that never truly matched up to
actual experiences of the past.158

Thinking about change through music: segmentation of the Japanese

music audience
How did popular music participate in these discourses about 1960s and
1970s Japanese society? As explained from page 43 to 45, musical producers
provided and/or had to face radical challenges to the existing recording
industry structure. As producers were divided with the appearance of less
institutionalised forms of popular musical production in the 1960s, so too were
consumers in their musical preferences. It was at this point that genres became
linked to wider social concerns and moods, and particular segments of the
Japanese music audience.
On one side were the fans of genres identified with ygaku, such as
jazz and the later ereki, GS, rock and folk-influenced music. Discussions of
musical authenticity in these music genres stayed away from ideas of Japanese
traditional identity. For many performers such as Kasagi Shizuko (1914-1985),
157
158

Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, pp.130-40.

Fujii, Bky Kaykyoku K, pp.198-9.

57

their attraction came in their perceived performance of the (particularly

American in the postwar period) urban, modern and foreign. 159 Much of
Japanese jazz and boogie-woogies popularity was built up in the dance halls
and night clubs of urban centres such as Tokyo, and clubs within American
military bases during the Occupation.160 These music genres, which expressed
increasingly explicit rebelliousness against the established order, also gained a
great following among youth audiences within urban settings. Ishihara
Shintar, for example, famously depicted the rise of rockabilly urban youth
culture, featuring the genre heavily in his taiy zoku [sun tribe, referring to
the carefree and reckless lifestyles of some urban youths in the 1950s]
films.161 Rockabilly, and later rock festivals and folk protest movements, were
thereafter heavily associated with teenage, college and youth culture in the
1960s and 1970s.162 yama Masahiko also describes how the fan culture in
the 1970s revival of Japanese rock n roll was dominated by highly educated
urban youths.163
On the other side of the popular music divide was enka. As detailed in
Chapter One, the genre focused on a longing for an ideal Japanese past via the
mobilisation of kata. Enkas aesthetic approach, centred upon the glorification
of the furusato and values deemed traditional through musical forms and
lyrical themes, appealed to more nostalgic mature fans from the late 1940s

159

Bourdaghs, Sayonara, p.50-51.

Ibid., p.30-1, 34, 50-1.
161
Ibid., p.87.
162
Ibid., pp.85-87, 160-1.
163
yama Masahiko, Wakamono Sabukaruch to Popyur Ongaku [Youth Subculture and
Popular Music], Tya Mamoru (ed.), Popyur Ongaku e no Manazashi: Uru, Yomu,
Tanoshimu [A Look at Popular Music: Selling, Reading, Enjoying], (Tokyo, Keis Shobo:
2003), pp.293-303.
160

58

baby-boomer generation. 164 NHKs 1981 nationwide survey of popular

cultural trends revealed that enkas fan base was concentrated in their thirties
and forties (around 22% of listeners of the same age group).165 A follow-up
survey conducted by Yamaha Music Foundation in 2006 reveals a
corresponding shift in the main age demographic for enka fans, with a
majority of enthusiasts now in their fifties and sixties (around 15% of listeners
of the same age group).166 Minamida Katsuya and Mitsui Toru note that these
fans grew up listening to the kaykyoku of the old in-house production system
in their adolescence, and thus found contemporary enka, with its lineage from
kaykyoku in musical content and themes of nostalgia, much more appealing
than Western-influenced rock and pop.167
Besides showing the generation-specific fanbase of enka and the
segmented nature of the Japanese music audience, the NHK and Yamaha
Music Foundation data also suggest that generational differences in musical
taste have persisted through subsequent decades. Furthermore, the fact that not
all listeners from the baby boomer generation are enka fans also questions the
role of age as the only social marker of difference between different music
audiences. Hence, how have differences in musical taste been maintained
through processes of socialisation that involve music consumption?

164

Minamida Katsuya, Ongaku to Sedai no Raifuksu [Music and Generational Lifecourse], Fujimura Masayuki (ed.), Inochi to Raifuksu no Shakaigaku [Sociology of Life and
Life-course], (Tokyo: Kbund, 2012), p.149.
165
NHK Hs Yoron Chsasho [NHK Broadcasting Survey Department] (ed.), Gendaijin to
Ongaku [Modern People and Music], (Tokyo: NHK Shuppan, 1982), pp.70-1. Cited in
Minamida, Ongaku to Sedai, p.144.
166
Zaibatsu Hjin Yamaha Ongaku Fukkykai [Yamaha Music Foundation] (ed.), Ongaku
Raifusutairu Web Ankto Hkokush 2006 Shiryohen [Music Lifestyle Web Survey 2006
Report: Data Section], (2006), http://www.yamaha-mf.or.jp/onken/, p.9. Cited in Minamida,
Ongaku to Sedai, p.147.
167
Minamida, Ongaku to Sedai, p.149; Mitsui, The Genesis of Karaoke, p.37.

59

Karaoke is a music consumption setting in which such segmentation

can be better understood. This is because the historical development of
karaoke consumption in Japan, especially in terms of the proliferation of
different karaoke settings, was closely associated with music consumption
patterns arising from the split between enka and non-enka music, as I describe
in the next chapter. The different kinds of clientele that patronise different
karaoke settings highlights how karaoke participation, and socialisation
processes involving music consumption, continues to be segmented today.

60

Chapter Three
Appreciating Popular Music through Karaoke

In Chapter Two, I described the development of a division in the

Japanese music audience between enka fans and non-fans out of the musical
and social discourses of the 1960s and 1970s. Such a division would be
mirrored in the development of karaoke consumption in Japan, which
followed not long after in the early 1970s. In this chapter, I show how karaoke
consumption centred on the amateur performance of enka is mainly confined
to the setting of the karaoke kissa [caf] and snack [bar], while other genres
dominate the karaoke box setting.168
I first explain how karaoke consumption came to be segmented into
different settings, each dominated by different genres and clientele
demographics, by describing the historical development of karaoke technology
and consumption practices around demand from various entertainment
establishments and consumer groups. I then provide a description of the three
karaoke settings in which I conducted my field research from March to July
2013 in the Greater Tokyo area: SC, a karaoke kissa, and K-club and NSK,
two karaoke Internet groups with different age demographics that hold
physical gatherings in karaoke box establishments. These descriptions show
how different kinds of karaoke participants, with divergent genre preferences,
populate each of the settings.169

168

I discuss my linkage of snacks with the concept of the bar on page 62.
I use pseudonyms for all names of places, groups and people in my fieldwork analysis in
Chapters Three and Four, to protect the privacy of research participants.
169

61

Segregation in karaoke consumption: snacks, bars and boxes

Mitsui Toru traces the origins of karaoke to the bar, noting that while
customers were enthusiastic about spontaneous singing in the 1960s, the
technology which allowed them to select songs conveniently and affordably
was lacking. 170 In 1972, however, Inoue Daisuke and five other musicians
produced what is commonly recognised as the first karaoke system, by
recording instrumental tracks of popular kaykyoku songs on 8-track loop
tapes modified to allow instantaneous song selection on tape-jukeboxes.171
Demand for this newly developed karaoke technology came
overwhelmingly from bars, many of which redubbed themselves as karaoke
snacks. They found karaoke a cheap replacement for costly live bands and
radio playlists for piped-in music.172 Their clientele of mostly working men
also found karaoke an easy way to express themselves musically. 173 Many
snacks extended their operating times into the afternoon, dubbing themselves
as kissa [cafs] to attract middle-aged housewives. 174 These two clientele
groups overwhelmingly favoured enka, and have stuck with kissas and snacks
as their venue of choice due to communal attachments and friendships built up
there.175

170

Mitsui, The Genesis of Karaoke, p.31.

Ibid., pp.35-36.
172
Ogawa Hiroshi, The Effects of Karaoke on Music in Japan, Mitsui and Hosokawa (eds.),
Karaoke Around the World, p.43.
173
Ibid., p.44.
174
Oku, Karaoke and Middle-aged and Older Women, pp.55-56.
175
Market research conducted by the All Japan Association of Karaoke Entrepeneurs revealed
that middle- and older-aged men made up 58% of the snacks clientele, with an additional 28%
being young businessmen accompanying their superiors at work. The December 1996 edition
of the Gekkan Karaoke Fan magazine also noted that all of the twenty most performed songs
in karaoke kissas, as well as fifteen of the top twenty in karaoke snacks, belonged to enka.
Zenkoku Karaoke Jigyosha Kyokai, Karaoke Hakusho; Hit Hit Melody, Gekkan Karaokefan,
(December 1996). Cited in Oku, Karaoke and Middle-aged and Older Women, pp.54-57.
171

62

Later

advancements

in

karaoke

technology,

especially

the

miniaturisation of hardware components and introduction of cable-linked

karaoke databases, allowed karaoke machines to store more songs while
occupying less space.176 With these developments, entrepreneurs began to set
up karaoke establishments housing a number of compact rooms termed boxes,
initially in converted container boxes but eventually within buildings in key
entertainment areas such as Shibuya, Tokyo. 177 These spaces, which were
more private in design and operated during the day, appealed greatly to
younger non-enka fans neglected as a karaoke consumer demographic thus far.
The popularity of karaoke boxes with these younger consumers also led to the
diversification of karaoke song databases away from enka, and non-enka
songs dominate karaoke charts today. 178 With the growth of major karaoke
box chains, karaoke has developed into an enormous industry.179
Besides being a venue for younger people to consume music with likeminded friends from their everyday social circles, karaoke boxes are now also
the venue of choice for members of Internet karaoke enthusiast clubs to meet
physically. Karaoke boxes are thus not simply a place to go with friends, but
also a place to potentially meet new ones. These settings potentially allow for
new friendships to be built based on common musical tastes.

