Enka/Kouta

What is Enka?

"a genre of Japanese popular songs (kayōkyoku) developed in the postwar Shōwa period (1926-1989) , which has been likened to American country music and Portuguese Fado in terms of themes and audience. The term now usually refers to the latter type of traditional and melodramatic popular songs.

Modern enka (演歌 — from 演 en performance, entertainment, and 歌 ka song) came into being in the postwar years of the Shōwa period. It was the first style to synthesize the Japanese pentatonic scale with Western harmonies.[clarify] Enka lyrics, as in Portuguese Fado, usually are about the themes of love and loss, loneliness, enduring hardships, and persevering in the face of difficulties, even suicide or death. Enka suggests a more traditional, idealized, or romanticized aspect of Japanese culture and attitudes, comparable to American country and western music" (wikipedia).


What is Kouta?
[Little Ballads]

"Kouta is a kind of Japanese traditional music handed down to today. Kouta songs are derived from the short shamisen songs of Edo period( 1603-1867) known as short love songs( hauta), and they assumed their present form at the end of the Meiji period( 1868-1912). Especially at the Meiji period Kouta became all the rage." (Kouta World)


Some enka and kouta songs that I really happen to like

Fuyumi Sakamoto





Shinobu Otowa
*i love her voice!




Sayuri Ishikawa