Nodojiman (Amateur Singing Contest) - Image Shiritori Started (#141)

(#140) Lost item → 'No' → Nodojiman (Amateur Singing Contest)

That is not the kind of contest Nodojiman is (・_・)

Besides, I wouldn't know what to do if a whole group of you showed up (￣～￣)💦
Hey, Torajiro, Sorajiro.

――Wait, you guys too!! (≧▽≦)

……Actually, if anything, your throats are prettier^m^

―――――――――――――――――――(4,001 characters from here on)

The term "Nodojiman", of course, is not a contest to compete for the "most beautiful throat shape." Well, in terms of a "beautiful throat," it might just barely graze the edge of a foul tip, but to put it more clearly, it is a contest to compete for "beautiful throat function," or in other words, "singing ability."

It seems the word "Nodojiman" was first used in 1946, shortly after the war.
It began with a radio program on January 19th of that year called "Nodojiman Amateur Music Concert", and the memorable first broadcast was apparently a 1-hour and 30-minute public broadcast.

Yoshio Saegusa, a producer in the NHK Music Department, planned it because he had seen his comrades singing songs from their respective hometowns and having a great time during his military days, and he thought it would make for an interesting program.

However, at the time, it was an era where "
anything broadcast from a microphone had to be authoritative," so
the upper management at NHK rejected it, saying, "It's outrageous to put songs sung by amateurs on the air!"

However, GHQ gave it an unexpected go-ahead, saying, "This is interesting, do it" (≧▽≦)｡
Needless to say, which one takes priority, NHK upper management or GHQ (￣∀￣)♪

But, as expected of the Americans, I suppose they had that kind of frank soil to begin with♪……or so I thought, but when I looked into the situation at the time, it seems that
having amateurs sing using a public microphone was unprecedented even on a global scale.

In other words, if that person from GHQ at the time—though unfortunately I couldn't confirm if it was that guy famous for his sunglasses and corn cob pipe who said 'I shall return'—hadn't happened to say, "This is interesting," the program might not have been established, and furthermore, the Japanese word "Nodojiman" itself might not have taken root.
When I think about that, I feel like I'm catching a glimpse of the greatness of historical contingency.

Anyway, the "Nodojiman Contest" that started this way was minor-changed in the following year, 1947, to
Nodojiman Amateur Entertainment Show, which sounded a bit more like an entertainment act, and it became a regular program, with television broadcasts starting in 1953.

However, in terms of popularity, it wasn't necessarily smooth sailing, and by the late 1960s, its popularity had significantly declined.

In April 1970, the title was completely renewed to NHK Nodojiman, and after Tatsuo Kaneko became the host, its popularity gradually recovered, and it has since become a long-running program that is still going strong 50 years later.

The term "Nodojiman" is, of course, not the exclusive property of NHK; it is used by commercial broadcasters, and even at the neighborhood association level where it is never broadcast on TV or radio, any "contest in the format of competing for singing ability" has come to be called "Nodojiman."
It is now a common noun, just like "throat" or "pride."

Speaking of a representative person who rose to the major leagues from such a "Nodojiman," it would have to be this person.

|Yoshimi Tendo.
She is now an undisputed, grand master enka singer.

She grew up loving to sing under the influence of her music-loving father, and the first time she appeared on a Nodojiman program was at the age of 7.
Her first television appearance was not on NHK, but on Mainichi Broadcasting's "Amateur Celebrity Show."
She sang "Cute Old Man (*1)" and won the Celebrity Prize.
Starting with this, Yoshimi-chan entered numerous Nodojiman contests and swept the victory in almost all of them, in a state of what you might call a "Nodojiman wrecker (*2)."

After that, with her appearance on Fuji TV's "Nissin Kids' Nodojiman", and through an introduction from the program producer to Nippon Columbia, she made her debut as a singer with the theme song for the anime "Inakappe Taisho," titled "Dai-chan Counting Song / Inakappe Taisho" (credited under her real name, "Yoshimi Yoshida").

(5 minutes 39 seconds)

Since it was released on September 10, 1970, she was still 15 years old at the time of recording.
It might have been as shocking as Hikaru Utada is today (￣∀￣).
In any case, it's a singing voice with a dignity that you wouldn't think was from a 15-year-old ^m^

"NHK Nodojiman," which should be called the original in a sense, is one of the gateways to becoming a singer, and has produced numerous singers.