176

Ogawa, The Effects of Karaoke on Music in Japan, p.45. Karaoke retailer Mini-Juke
Kansai reports that the ClubDAM machine, for example, has a database containing more than
140,000 songs. See Daiichi Shgy DAM Tsshin Karaoke [First Enterprise DAM Cable
Karaoke], Karaoke Sg Shsha Kabushiki Gaisha Minijku Kansai [General Karaoke
Trading
Company
Limited
Company
Mini-Juke
Kansai],
http://www.minijuke.co.jp/karaoke/index3_dam001.html, Accessed 10 November 2013.
177
Ibid.
178
Shkan Rankin: Shkei Kikan: 2013/10/6-2013/10/12 [Weekly Ranking: Data Collected
for
2013/10/6
to
2013/10/12],
Club
DAM.com,
http://www.clubdam.com/app/dam/page.do?type=dam&source=index&subType=ranking,
Accessed 15 October 2013.
179
Mitsui Toru and Hosokawa Shuhei, Introduction, Mitsui and Hosokawa (eds.), Karaoke
Around the World, p.11.

63

As such, karaoke consumption illustrates how enka has come to

occupy a specific segment of the karaoke and music consumer market, in
terms of both its demographic and the kinds of establishments it is performed
at. This specificity suggests that a comparative study between kissas/snacks
and boxes, in terms of the kind of musicking (ie. both musical and social)
behaviour occurring at each setting, can provide a clearer understanding of the
musical meaning(s) of enka held by different segments of the Japanese music
audience. Such an approach guided the conduct of my ethnographic research
into the three karaoke settings, SC, K-club and NSK, as I investigated how
musical tastes and meanings, particularly towards enka, were constructed and
maintained through communal musicking processes. In the following
sections, I provide a detailed introduction of the segregation of participant
demographics and genre preferences between the three karaoke settings, SC,
K-club and NSK. By clearly identifying these differences among the settings,
we can then ask further questions (which I explore in the next chapter) about
the kinds of musicking behaviour creating and maintaining such differences.
I start the in-depth look at each karaoke setting by firstly introducing the
karaoke kissa SC.

Entering an enka karaoke space

A small, dingy kissa cum snack, SC has a maximum capacity of 15,
and is situated on a side alley in a quiet neighbourhood in Asaka, Saitama, a
suburb of Tokyo. It operates from 12:30-5:30pm and 6:30-10:00pm every day
of the week except Wednesdays. The neighbourhood is dotted with a few
other snacks and kissas, and has a substantial number of elderly residents.

64

Large LCD screen

Mini-stage
Toilet

Sofa seats

LCD
Screen

Cupboard and bottle keep

Bar counter

Karaoke
machine

Washing
area/Back
entrance

Large LCD screen

Kitchen
Front entrance area

Figure 3: Floor plan of SC

SCs faade is identified most visibly by a large green plastic cover

above an otherwise nondescript looking, unappealing small wooden door with
no windows. SC thus physically radiates an aura of unassuming exclusivity.
SC also maintains minimal presence on restaurant listings, with only a poorlymaintained webpage on the GuruNavi network (a popular Internet restaurant
listing service in Japan). Upon entering the premises, a long, L-shaped counter
65

dominates the floor space. Sofa seats and small coffee tables are situated along
the walls, which are adorned with posters autographed by various professional
enka performers. The bar and kitchen are located behind the counter. A single
karaoke machine adorns the premises, connected to three LCD screens of
varying sizes situated such that all customers have good views. Finally, there
is a mini-stage at the back, which many patrons used during their
performances to add a sense of spectacle (See Figure 3 for floor plan).
The vast majority of karaoke songs sung by patrons belonged to enka
from the 1960s to 1980s, a trend analysed in greater detail later in the next
chapter from page 80. Everyone was encouraged to sing in turn, as SCs
hostess (lovingly referred to by regular patrons as Mama) handed us the
remote controller for the karaoke machine to input our song reservations.
However, a few patrons chose not to sing. Mama also served snacks and light
meals of rice and side dishes, and provided unlimited refills of non-alcoholic
drinks (alcoholic drinks were served at extra charge), all for a cover charge of
1000 yen (around 12 Singapore dollars as of December 2013). Many patrons
saw SC as a place where they could be entertained for the afternoon at an
affordable price, before returning back to household chores in the evening.180
Patrons occasionally entered SC alone, but more often they visited in
pairs or small groups. These were usually friends who had already known each
other for some time, although there was the odd romantic couple. Different
groups also exhibited a certain amount of familiarity with one another, as
they addressed each other by name. As I describe in the next chapter,
interaction between members of different groups occurred to varying extents,

180

Fumi, Conversation, 26 April 2013.

66

and new ties of friendship, community and even romance were made
frequently at SC.

Figure 4: Karaoke participants at SC

From April to July 2013, I visited SC as a paying customer every

Friday afternoon from 1:30-4:30pm, with additional visits on other afternoons.
The usual number of customers at SC for Friday afternoons hovered around
seven to eight, although it reached full capacity a couple of times. On another
occasion, I ended up spending my time with only two other regulars. The
Friday afternoon clientele was predominantly female, with usually only one or
two other males in SC besides myself. These regulars all lived in the
surrounding area between Asaka and neighbouring towns Shiki and Niiza, and
had all migrated to Greater Tokyo from rural towns upon graduation from
middle or high school (except Mura, who arrived after marriage). Their ages

67

ranged from fifty-five till eighty, but most were in their late sixties and early
seventies.
In particular, several Friday regulars provided important insights into
their musical tastes and biographical backgrounds. Firstly, there was Mama
herself, who graciously allowed me to take down notes during my visits to SC,
and even helped me approach other regular patrons for interviews. Mama also
participated in group discussions with other regulars. Born in Fukushima
Prefecture in 1943, she moved to Tokyo at eighteen after graduating from high
school. She had already developed a liking for enka from the age of five,
under her fathers influence. Mama arrived in Greater Tokyo to seek
employment at a company that her older brother was employed at, and worked
there for some time before setting up her first kissa in Shinjuku. She then
moved her operations to the current location in Asaka about twenty years ago.
Mama currently lives in Shiki with her husband and son.
Tomo also participated actively in karaoke activities at SC. She
worked under Mama, helping her oversee operations at the kissa and
sometimes even filling in during her absence. When not scheduled to work,
she also visited SC regularly to mingle with the other Friday regulars she had
built up close friendships with. Tomo was also born in 1943, in a town in
Miyagi Prefecture. She migrated to Tokyo as a teenager in search of work, and
eventually settled down as a full-time housewife after marriage. It was during
this period, in her thirties, that she began to develop a strong liking for enka.
Living in the vicinity with only her husband and having much free time, she
began to regularly visit SC, and even began working on a part-time basis for
Mama a few years ago.

68

Fumi was the first regular customer that I got to know well during my
field research. Always lively and cheerful, she made conversation with me
some time during my first visit to SC, noting my young age (a point I discuss
later). Later on, she was enthusiastic in taking part in interviews, and provided
a wealth of anecdotes about her views on enka. Born in 1958, Fumi was
younger compared to most other regulars. Hailing from Hokkaido, she came to
Tokyo upon graduation from middle school at fifteen to work in a job her
teacher introduced her to. She moved into the vicinity of Asaka after marriage,
and later came to frequent SC multiple times a week. Although she had been
listening to most popular genres since her childhood, she said that she
naturally came to develop a liking for enka. She also liked the idol pop of the
1970s, but rarely performed them at SC, which she described as an enka place
[enka no tokoro].181
Always beside Fumi during my visits was her friend Mura. She was
born in 1946 in Kagoshima Prefecture, and unlike Mama, Tomo and Fumi, she
had originally moved to Osaka, rather than Tokyo, at the age of eighteen for
employment. She returned to Kagoshima for a period to get married, but this
did not last long. She eventually remarried, and followed her husband to
Tokyo, settling down in the immediate vicinity. Widowed since her husband
passed away some years ago and living with a middle-aged son she described
as a good-for-nothing, she often appeared grouchy when separated from
Fumi. However, she was also involved in a romantic relationship at SC, which
I discuss on page 90.

181

Fumi, Conversation, 24 May 2013.

69

Participating in Internet karaoke clubs

I also participated in and observed the physical gatherings of two
Internet karaoke clubs, NSK and K-club, to investigate non-enka fans
communal musicking behaviour, especially with regards to enka. Firstly, Kclub is an Internet karaoke club established in 2004 by founder Shimizu. It has
a Mixi (a popular Japanese social networking service) group page where
information about upcoming gatherings is disseminated, and a website
dedicated to keeping track of participating members and songs sung at every
gathering thus far. While members have largely come and gone, the club still
holds offline gatherings, which I took part in from March to July 2013, on the
last Sunday afternoon of every month, at a major karaoke box chain
establishment near Kawasaki Station just south of Tokyo. As a major
interchange station and the transport, administrative and entertainment hub for
the city of Kawasaki, the area bustles with human traffic at most hours.

Sofa seats

Table

Karaoke
machine
and
television
Intercom

Stool
Door

Figure 5: Floor plan of karaoke box for K-club gatherings

70

The establishment has a brightly-lit reception area where customers

book boxes [rooms] to sing in. The room which Shimizu had procured for Kclub had little space for participants to move within: the karaoke machine,
television screen, a sofa, a rectangular table and a cushioned stool took up
almost the entire room space. Nevertheless, we still managed to eke out some
personal space between ourselves, sitting a little distance from each other. The
door, located at a corner of the room, had a glass panel in the middle (a
common feature of all karaoke box establishments mandated by law, after a
string of criminal cases within boxes around 1990). 182 By the door was an
intercom telephone for communicating drink orders to the staff, and also for
staff to inform customers of the amount of time left to use the box (see Figure
5 for floor plan).
Besides the four of us, three other members participated in an adjacent
box, for a total of seven people. This was the usual number of participants for
the gatherings I took part in. None of the participants hailed from Kawasaki
city, but instead came from all around the Greater Tokyo region. All members
participated alone, and few seemed to have struck up close friendships within
the club. The turnout was usually dominated by males, although there were a
couple of female regulars. Participants were also predominantly in their
thirties, although a regular in her early seventies, Nana, turned out to be one of
the most important research subjects I interviewed in my fieldwork.
An important characteristic of K-club and its gatherings is its nongenre policy: members are allowed to perform songs from all kinds of genres.
K-club thus ostensibly seeks to focus on the enjoyment of the karaoke
182

Nagai Yoshikazu, Karaoke Box ni Ugareta Mado [Windows Fixed in Karaoke Boxes],
Gendai no Espirit, Vol.312, (July 1993), pp.124-37.

