Isao Hayashi -- Okosa Rumba（おこさルンバ）/ The Drifters -- Drifters no Okosa Bushi（ドリフのおこさ節）

Happy Monday to you all! I was talking with Noelle the other day on her fine article describing her favourite kayo from the 1950s, and one point we were discussing was how brave it was for singer-songwriter Isao Hayashi（林伊佐緒）to have created one of Japan's first examples of fusion music through his "Mamurogawa Boogie" (1954), a blend of jazz and minyo.

Well, in the same year in May, Hayashi wasn't through with his experimentation. He also concocted another mix but this time, it was minyo and Latin. This coalesced into "Okosa Rumba" with Ryo Yano（矢野亮）providing the lyrics. "Okosa Rumba" was based on the Okosa bushi（おこさ節...Okosa dance）, a minyo from Akita Prefecture according to this webpage. I'm not sure if the masses were scandalized by this mixture of genres back in the early 1950s but listening to it now, I'm quite comfortable with it as another example of kayo.

My way around minyo is very limited aside from the fact that I can recognize the genre, but from what I've seen on YouTube, it seems like songs such as "Okosa Bushi", though they swirl around a basic melody line, can have a number of variations depending on the lyricists, composers and arrangers. The comedy team The Drifters（ザ・ドリフターズ）also released their own "Okosa Bushi" as "Drifters no Okosa Bushi"（ドリフのおこさ節...The Drifters' Okosa Bushi）back in 1970. Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）wrote the lyrics (although no composer was given aside from the credits saying that it is a Japanese minyo) with member Cha Kato（加藤茶）singing in his happy and comical way. Of course, ever-angry leader Chosuke Ikariya（いかりや長介）went on another tirade near the end.