Tamaki Tokuyama
| Tamaki Tokuyama | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born |
July 27, 1903 Kōza District, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Origin | Japan |
| Died | January 28, 1942 (aged 38) Kugenuma, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Genres | Ryūkōka, gunka, min'yō, classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, film actor |
| Years active | 1930–1942 |
| Labels | Nippon Victor Co. |
| Associated acts | Ichirō Fujiyama, Hamako Watanabe, Katsutarō Kouta, Yoshie Fujiwara, Enoken, Roppa Furukawa, Issei Mishima, Kazuhide Haida, Sōichirō Namioka, Fumiko Yotsuya |
Tamaki Tokuyama (徳山 璉 Tokuyama Tamaki, July 27, 1903 – January 28, 1942) was a classically trained baritone and a famous singer of popular music in early Shōwa era Japan.
Tokuyama was born to a medical practitioner on July 27, 1903 in a village in Kanagawa Prefecture's Kōza District, west of Yokohama. After completing high school, Tokuyama enrolled in the Tokyo School of Music (later part of the Tokyo University of the Arts). Upon completing his studies there, he became a faculty member of the Musashino Academia Musicae.
He accompanied Chiyako Sato (佐藤千夜子 Satō Chiyako) as a piano player, who was also a graduate from Tokyo University of Arts. Satō became the first female best selling ryūkōka singer soon after the radio broadcasting began in 1925 and had a contract with Nippon Victor Company.
In 1930 Tokuyama was signed a record contract with Nippon Victor Company where he would remain for the rest of his life. His song Samurai Nippon (侍ニッポン)—its lyrics based on an eponymous novel by Jirōmasa Gunji that was popular at the time—became a hit in 1931, a success that was followed shortly thereafter with the comic song Runpen Bushi (ルンペン節; "runpen" is adapted from the German word for "rag" or "vagrant"). The humorous lyrics and operetta-like quality of the song earned it wide popularity and made Tokuyama one of Nippon Victor Company's biggest singing stars of the 1930s.
In 1932 he recorded a duet with Fumiko Yotsuya called Tengoku ni musubu koi (天國に結ぶ戀; trans. "A Love Bound in Heaven"), which was inspired by a notorious double suicide that had occurred in Sakatayama earlier that year.
Later Tokuyama became a noted exponent of gunka, recording very popular renditions of such songs as the Hinomaru March (日の丸行進曲) and Patriotic March (愛國行進曲). In early 1940s he released a propaganda song Tonarigumi (隣組; trans; “Neighborhood Association”) promoting the home front, though the song itself has been covered by artists with subsequently altered lyrics. LP and CD reissues of his work in subsequent decades have tended to focus on his recordings in this genre.
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