Of course, there are many people who go straight to becoming a singer if they win the contest, but there are also occasional cases where unexpected people end up with even more unexpected results.

Enka world heavyweight Saburo Kitajima participated when he was a high school student and got 2 bells(・_・)
As for Japan's legendary diva Hibari Misora, she participated at the age of 9 and suffered the disaster of getting 1 bell (*´Д｀)

However, in Saburo Kitajima's case, a friend signed him up to participate when he wasn't even thinking about being a singer, which is like... a Johnny's talent, and in fact, at that time, announcer Teru Miyata praised him, saying,
"You had a good voice. Are you a student? You were very good."
and that praise became the trigger for him to aim to become a singer.

In Hibari Misora's case, she sang "Ringo no Uta" in the preliminaries, but she only got 1 bell for reasons like

"too good and not childlike",
"singing adult songs is uneducational",
"a bright red dress is also not good"

—what kind of nitpicking is that (lol)...
(・_・)💦
It's amazing she didn't go astray and was able to walk straight on the path to becoming a singer.
Cheers to that indomitable spirit 🍻✨

Here is another person who has a past of being famous as a Nodojiman contest crasher.
Voice actress and singer Nana Mizuki.

In her case, too, the influence of her music-loving parents was significant; she was entrusted with the dream of becoming an enka singer at the karaoke school her parents ran at home, and it is said that from the age of five until she graduated from junior high school, she spent every single day in intense training without fail.

……She is the music version of Hyuma Hoshi (・_・)

While she was famous in her hometown of Ehime as a Nodojiman contest crasher, for some reason, she never seemed to have any luck with winning.……She is the Ehime version of Emiko Kaminuma (・_・)

……She is the Ehime version of Emiko Kaminuma (・_・)

By the way, I had heard a rumor that she had made a self-produced cassette tape of enka songs during her junior high school days, so I searched for the song title on YouTube and it was a surprise hit☆ It had been uploaded properly (≧▽≦)♪

Since it's here, let's have a listen,
Nana Kondo singing 'Tsugazakura'

(4 minutes 17 seconds)

Well, it's quite a polished performance for a junior high school student♪(⌒～⌒)♪

Also, since she hadn't debuted in the entertainment world yet, the credit is her real name, 'Nana Kondo'.

Also, this 'Nana Kondo' is actually quite famous in some circles as a bit of a teasing topic.

Upon graduating from junior high school, she moved to Tokyo to attend the entertainment course at Horikoshi High School to balance singing lessons and high school life, and her classmate there was Tsuyoshi Domoto of KinKi Kids.

Because of that relationship, when she later appeared on 'Domoto Kyodai,' which is MC'd by KinKi Kids, Tsuyoshi Domoto kept calling her 'Kondo-san' repeatedly, and from then on, every time she appeared on the show, being called 'Kondo-san' became established, and in the end, even at her own live concerts, 'Kondo-san' calls would happen (≧▽≦)♪

Finally, I mentioned earlier that 'Nodojiman' has now become a common noun, but when I casually looked up 'Nodojiman' in my favorite book, the Shinmeikai Japanese Dictionary (8th Edition)……it wasn't there, 'Nodojiman' wasn't there! ( ﾟДﾟ)!

Could it be that 'Nodojiman' is already an obsolete word!? (*´Д｀)
……What about my position, having proudly played shiritori with 'Nodojiman'!?

Feeling anxious, I looked it up in other dictionaries――

In major Japanese dictionaries other than the Meikyo and Shinmeikai, 'Nodojiman' was still alive and well (relief).

In that case, I'm actually curious about when exactly Meikyo and Shinmeikai dropped "nodojiman" (throat pride) from their editions, and the circumstances that led to them dropping it (￣∀￣)♪

Oops, it's already this late tonight.
Today was also thrillingly down to the wire, wasn't it💦💦

With that said,
I hope that tomorrow, as many people as possible,
will boast not just about their throats, but about many other things, and spend a day filled with confidence, without it turning into overconfidence✨

#WhatAreYouTalkingAbout
#DoesItEvenMatter
#OverflowingWithExcitement
#LivelyBand

■ Bonus

This is the car before the current image shiritori train (141st car). If anyone felt curious about the title "Lost Property" or the joke image in the bottom right, please feel free to take a look when you have some time.