is a Japanese musical genre. The ūkōterm originally denoted any kind of "popular music" in Japanese, and is the sinic reading of hayariuta, used for commercial music of Edo Period. Therefore, imayō, which was promoted by Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the Heian period, was a kind of ryūkōka. Today, however, ryūkōka refers specifically to Japanese popular music from the late 1920s through the early 1960s. Some of the roots of ryūkōka were developed from Western classical music. Ryūkōka ultimately split into two genres: enka and poppusu. Unlike enka, archetypal ryūkōka songs did not use the kobushi method of singing. Ryūkōka used legato. Bin Uehara and Yoshio Tabata are considered to be among the founders of the modern style of kobushi singing.
Many composers and singers of ryūkōka went on to earn official distinctions; Ichiro Fujiyama and composers Masao Koga and Ryoichi Hattori received the People's Honour Award in later years.
Although enka branched off from ryūkōka, many singers of the latter genre proclaimed strong disdain for its stylistic descendant. In a 1981 interview, Noriko Awaya said "Whenever I hear enka, I have to get away from the music because I feel like vomiting."
History
1914–1927: Origin
In 1914, Sumako Matsui's song "Katyusha's song", composed by Shinpei Nakayama, was used as a theme of the rendition Resurrection in Japan. The record of the song sold 20,000 copies. One theory holds that this was the first ryūkōka song, which was made by Hogetsu Shimamura's order: "the tune between Japanese popular folk music and Western music". However, street performers called had been popular until record labels such as the Victor Company of Japan began to produce songs in the early Shōwa period.
Although Matsui committed suicide after Shimamura's death, Nakayama continued to develop his music. During his career, he composed about 3,000 songs such as the 1921 song "Teru teru bozu". Nakayama transferred Japanese traditional music to staff-style by main force. His 1921 song was later covered by various singers, but was at first best known for being covered by violin enka-shi featuring Orchestra. The pentatonic scale used in this song was "Minor scale without forth and seventh degree". However, the music based on the scale had difficult in presenting chord and harmony because traditional Japanese music didn't adopt equal temperament.
Nakayama's songs were based on Japanese folk music called min'yō, but also adopted Western musical style. Therefore, his music was called .
1928–1930: Beginning of popularity
In the early Showa period, the microphone was introduced into the popular music of Japan. Teiichi Futamura released his cover version of in 1928. The song was originally composed by Fred Fisher. Chiyako Sato's 1928 song , composed by Nakayama, sold 100,000 copies. The song was also sung by singer Yoshie Fujiwara. Chiyako Sato's 1929 song "Tokyo March" sold more than 300,000 copies.
1931–1937: Rising popularity
Some of the country's first major stars were singer Ichiro Fujiyama and composer Masao Koga. Koga attempted to initiate fusion of Western jazz and Japanese dodoitsu. Fujiyama's 1931 song , composed by Koga, became a major hit in Japan. This song created a fusion of Fujiyama's crooning and Koga's guitar play. Using the vocal technic Mezza Voce with a microphone, Fujiyama sang the song by the deep voice of not Opera's G minor but D minor. Fujiyama's song sold 600,000 copies. However, Fujiyama was an elite student, who specialized Western classical music in the Tokyo Music School. Ryūkōka songs often dealt with the "Ero Guro Nansensu" things. Since his school regarded ryūkōka as bad form at that time, Fujiyama was once suspended from the school, though Fujiyama was not dismissed from the school because Klaus Pringsheim Sr., a professor of the school, opposed the proposal of Fujiyama's expulsion.
This period also saw the popularity of geisha singers such as Ichimaru and Katsutaro Kouta. Katsutaro became famous when Fujiyama was turned out of ryūkōka. Her song sold 600,000 copies. Katsutaro and Issei Mishima recorded duet song "Tokyo Ondo". The song was composed by Shinpei Nakayama and was released in 1933. The single "Tokyo Ondo" sold 1,200,000 copies.