KAWANAKA MIYUKI: SINGING HER MOTHER’S LIFE.

by Cole Weber

One of the most immediate impressions one has upon meeting Kawanaka Miyuki is that of a veteran star whose charm, gratitude and high-charged energy are the obvious ingredients of her long-standing success and popularity. This year again, she has been hard at work, having performed both in “Hosoude Hanjoki” at the Shin Kabukiza in her hometown of Osaka in January, and then in July in “Hakata Ninjou Abare Geisha” at the Meijiza theater in Tokyo. In May she released a new single, “Onna no Isshou. Ase no Hana”. Kawanaka Miyuki very kindly took time out of her busy schedule to talk with Eye-Ai about her career and upcoming projects.

Eye-Ai: Our boss saw you in Saipan this past February

Kawanaka: I was at an izakaya (Japanese style neighborhood bistro) called “Coconuts Tei” in Saipan. It was both delicious and very reasonable.

Eye-Ai: We have many readers in Hawaii. Have you worked in Hawaii?

Kawanaka: Four years ago I did work for NHK's "Nodojiman." Hawaii is such a great place. The climate there is just so very wonderful! I was doing some work and was only there for three days, so unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to sightsee or even go to the beach. But I didn’t even mind; just being in Hawaii was great. Even if it had only been for just a single day’s work, it would have been worth being there. I had taken my father along for a vacation and while he normally has to take certain kinds of medications here in Japan, there, in Hawaii, he didn’t need to and we just figured that the difference must have been due to the difference in climate. We even talked about opening an okonomiyaki restaurant there. (“Okonomiyaki” is a kind of thin, unsweetened batter-fried pancake filled with various ingredients.)

Eye-Ai: Do you have any plans to return any time soon?

Kawanaka: Unfortunately, no. I have no Hawaiian concerts for the near future planned at the moment. But I would say, I dream about living in a villa there!

Eye-Ai: Would you tell our readers something about your new single, “Onna no Isshou. Ase no Hana”. In the song, you so movingly sing about your mother’s life of hard work, generosity and self-sacrifice. The title is interesting, and a rough rendition in English would be something like, “A woman’s whole life” the sweat of a flower.

Kawanaka: My mother celebrated her seventy-seventh birthday last year, and the song, which the record company staff wanted to write for her, is a present and tribute to her. In Japan, somebody’s seventy-seventh year is known as “kiju” and “kiju no iwai” is their seventy-seventh birthday celebration. “Onna no Isshou--Ase no Hana” which was released this past May, is for my mother’s “kiju no iwai”. You know, I think the sense of perseverance and hard work Iive had all my life, is what has enabled me to succeed and to continue enjoying my career. Had I grown up in a more prosperous family, perhaps I wouldn’t have learned enough of the hard stick-to-it-ness that is simply required to succeed as an enka singer and stage performer. I feel lucky for that, and therefore, I have an incredible sense of gratitude for what my mother did for her family. Those values have enabled me to dedicate my life to something I so enjoy doing and are a direct result of what I learned as a small girl, watching my mother work so incredibly hard and so very diligently. My mother ran an okonomiyaki restaurant in Osaka when we were growing up, and of course restaurant work is very hard work. So, I guess, growing up in that environment, I was taught to look up to women like that, women who worked hard and valued what they could accomplish just with the principles of hard work. Because we didn’t have very much, I had a lot of dreams. I think if your dreams disappear, you lose everything. Respect for one’s parents, or oya-koukou (filial piety) is a natural thing. My singing of “Onna no Isshou. Ase no Hana” is an expression of my “oya-koukou” as well as it being a tribute to my mother.

 

Eye-Ai: We trust your mother is still in good health?

Kawanaka: Very much so. My elder brother now runs our family’s restaurant in Osaka, and my mother, who now lives in Tokyo, runs another okonomiyaki restaurant up here.

Eye-Ai: Well, you quite obviously come from a very active family. How do you keep up your energy level and meet the demands of such a busy schedule?

Kawanaka: Singing and performing definitely do require a lot of energy. The source of my internal energy is the fact that my mother is still alive and is healthy. Every singer and performer is different some perform to make money or to achieve fame but I want my songs to make my mother smile, I want to make her laugh. This is the inspiration I draw from, and it is what supports me when I am on stage. And of course the energy I get from my fans supports me as well. Whether it is a concert or a stage performance, the warm reaction I receive from the audience makes me happy. Performing well and the satisfaction I get from it keeps me going. And of course physical health is important too. You can’t sing unless you are physically feeling your best. As a routine, I go to a sports club and swim. I like to swim.