71

experience, rather than the celebration of a certain kind of music. However,

this did not mean that an even spread of songs from a variety of genres was
performed. Instead, pop and rock songs and singers from the late 1980s to the
early 2000s dominated. I discuss how K-club participants gravitated towards
such music from page 95.
The most important K-club member in providing information on
musical behaviour and preferences was undoubtedly Shimizu. He kindly
allowed me to take notes during gatherings, introduced me (and my research)
to many unfamiliar K-club members, and enthusiastically participated in
interviews from early on in the fieldwork. Shimizu regularly took part in other
internet karaoke clubs based around Tokyo besides K-club, and was wellversed in songs from many genres including enka. However, he showed a
clear preference towards songs by pop singer Kuraki Mai (1982- ). Born in
1979 and originally hailing from Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture just south
of Tokyo, he moved to Funabashi, another suburban town east of Tokyo in
Chiba Prefecture, a few years ago due to his work as a cram school teacher.
But he continued to base K-club gatherings in Kawasaki, and made the hourlong commute from Funabashi every month.
Hikki was another K-club member who became friendly with me early
on in my participation there. She started participating in K-clubs gatherings a
couple of years ago, after being introduced to him through mutual friends.
Born in 1980, she was brought up in a strict and affluent household in Tokyo,
and even had the chance to do a homestay in London as a high school student.
Shimizu introduced her to me so that I would have another English speaker to
talk with in the club. Hikki is currently working to support her training to

72

become a voice actress. A huge fan of the rock band Larc-en-ciel, she always
performed some of their songs during K-club gatherings.
Finally, Aji also provided some important observations and opinions
on his musical preferences and enka. Aji and I were the only members to
attend all of K-clubs gatherings from March to July, and we slowly built up a
rapport, helped by our common interest in Larc-en-ciel. He also sang many
songs from the early 1990s. Thirty-eight-year-old Aji did not reveal where he
was born, but he currently lives in a southern area of Tokyo, about twenty
minutes away by bus from Kawasaki. He works as a company employee
during the week.
In contrast to K-clubs non-genre policy was NSKs explicit focus on
popular music of the Showa period. Club founder Michi hosts an online
bulletin board in which members keep in touch with each other. She also
contacts members frequently through email. I was able to join their offline
gatherings through Nanas (whom I knew from K-club) recommendation to
Michi, who then added me into her mailing list. Offline gatherings are held on
every second Saturday afternoon of the month, at another karaoke box
establishment in the same vicinity as the venue for K-club gatherings. I was
invited to participate in NSKs May and June 2013 gatherings.
The karaoke box establishment was not as clean compared to the
previous location, but Michi preferred its large box, which could accommodate
the larger turnout that NSK gatherings garnered. However, with sixteen
participating members for each gathering, even this larger room became
cramped as we squeezed ourselves on a long U-shaped sofa facing a large
LCD screen and karaoke machine. Michi placed drinks and the feast of

73

Japanese snacks and side dishes that she prepared for each gathering on the
large table before us (see Figure 6 for a floor plan of this room).

Karaoke
machine and
television

Door
Intercom

Table

Sofa seats

Figure 6: Floor plan of large karaoke box used for NSK gatherings.

The members participating in NSKs offline gatherings were mostly in

their fifties and sixties. Two younger participants in their early forties, and an
elderly married couple in their seventies, Ina and Akko, also participated. A
few members were already friends before joining NSK, such as Nana and Hiro,
but the vast majority participated alone. Similarly to K-club, most members
were male with only four females in attendance, and hailed from all over the
Greater Tokyo area. Many were nearing retirement, or had just retired.

74

Figure 7: Some participants at NSK gatherings (researcher on the left).

While singing songs from the Showa period was a prerequisite for
participation in NSKs offline gatherings, this still allowed for a wide variety
of choices in song selection between enka and other forms of popular music
such as idol pop and the new music genre of the 1970s and 1980s. While the
vast majority of participants had considerable knowledge about enka, and
belonged to the age group associated with its fandom, they tended to stick with
songs from other genres. Only Ina and his wife regularly performed enka
songs, and along with Hama, introduced themselves as fans of the genre. I
found this trend very interesting, especially given the age similarities between
NSK participants and SCs regular patrons. The song choices at NSK seemed
to suggest that age was not the only determining factor in acquiring a musical
taste for enka. I examine these choices from page 103.
Three participants at NSK gatherings provided valuable information
about their musical preferences and biological backgrounds: Nana, Hama and

75

Mushi. Nana proved to be vital in my research, as she introduced me to Michi

and signed me up for NSK gatherings. She also actively participated in email
interviews, and spoke at length about her musical preferences and biographical
background. Nana was already into her seventies, and had been participating
in both K-club and NSK events for several years. She also stood out for her
love of Western oldies from the 1960s to 1980s, and frequently performed
them at K-club gatherings, apart from new music songs at NSK. She also
sometimes sang the latest Japanese pop songs. Originally from the prestigious
Yamate neighbourhood in Yokohama, she now lives in another district in the
same city, and has recently fallen on financially harder times because of her
fathers serious illness. Her busy work schedule sometimes made her miss
karaoke activities, but she would still eagerly join us for dinner afterwards.
Hama became highly interested in my research when I mentioned it
during my introduction to the other NSK members. Eventually, I managed to
conduct personal interviews with him twice. He was born in the town of Iizuka
in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1956, and came to Tokyo at nineteen to enter
university. Hama then found work as a bank employee in the capital after
graduation, but had to move frequently due to work postings. His wife and two
sons still reside in Fukuoka, while he lives in a company dormitory in Yono,
Saitama. He described himself as an enka fan, although he also enjoys the
other popular genres from the 1970s. Indeed, he sang songs from other genres
more frequently during NSK gatherings. He also participates weekly in an
amateur choir group, which was preparing for their yearly concert in October
2013 at the time of the field research.

76

Mushi also approached me after the April gathering with the intention
of taking part in email interviews. He stood out among the NSK participants
for performing many Japanese childrens [dy] and choral [shka] songs,
which he cited as his favourite kind of music. Born in 1949 in Aomori
Prefecture, Mushi now lives in Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture. He
described himself as a company employee approaching retirement, and was
happily married with two adult children. He also revealed his aspirations to
teach choir music and the board game go to children once he retired, citing
their benefits to childrens mental development and character.
The varied musical preferences and biographical characteristics of
karaoke participants across various settings thus provided for a highly
illuminating look at the diverse and segmented nature of the Japanese music
audience. They also raised the following questions with regards to the
formation of such segmented musical tastes: How do enka fans interact and
relate to the music? How do they interact with each other, particularly through
the music? How do non-fans think about the genre? How do these non-fans
negotiate its use in non-enka fan settings? Why has enka struggled to garner
new fans outside its existing demographic? In the next chapter, I describe how
karaoke participants negotiated the use of music, with particular focus on
attitudes and behaviour surrounding enka, in order to trace out the different
ways in which individual and communal musical tastes were constructed and
practiced. This understanding is crucial in assessing enkas claim towards
national tradition and identity, and its position within the Japanese cultural
soundscape.

77

Chapter Four
Performing Enka in Various Karaoke Settings: The Ethnographer as
Observer and Observed

Chapter Three described how musical taste for enka is largely confined
to a specific fan demographic patronising the karaoke kissa SC, with different
genres each dominating the Internet karaoke clubs K-club and NSK. In this
chapter, I explain how such segregation has been produced and maintained
through communal musicking. Through a comparison of my experiences and
observations in the three karaoke settings, I argue that karaoke participants
communal taste-building and musicking behaviour, particularly with respect
to enka, highlight and entrench social differences based not only on age, but
also location and education.
Towards this argument, I first describe the various ways in which my
karaoke and social participation in each of SC, K-club and NSK was deemed
transgressive, in both cultural and generational terms, by other participants.
Unpacking

these

culturally-

and generationally-framed

transgressions

highlights the frameworks in which both fans and non-fans understood and
explained their views towards enka, and also how non-fans explained other
popular genres in the same culturally essentialist terms as enka fans did for
their genre. I also examine how both fans and non-fans created collective
musical identities and relationships through musicking activities, which also
worked to reaffirm common musical tastes. These observations are
supplemented with anecdotal data from interviews. In these interviews, I asked
questions about how participants came to like their preferred music, what they

78

thought about it, and how they consumed it. I also asked specifically about
their thoughts on enka, and its claim towards national tradition. Reading
karaoke participants communal taste-building and musicking behaviour and
anecdotes, particularly with respect to enka, against their biographical and
social background, I explain how enka was thought about and utilised
differently across various karaoke settings populated by different demographic
groups, and how such social differences became further entrenched as enka
fans and non-fans rarely interacted with each other in musicking activities
due to different conceptualisations of musical taste and community.

Whose past are we singing about? Performing enka transgressively at a

karaoke kissa
My first visits to SC in April 2013 were undoubtedly dominated by
feelings of trepidation. Even after I had summoned up the courage to open the
unassuming yet forbidding door, stepping inside only served to heighten my
anxieties. I was definitely nervous, and struggled to keep my hands from
shaking. I knew the microphone was going to come round to me at some point,
but what was I going to sing? What songs did the other patrons like and relate
to? This was a nervousness that I relived at least a few times, before I finally
settled down on a regular day of the week to visit SC and gradually built
rapport with the Friday afternoon regulars.
As I waited anxiously in my counter seat, half-hoping that I would be
spared the difficult decision of choosing a song to perform, some of the other
patrons struck up conversation with me. Sipping whiskey on the rocks, Miya
beamed me a smile and commented, Youre young! We usually only see old

79

people [obaachan ojiichan] around here. 183 Meanwhile, Fumi exclaimed

when she first met me, With you around the average age here has dropped a
lot! This place should get livelier now! 184 At this early stage, I had not
introduced myself at all, and my East Asian-looking physical characteristics
had allowed everyone to automatically assume that I was Japanese. However,
there was no belying my age. Mura, Fumis regular companion at SC,
commented, Your hands are too smooth! Were all jealous around here. It
must be good to be young!185 Age became a focal distinction that made me
conspicuous at the kissa.
But my turn to sing eventually came, and was greeted with great
anticipation by the other patrons. What will he sing for us? This will be
interesting! Tomo summed up the sentiment.186 The anticipation was palpable,
as they all seemed to be wondering how this young man would attempt to
participate in an activity and community that was decidedly mature. Would he
try to fit in? Or would he decide to play by his own rules? As a new entrant
into these settings, without any prior relationships to any other participants,
my karaoke performance was to be the most important way to introduce
myself to and gain a certain level of social acceptance from other karaoke
participants at SC.
As briefly mentioned on page 66, the most glaring trend about the
songs performed at SC was the preference for enka from the 1960s to 1980s.
The reservation history in the remote control for SCs karaoke machine
revealed that songs such as Misora Hibaris Yawara [Gentle] (released in

183

Miya, Conversation, 23 April 2013.

