Enka

A popular Japanese music genre that resembles traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern enka is a relatively recent sentimental ballad music that adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ryūkōka music, popular during the prewar years. Modern enka’s pentatonic scale is called Yonanuki Tan-Onkai. The music has some resemblance to blues.

Enka lyrics are usually written similarly around the themes of love and loss, loneliness, enduring hardships, and persevering in the face of difficulties, even suicide or death. Although enka is developed from ryūkōka, it is more expressive and emotional, though there is no clear consensus. Enka singers employ a style of melisma—where a single syllable of text is sung while moving between several different notes in succession—known as kobushi, which occurs when the pitch of the singer’s voice fluctuates irregularly within one scale degree. This is comparable to vibrato.

Enka suggests a traditional, idealized, or romanticized aspect of Japanese culture and attitudes. Enka singers, predominantly women, usually perform in a kimono or in evening dress. Male enka performers tend to wear formal dress. The melodies of enka are fundamentally Western harmonies, and electronic instruments are used, such as synthesizers and electric lead guitar with plenty of distortion. However, the instrumentation also includes traditional Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and the shamisen (plucked instrument with 3 strings). 1950s–    .