From Japanese Movie " Ame no Amsterdam (Rain in Amsterdam)"
I've been into the late 1960s to 1970s generation since several years ago.
I don't know why but I'm very interested in older generation's people, trends, lifestyle, scenery, habit, TV drama, music, films, etc.. and not so interested in new things much.
There are many new discoveries through checking out old stuff while reading and watching it, which I didn't know before.
and about several months ago, I happened to find a youtube video of a famous Japanese actor called Kenichi Hagiwara who was my favorite actor in 1970s when I was a kid.
His nickname is Shoken and he is also a singer of Rock/blues music.
Shoken( 18 years old) singing ”Legend of Emerald”
Shoken was one of the super stars in Japan mainly from the late 60s generation to early 80s.
When he was 15 years old, he joined an amateur music group band called The Tempters as a vocalist.
After that they had been playing at many dance halls, and in May of1967, when Shoken was 16 years old, they were scouted by Shochi Tanabe, a president of an entertainment production.
Mr. Tanabe was originally the leader and drummer of the music band " Spiders " . and he started promoting the tempters as a sort of twin music band of "the Spiders ".
Since 1966 , after The Beatles visited Japan for a concert the first time, many rock music groups using electric guitars appeared next, after next.
(The tempters is in the last, Shoken singing Legend of Emerald in this video )
In that generation, many boys/young men in the world were influenced by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
and they also were influenced by many other western rock music groups.
These groups were called vocal and musical instrumental groups, and they became a super trend since 1967 to 1969 , and this trend started to be called " the Group Sounds (G.S.)" as a genre of Japanese rock music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Sounds
The Tempters first single was a song which was sung by a guitarist who had been the leader of a band called Matsuzaki, and Shoken was playing the harmonica.
( when Shoken was 17 years old )
The reason was, Shoken didn't want to sing and he was not comfortable to follow what the production wanted them to do, like choice of music, costume.
However he was the vocalist starting from the second song.
The Tempters 's second single " Kamisama Onegai " ( God, Please or God bless ) got number two hit in the oricon chart, and also the next song " Legend of Emerald " became huge hit and got number one in the oricon chart.
This is how Shoken ( Kenichi Hagiwara ) became the vocalist of one of the most popular music groups, called The Tempters.
There were two super stars at that time from different bands.
Shoken from the Tempters was one of them. and the other one was Kenji Sawada , who's nickname known as "Julie" from the band "The Tigers".
Julie and Shoken were super stars who had super charisma and many fans fainted when seeing them from excitement.
Shoken ( Kenichi Hagiwara ) 19 years old
I was still 4 to 6 years old at that time so it was not my generation and no memory for it , but I've heard and read about many people said the fact that Julie and Shoken's popularity was incredible.
Like The Beatles fans, their fans were screaming like crazy and fainted from the excitement when they saw Shoken and Julie.
According to Shoken in interview, many of his fans were boys or guys, and many of Julie's fans were girls or ladies.
But I feel so many girls were crazy about Shoken as well.
and many boys were fans of Julie as well.
and around 1970, the boom time of the Group sounds faded and the Tempters also broke up and stopped the activity.
The most popular band, the tigers, also split up and held a final concert at Budokan ( concert hall ) at January in1971.
Soon after that, two members from The Tigers ( Julie and Mr. Kishibe ) and two members from The Tempters ( Shoken and mr,. Ookuchi ) and two members from The Spiders ( Mr, Inoue and .. ) got together and made a new band calls PYG which was a New Rock band ( mainly hard rock and blues rock music ) .
Julie and Shoken were vocalists in the band.
However, Julie and shoken who were the most popular stars in that generation, getting together was not appreciated by their rival fans and also the public took this new band as meaning that the production made them to sell out, just for marketing.
So during their concert, Julie fans and shoken fans were against each other and started fighting.
Julie fans were throwing eggs to Shoken and shouting and making a noise while Shoken was singing, and while Julie was singing, Shoken fans were throwing tomatoes and stuff and playing tambourine to block Julie's singing.
and while Shoken was with the band, he had an opportunity to be in a movie as one of the main actors.
Shoken's acting in the movie was praised by some movie directors and producers and since then he got another offer for new TV drama which got huge hit.
and Shoken was getting busy for his acting work and his main activity became movies and TV dramas, he was unable to be in the stage anymore.
Shoken also felt there is no need to have two vocalists in the band , and started to feel he want to quit the band.
Since Shoken was not in the stage anymore, most of Shoken fans also started disappeared in the PYG concert.
Julie started singing as a solo singer with two band members in PGY and it got hit and PYG's acitivity naturally disappeared.
So as a result The band PGY continued only one year.
Shoken also started have a band with the band members in PGY and released 17 albums and have been holding concerts almost every year since 1975 until 1989.
and after the long blank time, he came back and released a new album in 2010.
As an Actor
Shoken
My older brother had been a big fan of Julie and he also loved Shoken as well.
I knew Shoken when I was around 10 years old, ( 1973 ) in a trendy Drama series （ " Taiyo ni Hoero (Bark at the Sun) " ）which the story was based on policemen and Shoken was playing as a newbie police man.
The drama was re-played in 1973, and the original version was shown in July, 1972.
" Taiyo ni Hoero (Bark at the Sun) "
From the beginning when I first time watched the drama, shoken was the biggest impact and my eyes were chasing him while watching.
My impression of him in the drama was very cool, charisma, funny, eccentric, unique, passionate and fashionable.
He had long hair and usually wearing a cool three piece suit , jacket, vest, pants and it was very fit him.
He was also wearing casual fashion, fashionable jeans and shirts.
Even when I watched it now, I felt he is so cool , doesn't look dowdy.
"Kizudarake no tenshi" ("Wounded Angel")
Shoken 24 years old
from "Kizudarake no tenshi" ("Wounded Angel")
Shoken was called an example of cool guy/ hottest guy during 70s generation.
Many young boys/guys admired Shoken, copying him whatever he does including his fashion.
I know many men's stars who are ( were ) very popular to girls and women,
But I've never seen a star who have so many fanatic men/boys fans also.
Also there are many successful famous people who have been big fans of Shoken and they are mainly men.
He was so charismatic , hot and also adorable so he was very popular in many girls and women as well.
Also many actress who had worked with him had a crush on him.
His Acting / Career
Preview of the movie " promise " ( Yakusoku in Japanese )
In Shoken's first movie which he played as one of the main cast in 1972 calls ( Yakusoku ( Promise ) , his acting was impressed by many movie/acting producers and specialists.
According to a famous movie director Yukio Ninagawa , Shoken's acting was genius especially when it comes to the expression of refracted love.
Like Maron Brand's acting expression for love, Shoken was the first actor who expressed refracted love fantastically in Japan.
After his first movie, he started getting many opportunities and offers of movies and TV drama.
He received the biggest award of Kinema Golden allow for his acting and several more awards.
He played in so many movies and dramas and I have not seen all of them yet.
Shoken 25 years old
Shoken 25 years old
Shoken has so many faces to play many kind of characters like a chameleon.
That's one of the reasons I'm very interested in him.
Shoken 32 years old.
Right now, I have been having an addiction to watch Shoken's older movies , dramas, interviews, and all his appearances since a few month ago.
Present Shoken in May' 2016, He became 66 years old this July.
Still cool !
Photos from Twitters.
https://twitter.com/