Fumi, Conversation, 26 April 2013.
185
Mura, Conversation, 10 May 2013.
186
Tomo, Conversation, 23 April 2013.
184

80

1964), Kanashii Sake [Sorrowful Sake] (1966) and Sen Masaos (1947- )
Kitaguni no Haru [Spring in the North] (1977) were frequently sung.
Participants who later took part in interviews also listed songs from earlier
decades as being most memorable for them. For example, Mama particularly
favoured Misora Hibaris Midare Gami [Tangled Hair] (1987), while Fumi
expressed her fondness for Ishikawa Sayuris (1958- ) Tsugaru Kaiky
Fuyugeshiki [Winter Scenery of Tsugaru Straits] (1977).187
Sensing this general musical preference for older songs within both
settings, I decided to attempt to endear myself by first performing the classic
enka hits of the 1960s to 1980s. As such, I sang songs such as Koyanagi
Rumikos Watashi no Jkamachi [My Castle Town] (1971), Atsumi Jiros
(1952- ) Yumeoi-zake [Dream-chaser Wine] (1978) and the aforementioned
Kitaguni no Haru, whenever I felt the need to introduce myself to people I
was interacting with for the first time. Their responses to these performances
were reassuring, as their enthusiastic applause after every verse suggested
their pleasure in seeing me singing their songs. You really know how to
sing these oldies, even though youre young! remarked an unfamiliar group of
patrons when I visited SC outside of a Friday afternoon. 188 Its great that you
come here to sing these songs with us: our kids would never be able to do so!
Fumi and Mura gushed.189 They seemed genuinely and pleasantly surprised
that a young person could pull off these oldies with a reasonable amount of
conviction. For them, enka was very much a musical realm consisting of older
songs for older people only.

187

Mama, Written interview, 11 June 2013; Fumi, Email correspondence, 15 June 2013.
SC, Saitama, Conversation, 28 May 2013.
189
Fumi and Mura, Conversation, 7 June 2013.
188

81

But when I tried my hand at singing some of the latest enka releases
from 2013, especially by Jero, the response was decidedly more muted. The
other patrons at SC were largely indifferent, and had no knowledge of songs
such as Jeros Serenade and Yamauchi Keisukes (1983- ) Kushiro Kk
[Kushiro Airport], even though they had been number one hits on various
enka charts in 2013. Surprised at their indifference towards newer enka
releases, given their self-identification as enka fans, I asked if they listened to
the younger singers and the latest releases. Almost all of them replied no.
Fumis comment best sums up their attitude towards enka songs from the
1990s onwards:

Sometimes when someone sings a new enka song, we get a

little bit surprised and listen attentively. But once we decide we
dont like it, we dont pay any more attention. We older people
tend to stick to the songs that we already know from way
before. Our minds are already filled to the brim with those
songs, and we cant really remember new stuff [atama ippai
dakara, mou atarashii kyoku ga hairenai].190

On another occasion, I chose to sing Jeros Umiyuki at SC, and asked

if anyone else present knew about the singer. Few did, and those who
professed some kind of knowledge maintained that it was only cursory, as they
did not really pay attention to his career. There were even voices of
displeasure. I dont like him wearing that cap and rag on his head while

190

Fumi, Conversation, 24 May 2013.

82

performing, Mama commented. His voice isnt that impressive also. 191 Only
one elderly man, Suzuki, expressed his admiration for Jeros earnest attitude in
learning Japanese and honouring his grandmother, as well as his fresh appeal
through fashion. His comment that he never expected to hear a Jero song at SC,
however, showed how much regular patrons preferred older songs.
I asked the Friday regulars their reasons for preferring older enka
songs over newer ones. Mama talked about how the song Ringo Mura Kara
[From the Apple Village, released by Mihashi Michiya (1930-1996) in 1956],
reminded her of her performance of it with her elementary school class back in
Fukushima.192 She further described the general appeal of enka as allowing her
to look back and recount my life experience.193 Fumi also cited such a reason
for enjoying enka. She explained her thoughts on Tsugaru Kaiky
Fuyugeshiki in the following manner:

I came to Tokyo from Hokkaido when I was 15, in order to

work at a company that my middle school teacher had
connected me with. I remember taking the train down to
Hakodate, and then transferring to the train ferry across the
Tsugaru Strait, before continuing the long journey down to
Tokyo. It would take about a day before we would reach Ueno
Station. So when people like Ishikawa Sayuri sang about the
train ferry and places like Ueno Station in these songs, it really

191

Mama, Conversation, 30 May 2013.

Mama, Written interview, 11 June 2013.
193
Ibid.
192

83

hit home for me [gutto kita]. It spoke right to my own

experiences.194

These enka fans thus liked songs not simply because they were from
the genre, but rather due to their links with personal experiences, particularly
of rural and/or migratory experiences as youths. But this understanding of
enka fans emotional connections with the music was complicated by the
prevalent use of culturally essentialist terms to explain their musical
preferences, after I revealed my status as a non-Japanese person.

Thinking about enka as a tradition: Performing as a foreign researcher

It was impossible to remain culturally anonymous forever in the
karaoke settings. While I was competent in Japanese, my jitters, and the
immense concentration needed in simultaneously sustaining conversation,
taking note of the setting and observing the overall behaviour of the other
patrons on my first visits to SC, took its toll on my ability to keep track of
Miyas speech as we chatted about romance. This got his suspicions up and he
asked, You seem to have a bit of difficulty understanding. Youre not
Japanese?195 It was then that I revealed that I was from Singapore. Miya did
not really seem surprised, probably because he had already sensed something
fishy, but he announced this important fact to everyone else present at SC.
This was how Mama, Tomo, and other regulars at SC came to know me as not
only a young researcher, but also as a foreigner. In time, whenever I appeared

194
195

Fumi, Group interview, 21 June 2013.

Miya, Conversation, 23 April 2013.

84

at SC outside of my regular Friday afternoon timeslot, Mama and Tomo

sought to highlight this point to other patrons as soon as they could.
While initial evaluations of my presence and performance of enka
songs in SC were focused on the seeming disconnect between the genre and
my age, once my nationality was revealed comments were made in more
culturally essentialist terms. The most common comment I received was, You
really seem to understand the lyrics so well, even though youre not Japanese!
[Nihonjin janai noni, kashi wo yoku rikai dekiru]

196

These usually

accompanied praise of my Japanese language ability. Meanwhile, one of my

earlier visits to SC was characterised by expressions of surprise at my song
selections. The other patrons remarked that by mixing up old enka favourites
and newer enka hits, my selections reflected some deep level of understanding
of the genre. They never thought a young person would be able to have that
level of enka knowledge, but found it even more surprising in my case because
I was not Japanese.
A few of the patrons thought about my presence and performance of
enka in more culturally comparative ways. Chano, a 76-year-old man who was
a long-time acquaintance of Mama due to their common involvement in
neighbourhood committees, struck up conversation with me on one visit.
Pointing at the background video which featured enka singer Nagayama Yko
(1968- ) playing the shamisen, he asked me if instruments like those were also
used in Singapore. Chano was clearly pointing at enka (and specifically the
utilisation of traditional instruments) as a representative of Japan. When I
later performed Hosokawa Takashis (1950- ) popular enka hit Naniwa Bushi

196

SC, Saitama, Conversation, 23 April 2013.

85

Dayo Jinsei wa [Life is A Naniwa Bushi] (first released in 1976), other

patrons commented on how I sang without any accent at all.197 This cultural
comparison even spilled into a mock rivalry on one occasion, when a couple
of elderly men gleefully noted how they could not lose to the foreigner
[gaikokujin niwa makerarenai] after my performance.198
It was interesting to observe how reactions to my performances of enka
were now being explained in more culturally essentialist frameworks, as other
karaoke participants began to analyse my performances overwhelmingly
against my nationality. This observation seemed to suggest that enkas musical
aesthetics and meanings were thought of in terms of an essential Japanesness
after all. I asked karaoke participants directly about their views on the link
between enka and notions of Japanese tradition. The following conversation at
SC with Fumi, a continuation of her earlier comments about her thoughts on
the song Tsugaru Kaiky Fuyugeshiki, suggests a connection with enka built
upon wider connections to a more generalised sentiment about furusato, that
mythical ideal of the rural past:

F: With songs like Aa Ueno Eki [Oh, Ueno Station, released

in 1964 by Izawa Hachir (1937-2007)], they dont really point
to a certain hometown in particular do they? But somehow it
still brings back fond memories. I start to think about my own
hometown in Hokkaido.
TKF: So the song evokes a feeling of everybodys hometown?

197
198

SC, Saitama, Conversation, 3 May 2013.

Ibid.

86

F: Yes. Its like the childrens song Furusato. It doesnt refer

to any particular place, but we all understand that image of
furusato that it talks about. The whole image of Ura Nihon,
with its mountains and beautiful scenery199
TKF: Well actually, when you mention the word furusato, what
do you think of? Or what do you point to?
F: For me its the communal dances and festivals, like Bonodori and those things. How everybody in the community
participates in those events.
TKF: So I guess youre looking at the festivals as a marker of
furusato.
F: Thats right.200

Furthermore, Fumi also cited enkas ability to express the intricate

sensitivities of the Japanese people [nihonjin no kokoro no kibi] as one of
the genres attractions, although she admitted that she did not have a clear idea
of how these sensitivities could be defined. 201 Meanwhile, Mama also
suggested some other elements that constituted these ideas of furusato, when
she explained her attraction to enka in terms of its representations of
traditional characteristics of nature, sceneries and family. 202 Through this
evocation of furusato, she mentioned how she felt that by listening to enka,
she could recall her own life experiences thus far [oidachi wo omoidasu],

199

F seemed to be utilising the term Ura Nihon to refer to ideas of a generalised Japanese
countryside, based on the rest of the conversation. The term usually refers to the Sea of Japan
coastline in its modern usage.
200
Fumi, Group interview, 21 June 2013.
201
Fumi, Email correspondence, 15 and 20 June 2013.
202
Mama, Written interview, 11 June 2013.

