Ballsack’s J-Pop Midlife Crisis, pt. 9: 藤圭子

Starting sometime last year, I started really getting into Japanese music. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, because I had always thought I hated singing in Japanese. Turns out I don’t! In the night threads for the following week, I’ll write a little about each of my favorite artists that I’ve discovered, and share a streaming album for you to dutifully ignore.

I discovered Keiko Fuji (藤圭子) for myself through Rate Your Music’s Enka chart. Her debut, 「新宿の女 / “演歌の星” 藤圭子のすべて」 (Shinjuku no Onna : “Enka no Hoshi” Fuji Keiko no Subete) is rated at #5 overall, and it’s really quite good. It isn’t available on streaming, frustratingly enough, though you can listen to it through YouTube (which is what I’ve got down below there). However, I actually just went ahead and bought it on Discogs. This is one of those albums in a bit of a sweat spot for buying used, popular enough to find in a lot of places, but not particularly sought after right now. I got mine for about $12 plus shipping from the US, but there’s cheaper copies up there.

Fuji wasn’t quite 20 when this release came out, and (if my Google Translate is to be believed) the liner notes talk about her wandering around Shinjuku with her blind mother playing Enka songs at 17. Anyway, it’s a great record. I hope you like it.