Did you know that war photographer Yoichi Watanabe has released a CD?

One day, I was watching my favorite video on YouTube again, "Always With Me" sung in a French church. This song is famous from the Ghibli anime 'Spirited Away,' and I have seen videos of Yumi Kimura singing it. But I wondered who wrote the lyrics... so I looked it up and found it was a lyricist and poet named Wakako Kaku. While looking through her background on Wikipedia, I noticed she had co-authored books with Shuntaro Tanikawa. Looking further down, I saw that among the CDs she worked on, there was one by Yoichi Watanabe. Isn't Yoichi Watanabe that war photographer who is popular on variety shows for his slow way of speaking? Is he singing? Curious, I immediately looked it up on a subscription service.

The albums that came up were 'Yoichi Watanabe's World Masterpiece Fairy Tale Theater: Japan Edition' and 'Father’s Voice.' The former seems to be a reading of fairy tales like 'Omusubi Kororin' and 'Princess Kaguya,' but perhaps due to copyright issues with the fairy tales, I couldn't listen to the main content on the subscription service, only three tracks (or are they?) titled 'Introduction,' 'Conclusion,' and 'Do What You Want to Do.' 'Do What You Want to Do' is also in a reading style, and I realized, I see, he doesn't sing, he reads in that slow Watanabe voice. At first, honestly, I was listening for fun. Since Watanabe was a pioneer (along with Slim Club) in sublimating the act of 'speaking slowly' into a genre of 'entertainment' (a strategy he adopted to raise his own profile and be able to convey things about the battlefield—this part is important), it's not a bad thing at all for curiosity to be the entry point. However, as I gradually listened to 'Father’s Voice' as well, I began to be drawn into his narration. 'Direction of Tomorrow' and 'To the Sea,' with lyrics by Kaku, are wonderful as poems, and although this doesn't seem to be by Kaku, a short story of just under 14 minutes called 'Eraser Three Times' might be the kind of short-short story you could read through quickly if it were in text, but listening to it in Watanabe's voice gives you a sense of satisfaction and fatigue as if you had listened to a major work of about 30 minutes. I thought, 'I've listened to something good!' and decided to let you all know about it in this note.

I mentioned earlier that Watanabe sublimated 'speaking slowly' into a form of performance art, but the song 'Takayama no Onna yo' by enka singer Yutaka Oe has a flavor in that he slowly repeats important phrases twice. For example, 'Hida-ji Takayama, haru oboro, haru oboro.' If we compare it to comedy, there are various sub-genres like 'aruaru' (relatable tropes), 'monoboke' (prop comedy), and 'nori-tsukkomi' (playing along and then correcting), but I feel that 'saying it slowly twice' is also a vein of humor. Just because I'm comparing it to comedy doesn't mean I'm mocking enka at all. By saying it slowly twice, the lines are savored, and it becomes addictive. I think it's fine to describe that charm as 'interesting' in a broad sense and use it as an entry point for interest. I would like to continue thinking about the lineage of 'slow speakers' who follow in Watanabe's footsteps.