87

and vaguely understand the whole of Japan [Nihon zentai ga nantonaku

wakaru youna ki ga suru].203
These anecdotes suggest the prevalence of an idealised furusato,
pointing to a certain pre-modern time and rural space, in marking enka
nostalgia. This second set of temporal and spatial markers for enkas nostalgic
content operated in a decidedly less specific manner than appeals towards
personal experiences. As I suggest in the next section through a description of
communal karaoke behaviour among SCs regular patrons, these ideals
allowed enka to act more effectively as a common musical signifier of
meaning between fans, and provide greater opportunities for the formation of
affective alliances, via processes of identification, within taste communities
in locations such as SC. Communal karaoke also acted to reinforce musical
tastes for enka among patrons.
But these appeals towards furusatos generalised past should be read
against fans like Fumis and Mamas biographical background and life
histories as participants in the massive urban migration of the 1960s and 1970s,
instead of constructions of a unitary Japanese identity. This is because these
fans link the genres evocation of a generalised furusato more coherently to a
reminiscence of their own hometowns and migratory experiences, rather than
a construction of national or cultural identity. These linkages to traditional
Japan are thus reflections of the kind of nostalgia of the furusato built upon
the sentiments and experiences of a specific demographic group (represented
by Fumi and Mama), as described in Chapter Two.

203

Ibid.

88

Furthermore, these fans sought to downplay the appeal of enkas

supposed Japaneseness in their attraction towards the genre. Tomo explained
that she enjoyed enka simply because it was easy to follow, and maintained
that her emotional connections with enka was primarily on a personal level,
rather than with ideas of Japanese identity.204 She also found it difficult to
explain what really the heart and soul of Japan [nihonjin no kokoro] really
meant.205 Even Fumi and Mama did not consider enkas appeals to Japanese
tradition a crucial attraction. Instead, as I describe in the next section, both of
them pointed to the interpersonal relationships surrounding their enka
consumption, particularly in communal karaoke, as the main reason they
enjoyed the music. Moreover, in the sections on K-club and NSK, I address
how non-fans, from different demographic groups, explained their indifference
towards enka music and its evocations of furusato, and thought about other
popular genres in culturally essentialist ways also.

SC as an enka taste community: building relationships and reaffirming

taste
Interpersonal exchanges in SC pointed towards the construction and
maintenance of communal relations structured around enka and karaoke. For
example, Mama, Tomo and Fumi explained how the former regularly received
invitations to karaoke competitions and events organised by various
enterprises within the neighbourhood, and would always gather a few regular
patrons to participate. Sometimes, SC would be put in charge of such events,
and Mama explained how she would consult other community leaders in
204
205

Tomo, Group Interview, 21 June 2013.

Ibid.

89

obtaining and setting up event venues. Tomo also described how they all
looked forward to these events, as it was a chance for everyone to dress up and
perform on a proper stage in front of each other (and other elderly enka
enthusiasts). The predominant genre performed was of course enka, and
karaoke teachers specialising in the genre would be called upon to serve as
judges. SC thus acted as a focal point for building intimate neighbourly
relations through enka.
Sometimes, regular participation at SC led to even more intensive
emotional relationships. During my visits, I eventually found out through
Fumi and other regulars that Mura was harbouring romantic feelings for
another elderly male regular, Kaneyama. This became increasingly obvious to
everyone else except Kaneyama over the weeks I visited SC, as she began to
talk more about him to us. Apparently, she had been smitten by his voice
whenever she watched him sing at SC. Eventually, Mura even gathered
enough courage to request for duets with Kaneyama, wrapping her arms
around his while the intro played. However, she turned shy when the time
came to actually sing. Nevertheless, she began to practice more duets in SC in
my later visits, possibly to find more chances to sing with Kaneyama. Besides
providing opportunities to get close to Kaneyama, enka songs also served as
an important medium through which Mura expressed her affections for him.
For example, she favoured songs like Suki ni Natta Hito [The Person I Grew
to Like, released by Miyako Harumi (1948- ) in 1967], because the title
expressed her feelings for Kaneyama.
But often, the Friday regular customers built up communal friendships
through our gatherings at SC. I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of

90

much kindness, as I grew more familiar with Mama, Tomo and the Friday
afternoon regulars. I entertained numerous requests for duets with other
regulars, who relished the chance to sing enka with me because their children
and grandchildren would not do so. As Tomo and Mura noted, I was like a
surrogate grandson for them on Friday afternoons. Often, I was even offered
cover charge waivers by Tomo and Mama. The other regulars also began to
increasingly chat with me about more than just musical interest, and Mura in
particular took an increasing interest in my private life (much to Tomos and
Fumis amusement). They seemed to appreciate not only my singing skills, but
also my song choices and effable interactions with them, to the extent that they
considered me the idol of the kissa. Indeed, Mama would beam on occasion,
Hes like our own Hikawa Kiyoshi!206 Judging from their responses to my
involvement in SC, they seemed very happy that, like a good grandson, I made
the effort to buy into their shared musical tastes in enka and its ideals of
traditional Japan through both my karaoke performances and increasing
emotional attachment to them, even if I was unable to share in their common
experiences of youth as part of their generation.
As Mama put it, We all come together as friends here, even though
you are my customer. The most joy I get out of running this place is when
everybody sings together in fun and harmony. 207 These sentiments were
echoed by Fumi and Tomo. While youve asked me so much about how enka
is related to tradition or not, I think the most important thing really is that we
all have fun singing it. Thats the main point in coming to SC really: to enjoy

206

Hikawa Kiyoshi (1977- ) is the top billing enka singer in todays industry. With his
emotional and youthful performances and approachability to fans, he is known for attracting a
large elderly female fanbase. Mama, Conversation, 21 June 2013.
207
Mama, Written interview, 11 June 2013.

91

each others friendship and company while singing! Fumi explained. 208 Tomo
also described the attraction of SC, after returning a male customers grope on
her breasts and buttocks with a wide smile, Thats how we are in here: playful
around each other. If everyone is happy while visiting here, then so am I!209
SC felt more than an impersonal commercial establishment: it was a focal
point for the building of intimacy through enka. Patrons may have initially
entered because of their interest in enka and karaoke performance, but through
the course of their visits and the neighbourly, romantic and/or friendship ties
built up with other patrons, keeping in touch with one another and maintaining
close communal relationships became a larger reason to keep coming back to
SC. And by frequently revisiting and performing karaoke at SC, a space
dominated and sustained by enka as a common musical language of
communication and interaction, these regulars further reaffirmed, both
individually and collectively, their musical taste for the genre.
When Shimizu from K-club heard about my visits to SC, he became
interested and tagged along with me for a couple of visits in June and July.
After both visits, he effused about the hospitality and emotional warmth of the
place, commenting, That was a really nice time I had back there!210 But he
also suggested why he considered it difficult to make return trips, particularly
alone:

Well, this place is way too far from my home to regularly visit.
But I also think karaoke kissas are also difficult for younger
people like us to step into by ourselves. They all have that
208

Fumi, Email correspondence, 20 June 2013.

Tomo, Conversation, 10 May 2013.
210
Shimizu, Conversation, 30 May 2013.
209

92

foreboding aura about them I think. Theres one near where I

live, but Ive never even thought about going in, because it
looks so dingy from the outside, and you cant see whats
inside as there arent any windows. And then theyre all elderly
folk in there, arent they? I think itd be hard to just go in there
to make friends, because itd be difficult to find common topics
to talk about with the generation gap. Thats why I think you
had a lot of courage to just go in and sing along with the other
regulars at SC.211

Shimizu did not specifically refer to music in pointing out a

generation gap, mainly because he was well-versed in songs from the 1960s
to 1980s. But the discussion on generational differences in music on pages 57
to 59, as well as observations and testimonies from many karaoke participants
in K-club, suggest that differences in musical preferences based on age are
important in younger participants continued aversion to enka and its
associated venues like SC. In the following section, I discuss the musicking
behaviour building up a different communal musical taste among K-club
members, grounded primarily in perceptions of generational difference.

Performing transgressively at a non-genre-limited karaoke setting, K-club

In K-club, I did not have the opportunity to perform in a culturally
incognito manner, as Shimizu quickly introduced me as a foreign researcher
to other participating members at the start of each months gathering. As such,

211

Ibid.

93

my status as a foreigner was known to all the participants I interacted with

over the course of the gatherings, and my karaoke performances were
commented upon in largely culturally essentialist modes of musical
understanding.
I decided to pick up on Shimizus introduction of my research during
the March gathering by singing Kitaguni no Haru not long after. The other
members besides Shimizu were amused, and started jibing about how the
foreigner was the one singing these kinds of songs.212 In particular, Tamura, a
first-time participant, remarked that by singing such an enka classic with
competence, I was very Japanese [Nihonjin rashii].213 Aji also seemed to
have been piqued by my performance, and not long after decided to sing
another trademark enka tune, Funauta [Boat Song] (released in 1979) by
enka legend Yashiro Aki (1950- ). This was one of the few enka songs he
knew, and he added that he was not actually a fan of the genre. It seemed like
he had been motivated to perform an enka song because my performance had
worked to highlight enkas Japaneseness by juxtaposing it with my foreign
status, just like it did for Chano and the two elderly gentlemen at SC (see
pages 85 and 86). My performance of another enka trademark number,
Sakamoto Fuyumis (1967- ) Yozakura Oshichi [Oshichi at the Night
Cherry Blossom] (1994), in May also evoked similar comments and reactions
as in March. 214 They were surprised to see a music video with traditional
motifs being played at a K-club gathering, as their exclamations of Hey! Its a

212

K-club, Kawasaki, Conversation, 31 March 2013.

