Tadayoshi Imamura, the energetic master of ceremonies for the afternoon-long affair, ambled up to me before the start and apologized that all the speaking during the contest would be in Japanese only. Of the 10 judges, I was the sole non-Japanese speaking one. What was foreign to me, however, was the language. I was confident that I could judge Japanese pop styles fairly-after all, I had grown up with the sound of my parents’ Japanese reel-to-reel tapes, and although I may not have been familiar with the songs or the performers, the music wasn’t foreign to me.
Once the music began, the rhythms, melodies and emotions took over, and language hardly mattered. So Kanegaye has recruited some younger singers to perform contemporary songs, as well as getting some new blood (like me, and Japan America Society of Colorado executive director Naomi Asada, among others) to be judges. The contest has appealed largely to the older Japanese-speaking community, which turns out faithfully every year to see a core of performers who also turn out every year. Although it’s a well-attended event, the organizers (this year’s chairman was John Kanegaye) are keenly aware of a looming generation gap. That’s part of the challenge facing Denver’s own Kohaku Utagassen held every year at the Denver Buddhist Temple. Over the years, the program in Japan has featured the entire variety of popular music in Japan, which seems to include everything side-by-side from traditional folk styles to the pop music of my parents’ generation and more recently, the rock sounds of modern “jpop.” At its peak, Kohaku Utagassen was Japan’s television equivalent of the Super Bowl in America.
The contest has been broadcast live on New Year’s Eve since 1951, first on radio and since 1953, on TV.
It’s an annual contest between women (red team) and men (white team) during which the men and women take turns singing a song and the team with the highest score for the evening takes home the trophy for a year. In Japan, Kohaku Utagassen is an institution. White Singing Competition, Denver’s professionally-staged version of Japan’s Kohaku Utagassen contest. I was a judge for the 28th annual Red vs. Mihono Uehara's exciting"Kawachi Otoko Bushi," complete with backup dancers.