Image credit: ajari – https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajari/2354169886/

Whether it’s learning Japanese recipes or listening to Japanese music, I find my appreciation for Japan’s culture and my roots growing as I age like a fine red wine.

I also find myself writing more about hyphenated Japanese people whenever I see them on television because it’s good representation and I hope against hope that they’ll get something genuine in their backstory that will help people understanding something about our history i.e. how in “Never Have I Ever” they actually talk about the internment.

Anyway, while I find Japanese culture is generally well represented, there’s one deeply misunderstood song in popular culture: “Ue o Muite Arukō” or “Sukiyaki” as it’s more generally known.

Performed by Kyu Sakamoto and written by Rokusuke Ei and Hachidai Nakamura, the song became an instant hit in Japan and then a big hit in Europe and North America; however, the contexts in which the song was released in its various billboard-topping locales were quite different.

In the 1960’s, Japan ratified the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which was widely disliked by Japanese people who wanted to remove the American military presence from their country. This treaty led to the massive Anpo protests and Ei wrote the song after he attended the protest and worried that young people might be left disillusioned to the effectiveness of protests when the treaty was simply rammed through.

You can get some insight into how forlorn and melancholy reads when removed from Sakamoto’s generally upbeat voice (he’s smiling, but on the inside he’s crying).

From Kansai Culture:

Japanese

English

Ue o muite arukou Namida ga koborenai you ni Omoidasu haru no hi Hitoribotchi no yoru Ue o muite arukou Nijinda hoshi o kazoete Omoidasu natsu no hi Hitoribotchi no yoru Shiawase wa kumo no ue ni Shiawase wa sora no ue ni Ue o muite arukou Namida ga koborenai you ni Nakinagara aruku Hitoribotchi no yoru [Whistling] Omoidasu aki no hi Hitoribotchi no yoru Kanashimi wa hoshi no kage ni Kanashimi wa tsuki no kage ni Ue o muite arukou Namida ga koborenai you ni Nakinagara aruku Hitoribochi no yoru Hitoribochi no yoru

I look up as I walk So the tear won’t fall Remembering those spring days But I am all alone tonight I look up as I walk Counting the stars with tearful eyes Remembering those summer days But I am all alone tonight Happiness lies up above the clouds Happiness lies up in the sky I look up as I walk So that the tears won’t fall Though the tears well up as I walk For tonight I am all alone [Whistling] Remembering those autumn days But I am all alone tonight Sadness lies in the shadow of the stars Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon I look up as I walk So that the tears won’t fall Though the tears well up as I walk But I am all alone tonight. But I am all alone tonight.

One of the best depictions of the protests that I’ve seen is in Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s “A Drifting Life” where the author finds himself caught in the middle of the Anpo protests.

While swimming in an ocean of people, he remembers a time where his style of manga called Gekiga had more emotion and then looks into the sky with tears welling in his eyes (no doubt a reference to the song). He feels incredibly moved by the protest, but also deeply lonely.

It’s a real mix of emotions.

These, I think, are the emotions the song is trying to elicit through its lyrics while being somewhat coyly disguised as a song that could also be about a lost love.

I view “Ue o Muite Arukō” as a protest song, but very few depictions of it in popular culture use it to that effect.

Overseas popularity

In 1962, Louis Benjamin at U.K. based Pye Record reissued the song with the title “Sukiyaki” because it was easier to pronounce. No joke.

The pronunciation thing is somewhat understandable, especially if you plug the title into Google translate and hear the English translator struggle. Otherwise, it might have been known as that catchy Japanese song with the impossible to pronounce name.

That said, the new name is still ridiculous if you really think about it.

Fred Bronson’s “The Billboard Book of Number One Hits” mentions a Newsweek article that liken the ridiculousness of the new name to a song like “Moon River” being renamed something like “Beef Stew” in Japan.

In 1963, the song saw a wider release in the United States and then went on to have great success despite the nonsense title.

Many other groups would create their own versions of the song including A Taste of Honey, which further illustrates how people really misunderstood the song’s origins.

The new lyrics are more about a lost love than anything else, but who the hell other than the Japanese community in America actually spoke or knew anything about the language back in the 1980’s?

Most interpretations attempt to shove love-song-like lyrics into it rather than recreating the somewhat haunting original version.

In Popular Culture Today

The most recent time I’ve seen the song used was in Dash & Lily from 2020 (my God time is moving quickly).

There’s a scene where Dash is making Daifuku Mochi with a group of older, Japanese women. The song is playing in the background as he talks about something or another related to the mysterious young woman he’s been writing to in this red notebook.

Again, the context for the use of the song is with Dash talking about love not about melancholy or thinking about the past. It’s also worth mentioning that in the original book, Lily’s character was white not Japanese American. They did go to great pains to make sure most of the cast for her family was Japanese, so will give them some points.

There’s also this scene from “Mad Men.”

There’s an interpretation that the song is used because someone’s father in the episode dies in an airplane crash and Kyu Sakamoto also died in a crash. I dunno.

I have a feeling the writers just wanted a recognizable Japanese song for a Japanese restaurant scene. Also, I believe this episode takes place in 1962, but the song really didn’t take off until a year later, so breaking all my suspension of disbelief.

A few points here because Don Draper looks kinda forlorn, but many points off for the sexualized depiction of an Asian waitress wearing a strange hodgepodge interpretation of Asian fashion and cultures. Even back then, I’m guessing most restaurant waiters or waitresses probably just wore pants and a vest, but no gotta make the Asian woman look like a cross between all Asian cultures just so you can tell she’s Asian. She’s Asian, I get it. Might as well have a gong go off or something. Golden age of television, more like golden age of blaaaaaaahhhhhh. Also if you listen to what she’s actually saying, she’s just offering him a menu and then asking him if he’d like her to stop off one more time before she gets off of work. She’s not soliciting anything. She’s just being a good waitress for a dude who is looking catatonic over a highball of whisky. Why do we think this show is so good? Why is this everyone’s favourite scene in the YouTube comments?? AHHHHHHH!

Ahem.

Anyway, I’m not even sure what this blog post is about anymore, but I guess it’s important to remember that “Sukiyaki” has nothing to do with what is a very good Japanese dish. It’s really a protest song about protests and the melancholy of seeing thousands of people’s hearts break over something their government did that was shitty.