Tamura, Conversation, 31 March 2013.
214
Oshichi refers to Yaoya Oshichi [Greengrocer Oshichi], a young woman of the
Tokugawa period who tried to commit arson after falling in love with a boy, thinking that she
would be able to meet him just as she first did in the great Tenna fire in Edo in 1681. The
story has become the subject of many novels and plays from the Tokugawa period onwards.
213

94

kimono! suggested.215 They also pointed how out-of-place my rendition felt

because it was the foreigner who was performing a song from a genre they
all regarded as traditionally Japanese.216
However, the transgressive nature of my enka performances seemed to
stem not only from my stepping into a musical realm that I should not have
been familiar with, but also one that K-club members themselves were
unfamiliar with too. At K-club, the disconnect between enka and the other
participants at the gatherings was obvious: I was the only one who attempted
enka songs on my own, with only Shimizu and Aji (only once) choosing enka
songs specifically because I had picked them earlier on. When I did perform
enka songs, participants would express their ignorance of the genre through
bemused looks and comments such as I never thought Id hear such a song in
this kind of gathering.217 They also seemed less enthusiastic about listening to
the actual performance, after the initial reactions to the song choice.
Instead, we mostly performed pop songs from the late 1980s to early
2000s, despite the clubs non-genre policy. Songs by highly popular
performers of the 1990s such as Larc-en-ciel, GLAY, Kome Kome Club and
Fukuyama Masaharu (1969- ) would frequently be enthusiastically performed
consecutively by a few members in what we termed combos or festivals.
Festivals were not only based on likings for common singers, as they were
also started around genres (particularly anime songs and idol pop) and other
themes (such as 1990s nostalgia). I was involved in a few festivals of Larcen-ciel songs, which always started off with one participant selecting one of
their songs seemingly innocuously. Other participants who were fans of the
215

K-club, Kawasaki, Conversation, 26 May 2013.

Ibid.
217
Maiku, Conversation, 28 April 2013.
216

95

band would nod their head in approval, or beam out a wide smile of approval
exclaiming, Natsukashii! [So nostalgic!]. We would then enter other Larcen-ciel songs that we knew into the karaoke machines reservation system, and
record our reservations on a log sheet. The sheet contained a section for us to
comment on our song selections, which clearly showed the kinds of thought
and emotional processes undertaken in our choices. For example, within
festivals those who followed the participant starting the chain would
comment Larc connection, Larc connection 2, and so on.
These connections were never coordinated beforehand and happened
spontaneously during gatherings, even if we had planned to sing other songs.
There did not seem a need for prior coordination, because according to Hikki,
these songs were common sense for people of our generation [watashitachi
no totte atarimae ni shitteiru uta].218 However, other participants expressed a
genuine surprise at my ability to keep up with them in these festivals of
1990s songs and singers. Their comments at my performance of these songs
were highly similar to those I received when I performed enka at SC after
revealing my foreigner status. Hey, where did you learn those songs from?
Were they popular in Singapore? Are you sure you didnt live in Japan as a
kid? Its incredible how many songs you know.219 It seemed like most K-club
participants did not know of the surge in popularity of Japanese popular
cultural products such as dramas, anime and pop music across Asia in the mid1990s and early-2000s. Instead, these pop songs were very much Japanese
and meant only for domestic consumption. My knowledge and performance of

218

Refer to pages 72 and 73 for Hikkis demographic background. Hikki, Conversation, 26

May 2013.
219
K-club, Kawasaki, Conversation, 26 May 2013.

96

these songs was transgressive because of my foreign status, similar to the way
they and SC regulars thought about my enka performances.
K-club members did express their recognition of enka as a kind of
music linked to tradition, rather than being contemporary or modern. For
example, Shimizu was quite clear in distinguishing between Westernsounding pops [poppusu] that catered towards young audiences and enka
which he found quintessentially Japanese:

TKF: Ive used these terms like enka, kaykyoku and

Showa kay throughout this conversation. But what does enka
exactly mean? What kind of defining characteristics do you
think it has?
S: Its a uniquely Japanese type of music, I think. For example,
theres pops and J-Pop, which really refers to popular
music. And that really is from America isnt it?
TKF: Well definitely it was America that developed the mass
media forms and technologies that allowed for the growth of
popular music.
S: Right. But enka, thats Japanese isnt it [Demo enka wa
Nihon deshou?].
TKF: But which parts exactly are Japanese?
S: I would say the vocal singing techniques and the melody
lines. For example, theres that video of AKB48s Heavy

97

Rotation being sung in an enka style right? 220 Thats really

different from the usual technique isnt it? And the melody
sounded different, too, didnt it? Thats what sets enka from JPop, that uniquely Japanese feel.221

It became clear later that Shimizu was using the term Japanese
interchangeably with traditional, when he argued that enka should be
considered as a traditional cultural form to be preserved, just like sumo and
kabuki have.
But Shimizu and other K-club members also expressed their inability
to empathise with the meanings expressed in the genre. Shimizu noted how his
attitude towards enka songs was a strategically studious one, as he wanted to
sing them at other karaoke clubs focusing on songs from the Showa period
that he also participated in. He also noted, Enka is not a genre that you can
belt out easily at any kind of karaoke group, like K-club for example. The vast
majority of people just arent interested at all, and itll most likely be a crowd
dampener.222
Most members at K-club expressed a generational disconnect with
enka. Maiku described this disconnect most succinctly, when he identified
himself, at 47, as being part of a generation that came after enkas popularity
peaked. His impression of enka fans was that they were people about a decade
older than himself, and he also noted that few of his friends of a similar age
listened to enka. Instead, they were bigger fans of kaykyoku and new music
220

AKB48 is a highly popular Japanese female idol group that has come to dominate the
Oricon charts in recent years with a slew of number one singles and albums. They specialise
mainly in up-tempo and energetic numbers such as Heavy Rotation.
221
Shimizu, Personal interview, 9 June 2013.
222
Ibid.

98

from the 1970s and 1980s. He summarised his opinion on enka by saying, I
only sing enka songs as a joke, not really as a serious hobby.223
Instead, while a large degree of nostalgia was indeed practiced at Kclub, as seen from how participants selected and reacted to songs, the music
that most members had the greatest nostalgic connection with was Japanese
pop and rock music from the later 1980s to early 2000s. Many members noted
that they were in their adolescence or early adulthood during that period.
Shimizu talked about exploring music on his own for the first time. 224 The
songs that he sang at K-club gatherings were those most memorable for him
during the period. His thoughts were echoed by Hikki, who explained, My
parents were really strict and kept me away from all that teenage entertainment
when I was an adolescent. But when I was 20 and started to go out and explore
music for myself, it was then that Larc-en-ciels rock music struck me the
most. It was an eye-opening experience to listen to their music, and that was
how I got into them.225
K-club participants also expressed their inability to grasp the kinds of
attitudes and ideals portrayed as traditionally Japanese in the genre. Aji
provided the following explanation, when he talked about his preference for
late-1980s and early-1990s pop and his thoughts on enka:

Yume wo Shinjite [Believe in Dreams, released by

Tokunaga Hideaki (1961- ) in 1990] was the first single that I
bought, while the other two songs were ones that I really liked
back in high schoolFirst of all, I was just surrounded by such
223

Maiku, Conversation, 28 April 2013.

Shimizu, Conversation, 28 April 2013.
225
Hikki, Conversation, 28 April 2013.
224

99

J-Pop back in those days, as I used to watch them on TV and

listen to them on radio a lot. I think the lyrics and melodies also
really appealed to the sensibilities of youngsters at the time: it
was really easy for us to understand the logic and emotionsI
may appreciate the kind of worldview presented in enka, but
its not something that younger fans can wrap our head around
quickly [wakamono no kykan shiyasui mono dewa nai]. I
really need some time to understand how the imagery and logic
in enka works. Thats why its not that appealingI find it oldfashioned [furukusai] to be honest. The music isnt targeted at
me.226

In fact, all of the K-club participants I spoke to (including even

Shimizu) stated that they did not see themselves becoming enka fans even if
they entered middle-age. They reasoned that their empathy with the other
genres that they preferred, and lack of it for enka, would continue to hinder
their ability to appreciate the genre even as they grew older. This seems to run
counter to the widespread idea that all Japanese naturally turn towards enka
when they enter their middle and old age because it speaks to Japanese values
and aesthetics, as Christine Yano cites from enka fans she interviewed in the
1990s.227
Instead, communal musicking behaviour at K-club centred around
the building of musical taste for late 1980s to early 2000s pop and rock.
Members seemed to invest a substantial amount of time planning through the
226
227

Aji, Email correspondence, 27 June 2013.

Yano, The Marketing of Tears, p.61.

100

songs they wanted to sing, and learning new songs to perform, for every
gathering. Even first-timers sometimes brought along personal lists, stored on
mobile phones or notepads, of songs to perform, based on their research of
song logs on K-clubs website and other lists. In fact, the website even
provides an analysis of the variety of each members karaoke repertoire.
Shimizu suggested the seriousness of amateur participation in karaoke clubs,
as he mentioned how members sought to showcase both their vocal prowess
and wide knowledge of music.
Yet, as mentioned earlier in the section, K-club was not a place where
one could just perform a song from any genre or time. Instead, song choices
were circumscribed discreetly, such as through indifferent responses by other
participants which dampened the mood of both the performer and others, or
enthusiastic responses to commonly liked songs. Indeed, a few participants
never took part in a second gathering, after awkward first experiences that
generated little enthusiasm from other participants due to their song choices.
Some participants, like Hari, took part in further gatherings with song choices
that matched more closely to the predominant musical taste of K-club (most
probably after observation and research) than when they first started. Thus,
participation in K-club gatherings worked towards the reaffirmation of a
particular musical taste guided by the demographic characteristics of the
majority of participants, especially regulars.