Eye-Ai: Have you been singing enka from the beginning of your career, which has spanned over 27 years now?

Kawanaka: Both enka and pops. As a child, I often took part in the Nodojiman singing contest. I sung enka in that and stood out.

Eye-Ai: Would you talk a little about both the most satisfying and most difficult aspects of your career to date?

Kawanaka: I think I would liken the satisfaction of singing and being on stage to that of being a baseball batter and getting up to the plate. It’s not the homerun but rather just the chance to get up and hold the bat that matters. Itﾕs the pleasure of having the chance to keep doing what I like to do that gives me so much satisfaction. I work constantly throughout the year, singing on stage or making CDs, and of course sometimes there is the feeling that something’s a little bit off in my work, and I’m not all the way satisfied, but then that’s the friendship between two aspects of the work, total satisfaction in having the chance to do something I love, and living up to my expectations.

Eye-Ai: The most difficult?

Kawanaka: When things don’t come out well or don’t have the effect I anticipated. Of course when you trying something the hardest is precisely when it doesn’t tend to work out as you would have expected.

Eye-Ai: Which is harder for you performing on the stage or on TV?

Kawanaka: Of course TV is more difficult. It requires the use of different nerves. You can’t know how many tens of thousands of people you are performing in front of for example, which is why it is so very nerve-wracking actually. There is no response to what you have done in a TV studio. On stage there is an immediate reaction from the audience of course, and therefore, I much prefer the stage. Performing is a two-way process and you need a reaction.

Eye-Ai: You have performed on stage so much. Which has been the most memorable performance?

Kawanaka: "Hosoude Hanjoki" was the most impressive for me because I was intrigued with the role of the proprietress of a ryokan in Atagawa, who thought that if you only worked hard, you would make money. The heroine was like a double of my mother.

Eye-Ai: Is it harder to perform in your hometown of Osaka?

Kawanaka: Yes. It’s harder to perform there, and conversely, it is easiest to perform in a place where I know nothing about the place. Osaka people are a little special too, because they will tell you directly how they feel. Depending on place, the reaction I get from an audience is different.

Eye-Ai: If you could live your life all over again, would you choose the same career?

Kawanaka: I would do the exact same thing! What other job could possibly give me the feeling I have when I sing? I think singing is the best job anybody could have, regardless of how many CDs I may or may not sell. I want people to enjoy themselves listening to my music.

Eye-Ai: You have your own “black cat” goods brand and accessories such as mobile phone straps. Would you explain how you started that? Why the black cat?

Kawanaka: There is an apartment building near my mother’s restaurant, and one day some children, who were playing around there, found a small black cat that apparently had been abandoned. The kids wanted so badly to keep the cat but couldn’t, because they weren’t allowed to keep pets in their apartment building. This was a very sweet cat, and my mother ended up taking it in. I think the cat must have absorbed the caring energy of the children. The cat made her so happy. The next year, my single "Futari Zake" was a big hit; this was in the 1980s and I sang it while remembering my parents. Some time after that, I was walking by a construction site in our neighborhood, and heard a small kitten crying. It sounded like it was saying “help me”. It was so cute and small. I picked it up and then my single "Nirin So" went on to be a hit. There is such a mysterious connection I apparently have with cats. I think it must be “neko no ongaeshi” in my case! (ongaeshi is the concept of repaying a favor, and originally comes from a Japanese fairytale in which a crane, in order to show gratitude to his owner for having set him free, weaves a gorgeous cloth out of its own feathers. Neko is cat in this case.) My fans told me to make a black cat mobile phone strap and that these would sell well at concerts.

Eye-Ai: You will be performing in “Hakata Ninjou Abare Geisha” at the Meijiza in Tokyo this summer. What is your performance/concert schedule looking like for the remainder of the year?

Kawanaka: I don’t have any more performances scheduled until the fall of next year, but I will continue to give concerts throughout Japan for the rest of this year. I would like to continue singing what people would like to hear. Japan’s economic downturn has lasted for more than a decade now, and so many people continue to suffer financially. Companies going through restructuring, people getting laid off, some companies going bankrupt it is a hard situation people are in right now. So, I want to send out a message through my songs, especially to the mothers who may be working hard to support their families, to have confidence in yourself, and to work hard and trust that things will get better. I want to reach out to everybody through my concerts, and send out this message.