Singer Ryoko Moriyama's debut song "Kono Hiroi Nohara Ippai" was born from Gekkoso.
In 1966, Moriyama, who was a regular on Radio Kanto (now Radio Japan)'s "Folk Capsule," happened to pick up a Gekkoso sketchbook that was left in the lobby of the program's recording studio. He liked the poem printed on the back cover so much that he wrote a song for it in just 30 minutes.
The poem is still written on the back cover of an old Gekkoso sketchbook.
When it was played on the radio, it quickly gained a reputation, and when it was released by Philips Records on January 2, 1967, it instantly became a smash hit, marking Moriyama's memorable record debut.
This song was born from this strange coincidence, but the person in charge at Shinko Music Publishing (now Shinko Music), who manages the copyright, ran into a problem.
An enquiry was made to Gekkoso to confirm the author of the poem on the back cover of the Gekkoso sketchbook, but as the owner happened to be out, the Gekkoso staff who assisted were unable to immediately identify the author. So the record company, in a hurry to release the record, had no choice but to alter the name of Gekkoso's founder, Hashimoto Hyozo, to read it as Takahashi Hyozo, and credited him as the lyricist on the label and on the record jacket.
It was later discovered that this poem was written by Ozonoe Keiko, who was a staff member at Gekkoso at the time the sketchbook was produced, and starting with the second edition, released six months later, the lyricist credit on the label and jacket was changed from Takahashi Hyozo to Ozonoe Keiko.
The record credited as Takahashi Hyozo has become a phantom credit that can only be found on the debut album.
Epilogue.
After officially signing a contract for songwriting copyright, Osonoe was asked by Philips Records producer Kazuharu Honjo to show him some unpublished poems, so he submitted about 10 poems he had written.
One of them was chosen as it was thought to be a perfect fit for the image of the new song by Vicky, a new idol singer from Greece, and was released with music composed by Kunihiko Murai, who was still a university student at the time.
That song was "Machikutsutareta Nichijou," which was a hit from December 1967 to March of the following year. It also marked Kunihiko Murai's debut as a composer.
Producer Kazuharu Honjo said, "Of all the Japanese songs I have been involved in over the years, the lyrics of the two songs, "Kono Hiroi Nohara Ippai" and "Machi Kutakureta Nichiyoubi," remain among the few that have touched me the most with their fresh sensibility."