Thinking about enka fandom beyond culture and age: Performing at NSK
When I first participated in NSK gatherings in May, a number of
members arrived just in time or late, and did not catch Nanas introduction of

101

my background as a foreign researcher on enka before I started singing. This

allowed me to perform culturally incognito for a certain amount of time,
before Michi, the clubs organiser, called for a round of self-introductions.
During this time, I performed Yumeoi-zake as my first song at an
NSK gathering. Again, my performance generated a surprised and enthusiastic
response, based on the discrepancies between my younger age, song choice
and performance style. Toshiko, who was one of the younger members in her
early forties, commented, Wow, I was surprised by how deep your voice went.
Its very different from how youngsters today sing! 228 Meanwhile, Hama,
who was seated beside me, started a long conversation by talking about how
enka and Showa popular music were followed generally by a more mature
audience. He mentioned how his own children, who were of the same age as
me, did not listen to these songs at all.
However, culturally essentialist frames of evaluation again took on
hegemonic status at NSK once I had fully introduced myself as a foreign
researcher to the other participants. Indeed, for Nana, my selection of enka as
a research interest seemed fascinating. She wrote to me in an email, Im
definitely more than happy to help you in the research if any more ideas come
to mind. Its wonderful to have someone from outside Japan like you study
about our Japanese culture [Nihon no bunka].229 As I performed enka classics
like Naniwa Bushi Dayo Jinsei wa after my self-introduction, Gucchi, one of
the more boisterous members in NSK, jokingly commented, Hey, youre
actually Japanese right? Youre only pretending to be a Singaporean right?230
Other members laughed and agreed with him, even as I coyly replied that I
228

Toshiko, Conversation, 11 May 2013.

Nana, Email correspondence, 17 May 2013.
230
Gucchi, Conversation, 8 June 2013.
229

102

was indeed a foreigner. Well, your heart is definitely very much Japanese
[kokoro wa nihonjin]! Toshiko replied.231 Indeed, I think hes more Japanese
than all of us around here [orera yori nihonjin rashii]! Mushi added.232
However, just as in K-club, enka was not the only popular music genre
thought of in such a culturally essentialist fashion. Japanese music
encompassed many other genres that were just as easily discussed in the same
terms as enka was. For example, during her self-introduction, Toshiko
explained her love for later kaykyoku in the 1970s and 1980s (described on
page 48):

I listen to a lot of different genres both Japanese and Western,

but I really like Showa kaykyoku. They bring out the themes
of longing and sorrow in a very intricate manner. I regard them
as cultural treasures of Japan, because they express Japanese
sentimentality very well. I hope that these songs continue to be
celebrated and sung by more people, and can continue to
connect us all together.233

Meanwhile, Mushi described his love for Japanese childrens and

choral music in a separate interview:

I think childrens and choral music have really beautiful lyrics

and melodies that easily evoke sceneries and situations that are
very traditionalThe themes in these songs, such as the
231

Toshiko, Conversation, 8 June 2013.

Mushi, Conversation, 8 June 2013.
233
Toshiko, Conversation, 11 May 2013.
232

103

changing seasons and intimate family ties, are something that I

hope will be preserved for later generations [nokoshiteokitai
shizen ya kazoku no kakawari ga shiki wo tshite
utawareteiru].234

Still, there were three self-identified enka fans among the NSK
members, in Hama, Ina and Akko. Particularly, Hama talked to me at length
about his emotional and experiential connections with the genre. The personal
connections he raised seemed very similar to the ones that SC regulars made
with enka:

I think of enka as a genre that exists in my memories [omoide

no naka no janru], rather than being a present genre. So I only
focus on the enka sung in the past. I like to sing it, but
overwhelmingly the songs that I grew up withI think old
people tend to settle on the enka that they listened to from the
past because of their fond memories, rather than listening to the
new enka stuff being put outexcept for the really hardcore
enka fans, most people dont listen to the new enka songs.235

For Hama, enka was a genre mainly associated with his childhood in
Iizuka. He spoke about his experiences listening to enka as a child, and how it
related to how he felt listening to the same songs now:

234
235

Mushi, Email correspondence, 14 June 2013.

Hama, Personal interview, 18 May 2013.

104

I listened to enka most as a kid when I was watching those

music TV programs that I had mentioned earlier with my
familymy parents, who are obviously much older than I am,
loved this kind of musicI learned the songs through the
course of watching the programs with themI also think that
us youngsters of the time could not really understand the kind
of images and ideals that were sung about in enkaits
something that we came to understand later, and indeed there is
a sense of looking back at those songs now and finding them
more appealingI sometimes really feel like listening to the
enka that I do know of from my childhoodto relive my
memories.236

However, many other members vocally expressed their disconnect

from enka. NSK members commonly griped about the use of the distinctive
kobushi vocal technique. Mushi commented, I just cant do kobushi, or sing
boisterously like enka singers, so its not something that Ill sing in karaoke.
And thats why I never got interested in listening closely to enka, even if I do
know the really famous songs because they were always on TV back then.237
Nanas friend Hiro echoed this sentiment, saying, I can only listen to the less
stereotypical/hardcore enka, because I dont enjoy kobushi.238
Meanwhile, Nana expressed her disagreement with lyrical themes in
enka, and stated how she saw 1970s and 1980s kaykyoku and contemporary
J-Pop as being more representative of contemporary female sentiments:
236

Ibid.
Mushi, Conversation, 8 June 2013.
238
Hiro, Conversation, 8 June 2013.
237

105

I find the lyrical content too patterned and formulaicthe

songs always seem to talk about some kind of longing and
yearningI dont agree with that kind of sentiment, even
though its nice to look back in lifeI also dont think its an
accurate depiction of relationships and females in Japan
anymore, as were more forward-looking these days. Women
these days just move on to the next person if a relationship
doesnt work out.239

Musical exposure in adolescence and young adulthood also played a

part in building up musical taste for other genres rather than enka, even though
many NSK members were in the same age demographic as the SC regulars.
Mushi talked about his musical experiences in his youth, which pushed him
towards a greater appreciation of choir music:

Otomisan [Miss Otomi, released by Kasuga Hachir

(1924-1991) in 1954] is a particularly memorable song for me,
as it reminds me of my childhood when I played marbles and
stuff outside, while the promotional vehicle would pass by my
town. But when I got into middle school, I was suddenly called
in to join the school choir. I didnt know what was going on
really, but straightaway I was thrown into the preparations for
the nationwide NHK Choir Competition. Eventually we won

239

Nana, Email correspondence, 30 May 2013.

106

the prefectural section and appeared at the national round,

while my brothers high school ended in third place. That was
when I finally got over my inferiority complex when it came to
singing within the family.240

Mushis middle school in Aomori Prefecture was well-known for its

choir, which often emerged victorious in regional and national competitions.
The school was also popular for its rigorous academic environment, such that
Mushi commuted to school from his home in a neighbouring town. As such,
his middle school experience can be thought of as rather elite, compared to the
kinds of non-elite educational experiences funnelling students towards
working-class vocations described by David Slater in his study of student
stratification processes in middle and high school.241
Meanwhile, Nana talked about how she never developed a liking for
enka, even though she knew a few songs and considered it a traditional form
of popular music:

I never liked enka because I was influenced by my father, who

did not like the genre. Only rarely did he listen to singers like
tsuki Miyako (1946- ) and Mori Masako (1958- ), whom he
considered had good voicesInstead, I listened mostly to other
kinds of kaykyoku when I grew up. And when I entered my
twenties, I started getting into Western popular music through
240

Mushi, Email correspondence, 20 June 2013.

David H. Slater, The New Working Class of Urban Japan: Socialization and
Contradiction from Middle School to the Labor Market, Ishida Hiroshi and David H. Slater
(eds.), Social Class in Contemporary Japan, (Milton, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge,
2009), pp.137-69.
241

107

Barbara Streisand, whom I thought had a really impressive

voice. I was introduced to such music by my brother, who also
listened to Western hits of the day, and fell in love with it.242

Nanas (and her brothers) exposure to Western popular music is not

surprising when considering that she grew up in Yokohamas Yamate
neighbourhood. While the city is well-known for its cosmopolitan and
international influence, Yamate is especially famous for having been an
affluent neighbourhood since the late Tokugawa period, with many rich
residents and Western expatriates, as well as diplomatic missions and
international schools.243 Nanas upbringing was thus not only urban, but also
relatively well-off and internationally-influenced, especially when compared
to SCs regular patrons. These social contexts, I suggest, have had important
effects in determining the kinds of musical influences that Nana was exposed
to as she came of age and developed her musical preferences.
Despite the seeming diversity in social experiences and musical tastes,
members were enthusiastic in utilising the online bulletin board to discuss
their song choices for previous and upcoming gatherings. Michi also utilised
the bulletin board to collect ideas for and announce lyrical themes around
which song selections for the next gathering were to be based. The amount of
thought put into song selections, through the discussions and close adherence
to the changing themes for each gathering, showed the serious attitude of

242

Nana, Email correspondence, 26 May 2013.

Carolyn Stevens provides an overview of the historical development of Yokohama and
Yamate in Carolyn S. Stevens, On the Margins of Japanese Society: Volunteers and the
Welfare of the Urban Underclass, (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), p.40.
243

108

participants towards karaoke performance. Participants also talked about

learning to sing unfamiliar songs through repeated individual practice.
But such discussion and experimentation was restricted to only Showa
popular music (and even then, mainly to 1970s and 1980s idol pop and newmusic), as per the stated genre focus set by Michi in creating this internet
karaoke club. Members would even meekly apologise in advance for
performing songs that they felt were straying (for example, being too
Western) from the usual genres in NSK. Thus, communal musicking at
NSK worked to further entrench musical tastes for Showa popular music that
was already derived from members socio-musical experiences.
As such, my ethnographic research within the three karaoke settings,
particularly in terms of transgressive experiences, revealed two points
regarding enkas claim towards a unitary musical identity. Firstly, musical
preference for enka in karaoke participation, particularly as a representation of
music fans identity, was only restricted to settings such as kissas and snacks.
Even then, only songs from the 1960s to 1980s were favoured, as observed
from SC regulars lukewarm responses to my performances of recent enka hits,
which were seen as transgressive song choices. But more important was how
my performances of other genres at K-club and NSK were viewed as
culturally transgressive in a similar manner to my enka performances at SC,
once other karaoke participants found out about my foreigner status. Also,
anecdotes by K-club and NSK participants rejected enkas representativeness
of their socio-musical identities (in terms of age, education and wealth), and
explained other popular genres in the same culturally essentialist and nostalgic
terms (both personally and generationally) as SC regulars did for enka. These

109

anecdotes and evocations of cultural transgression across various genres and

karaoke

settings

highlight

how

enkas

claim

towards

representing

Japaneseness only holds for a segment of the Japanese music audience

identified by specific generational demographics, educational characteristics
and social experiences of migration in the 1960s and 1970s.
Secondly, communal musicking behaviour further entrenched the
social differences behind the divergent musical tastes found between
participants at snacks/kissas and boxes. As participants congregated according
to their musical tastes shaped by their socio-musical experiences and
interacted with each other in the settings, they did not only highlight common
musical preferences and understandings to build rapport, but also effectively
demarcated musical meanings and the boundaries of communal karaoke
participation by pointing out transgressions in song choices and biographical
characteristics (as happened to me in all three settings). These served to build
up a sense of exclusivity within each kind of setting, attracting fans with
similar musical tastes while deterring those with different ones. Hence,
communal musicking served to reinforce differences in musical tastes, which
were in turn largely dependent on participants age, education, location, and
other kinds of social experiences.

