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Ettoh Tsubame
The Enka Song Comparing Female Heart to a Swallow
Date:11, Mar, 2013
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
About our introductory articles


Mori Masako is a Japanese female enka singer and her representative song is Ettoh Tsubame which is the very enka song expressing Japanese winter correctly.

Somehow, most stages of Japanese enka songs are winter. You could often find artists whose color is summer in pop music, like Southern All Stars, Tube and so on. Most Japanese enka songs make you reckon of winter. One of them is Ettoh Tsubame by Mori Masako. By the way, Ettoh means passing the winter and Tsubame means a swallow in Japanese.


The lyrics show us unanswered love of a woman. Requited affection makes the lady kind of indiscreet and the song comparing her indiscreet heart to a swallow flying for passing the winter. Its dark melodies could let you feel the air in winter.

Some Japanese would say they have no idea about Ettoh Tsubame. As the hook lets the people say they have known the song, it has power and great universality. It was composed by Shinohara Yoshihiko which is an alias of Madoka Hiroshi, a Japanese popular singer.

Enka is a kind of popular music. Pops need the synergistic effect of lyrics and composition, for being loved by a lot of listeners. The song had pretty great effect and let her jump to stardom. Needless to say, Mori Masako sang the best as the late Misora Hibari had praised

Ettoh Tsubame shows helpless sadness and pride of a woman. Many female singers still sing the song, like Nakamori Akina, Sakamoto Fuyumi and so on. Ettoh Tsubame eternally shows a Japanese winter scene with a bird.


about Ettoh Tsubame

・Written by Ishihara Shin-ichi
・Composed by Madoka Hiroshi as Shinohara Yoshihiko
・Performed by Mori Masako
・Published by Pony Canyon Inc.
・Released on August 21 1983






 

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