[4] Inspired by the rhythms of Japanese Bon Odori and Korean samul nori, he then created his own genre in the mid-1980s and 1990s that he dubbed "enyatotto" (エンヤトット).
[6] His childhood home was his father's church (established by William Merrell Vories, the founder of OMI Medical Supplies Corp).
He dropped out of college, threw himself into socialism, and after meeting folk singer Tomoya Takaishi [ja], he started to play guitar.
He was quickly labelled the "God of Folk", but due to the Workers Music Council's strife, the pressure he felt to maintain his image, and the intentions of his own camp (he was already beginning to feel he had reached a dead end with his direct protest songs, and he was exploring transitioning to rock as a solution), in May 1969 he temporarily disappeared from the public eye.
He released the albums Kin'iro no Lion (1973) and Dare zo Kono-ko ni Ai no Te o (1975), which were produced by Happy End drummer Takashi Matsumoto.
He then returned to Victor, on their sub-label Invitation, and strengthened this new sound with the albums Machi wa Sutekina Carnival (1979), Storm (1980), and Graffiti (1981).
In 1980, he sang, "The Prayer of G", which was used as the ending theme song for the television drama Hattori Hanzō: Kage no Gundan which starred Sonny Chiba.
In the middle of the 1980s, having been dropped from the major record labels, he started the Bare Knuckle Review tour where he traveled all around Japan, in accompaniment with a guitar and a harmonica, singing in his former folk style.