110

Conclusion
Enka as a Marker of Social Difference

Shortcomings of culturally essentialist understandings of enka

Popular discourse about enka has overwhelmingly described the genre
in terms of its Japaneseness. Textually-based analyses, such as those
provided by Christine Yano, Fumio Koizumi and Maki Okada, have reflected
ideas of the genre as an expression and inheritance of Japanese musical
tradition, by arguing that its lyrical, compositional and performative kata can
be traced back to pre-modern cultural forms. As this repository of Japanese
tradition, it thus acts as an archive of the nations collective past, and a
source of an essential and authentic Japanese identity.244
But such culturally essentialist understandings of enka fail to explain
how it occupies a peripheral position within a heavily segmented Japanese
music industry, and how its fans constitute an increasingly smaller portion of
the Japanese music audience. Attempts to revitalise the genre by consciously
appealing to a culturally essentialist framework of understanding, as seen in
Jeros career, have also failed to reclaim enka as a pre-eminent genre within
contemporary Japanese popular music, or appeal to existing fans of the genre,
beyond a moment of fame driven perhaps by novelty.
The failure of culturally essentialist understandings to explain how
audiences associate themselves (or not) with enka thus highlights the need to
utilise sociological concepts such as musical taste and musicking to
investigate enka consumption. Being concerned about how music audiences

244

Yano, Tears of Longing, p.17.

111

make value judgements and exercise individualised preferences about music

products, taste explains why enka fans love the genre while non-fans remain
ambivalent or even loathe it, even in the face of culturally essentialist
depictions of national tradition. An exploration of fans and non-fans
musicking activities that generate musical meaning allows us to explain how
musical taste for or against enka is developed. More importantly, studying
musicking behaviour also allows us to understand how fans and non-fans,
through their attitudes and choices towards enka, create musical and sociocultural meanings that suggest how they conceptually approach Japan. In
other words, Japan no longer becomes an imposed homogenous identity
represented by enka imagery constructed by nationalist intellectuals and
conservative music producers. Instead, Japan can now be understood from
the perspectives of music listeners themselves, who actively build up and
sustain their own socio-musical identities through acts of musicking via taste.

Specific socio-historical origins of enka and its fanbase

As such, in this thesis I investigated the kinds of musicking involved
in the development and sustenance of musical tastes, particularly towards enka.
I showed that enka and its fanbase were born from discourses emerging from
the socio-historical and musical changes of 1960s Japan. Firstly, this was a
time which saw increasing confrontation between two different modes of
popular music production, pitting the existing in-house system against
freelance, self-producing writers. An essentially organisational struggle,
however, took on a heavy ideological aspect when music intellectuals affixed
ideas of Japaneseness and tradition to the musical products and practices

112

in-house production system, and the Western to those of self-produced

musicians. The publication of Hiroyuki Itsukis 1966 novel Enka and Keiko
Fujis successful debut in 1969 as specifically an enka star (re-)invented the
term enka as a specific popular music genre. Subsequent enka songs and
performers then cemented the genres image as a representative of Japanese
tradition and the past, through musical content and practices which became
increasingly patterned as kata.
A similar division also occurred in the 1960s and 1970s between fans
of enka and newer Western-influenced genres. Urban industry-oriented
policies of the 1960s caused severe strains on urban infrastructure and
standards of living, while draining the economic, social and cultural vitality of
the rural countryside. Such social conditions precipitated the development of
the furusato nostalgia of an idealised rural past, which enka referenced heavily.
More mature audiences, many of whom were new urban migrants and had also
grown up with the kaykyoku of the old in-house system that enka descended
from, flocked towards the genre. Meanwhile, Western-derived styles, such as
jazz, GS, rock and their subsequent derivatives, began to attract large numbers
of urban youths instead. This effectively meant the segmentation of the
popular music audience market, which has been commonly described in
generational terms. Audience segmentation would eventually persist till the
present, as I show with my field research in three kinds of karaoke settings
around Greater Tokyo, the karaoke kissa SC and Internet karaoke clubs Kclub and NSK.

113

Thinking about social difference through enka

My field research highlighted significant contrasts between the karaoke
settings in participant demographics, musical preferences, and communal ties
established within. Understanding these differences in terms of musicking
behaviour and communal taste building highlights how musical taste for enka
is held only by some older fans that were mainly born in the 1940s to 1950s in
rural Japan (especially the Thoku region), and migrated to urban areas such
as Tokyo in the industrialisation movement of the 1960s and early 1970s.
Furthermore, these fans specifically favoured 1960s to 1980s enka, which they
found relatable to their rural youth experiences and nostalgic furusato longing.
While many non-fans also identified enka as a traditional genre, as
seen by the presence of such views not only in a fan-dominated setting like SC
but also in K-club and NSK, few empathised with the content of this tradition
as an essential source of national/cultural identity and representation. Many
participants in K-club and NSK expressed outright their rejection of enka as
representing their Japanese identity, and suggested other genres that could
just as easily be considered Japanese. This lack of empathy stemmed not
only from a perceived generational gap, as seen by K-club members rejection
of the enka in terms of a lack of personal and emotional connection, but also
other social markers of difference, such as the place where one grew up in (as
with Nana) or educational experience (as with Mushi). My investigation thus
suggests that issues of locale, family income and education, which Bourdieu
deeply investigates in understanding class-based taste formation and
differences, are also important social determinants for musical taste for enka,
besides generational cohort as suggested by Minamida Katsuya. Although the

114

current research has been unable to investigate deeper into how these social
indicators affected the initial formation of musical taste for both enka fans and
non-fans, and also suffers from a limited sample size that poses problems of
representativeness, more in-depth and broad-based comparative studies
(utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods) of musicking behaviour
will be important in further clarifying the socio-musical dynamics of enka
appreciation.
Hence, when enka fans and non-fans congregated according to their
various musical preferences into different karaoke settings, these settings
already highlighted the social differences existing within the Japanese music
audience. Common musical preferences and understandings allowed
participants in each setting to utilise their preferred genres (enka in SC, 1980s2000s pop-rock in K-club and non-enka Showa popular music in NSK) and
these genres thematic contents as a sort of common language among
themselves, such as with Muras romantic appeals to Kaneyama in SC or the
excitement generated by Larc-en-ciels songs in K-club. That each setting
was also centred on particular musical tastes meant that musical choices and
participation were discreetly (or even more overtly at NSK) restricted, through
the generation of awkward or indifferent reactions to song and genre
selections, or even biographical characteristics, deemed transgressive (as I
found out with my own transgressive performances in each setting). The
effects of such restrictions are evident in the serious thought that karaoke
participants put towards song selection. Through such restriction of musical
taste and utilisation of common musical understanding as an exclusive code
of communication, an aura of exclusivity, in terms of both taste and

115

membership, is constructed around each kind of setting, and social differences

between participants from different settings are further entrenched. Enka fans
and non-fans thus continue their musicking activities and build their musical
tastes in isolation from each other.
The study of the role of enka within different taste communities,
signified by the different karaoke settings, has thus revealed that rather than
being a genre that unifies Japanese music lovers from all walks of life into a
common identity, enka performs a more divisive role of marking off a certain
fan demographic. The older men and women, many of whom have moved
from the countryside into the city and share a love for the genre, are able to
come together to celebrate a common love for the music and its ideals.
Through enka, they even build up communal practices and identities which in
turn celebrate and reaffirm their musical taste. But such communal musicking
behaviour remains strictly the realm of these enka fans only. Other
demographic groups fail to relate to the genres ideals and practices in order to
participate in such musicking, and instead engage in their own communal
musicking while actively distancing themselves from enka and its fandom.
Such segregation has given rise to a variety of Japanese musical soundscapes,
in which the relationship between Japan, music and the individual and/or
group is constructed through musicking activities referencing very divergent
musical, social and biographical experiences. Japan is thus constituted in
different ways via different media content for different kinds of music
consumers. Any attempts at claiming for enkas Japaneseness, in turn,
reveals more about the socio-musical identity of the claim-maker than any
inherent essence of Japan within the music.

116

Arguing that enka is empirically a marker of social difference then

begs the question: how have discursive links between enka and Japanese
national tradition been maintained, despite empirical evidence suggesting
otherwise, since its origins in the late 1960s? It is tempting to simply explain
this away as a form of false ideology, as Yano suggests when she describes
the genre as an aestheticised memory of pain that neuters experiences of loss
and displacement into something desirable.245 But such explanations still do
not get at the heart of the question of why both fans and non-fans talk about
enka using ideas of Japaneseness and tradition, even as they may or may
not identify with these ideas. How have the mechanisms of supposedly false
ideology operated to delineate the limits of enka discourse strictly along
culturally essentialistic/nationalistic lines? How has the socio-historical
condition of enkas moment of origin been stretched to the present for both
enka fans and non-fans, such that the limits have been remarkably stable?
Perhaps more in-depth examination of the positions and roles (or
habitus) of listeners within the socio-economic condition of Japan from the
1960s onwards via sustained ethnographic studies, and also of the production
and mediation processes and practices of enka products during this period, is
necessary in order to adequately answer this question. These are definitely
highly important areas of future research in understanding enkas position in
Japans society and culture. This thesis has provided an important first step
towards such future research possibilities, by providing a more empirically
grounded and thus more representative understanding of actual musicking
practices and processes in enka.

245

See page 28 of this thesis for Yanos discussion.

117

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