Ryūkōka
Bin Uehara and Yoshio Tabata are considered to be among the founders of the modern style of kobushi singing.
Although enka branched off from ryūkōka, many singers of the latter genre proclaimed strong disdain for its stylistic descendant.
[11][fn 2] However, street performers called "enka-shi" (演歌師) had been popular until record labels such as the Victor Company of Japan began to produce songs in the early Shōwa period.
[12] Although Matsui committed suicide after Shimamura's death, Nakayama continued to develop his music.
Teiichi Futamura released his cover version of "Sing me A Song of Araby" (アラビヤの唄, Arabiya no Uta) in 1928.
[23] Soprano singer Noriko Awaya also sang ryūkōka, but the Toyo Music School once annulled her graduation.
"National Kayō") to compete with ryūkōka, which was under the influence of "Ero Guro Nansensu", but it soon began to air war songs around July 1937.
[28] On the other hand, former enka-shi Haruo Oka's debut song "Kokkyō no Haru" (国境の春, lit.
"Tableland Moon"), sung by Noboru Kirishima and Akiko Futaba, became popular as a lyrical song.
Bin Uehara, who used kobushi of naniwa-bushi for singing, was killed in the New Guinea campaign and Fujiyama was taken prisoner in Indonesia.
[28] Li Xianglan's "Suzhou Nocturne", composed by Hattori, has remained controversial in China, though it was a non-propaganda song.
[32] After the war, Taro Shoji, who heard the Gyokuon-hōsō in Nagano Prefecture, was once banned from singing many of his songs because those were regarded as nationalistic.
"Song of Apple") sung by Michiko Namiki and Noboru Kirishima, airing in 1945 movie "Soyokaze", became popular.
[33] Ryoichi Hattori, who moved to Shanghai in 1944, contributed to advancing Japanese poppusu music after the war.
"Blue Mountains"), which was sung by Ichiro Fujiyama and Mitsue Nara, became a major hit in the early post-war years in Japan.
[37] Around that time, Japanese composers went on to establish their own genres such as Toru Funamura and Minoru Endo's "Enka", Tadashi Yoshida's "Mood Kayō", and Hachidai Nakamura and Hiroshi Miyagawa's "Jazz".
[5] Masao Koga renounced his pre-war musical style, approaching Hibari Misora.
Ryōkyōku singers such as Haruo Minami and Hideo Murata joined Japanese popular music.
Hachiro Kasuga, Michiya Mihashi and Hideo Murata went on to form their genre later called enka.
Around that time, however, Japanese rock and roll movement began and the Nichigeki Western Carnival was opened in 1958.
[39] Sakamoto's 1961 single "Ue o muite arukō", composed by Nakamura, became a major hit in Japan.
[35] In 1963, the era of former popular singers such as Hibari Misora, Chiemi Eri, Izumi Yukimura, Hachiro Kasuga, Michiya Mihashi and Frank Nagai seemed to end and Sakamoto released a Japanese hit song titled "Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi o".
"Guitar Benevolence and Righteousness") and Kazuo Funaki's song "Koko San Nen Sei" (高校三年生, lit.
Hashi and Funaki became singers for youth music, making a new genre called "Seishun Kayō" (青春歌謡, lit.
Hibari Misora presented a song titled "Kanto Harusame Kasa" when the record label was established.
[40] In 1964, Haruo Minami released his cover version of song "Tokyo Gorin Ondo" (東京五輪音頭, lit.
[42] Koga was also an original composer of Hibari's 1966 cover song "Kanashii Sake" (悲しい酒, lit.
Japanese guitarist Yūzō Kayama also produced his 1965 hit song "Kimi to Itsumademo" as a singer.
With the aim of breaking the traditional style, Group Sounds band The Blue Comets' 1966 song "Aoi Hitomi" (青い瞳, lit.
New musical movement called "Kayō Pops" (歌謡ポップス) also a string of hits such as Ayumi Ishida's 1968 song "Blue Light Yokohama", composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi.
