Enka/演歌



Female enka singers often wear kimono
to keep the image of Japan.


"Enka" is one of Japan's popular music.
In the Meiji period, enka were speeches on the new ideas of popular rights,
set to music to make them easier to spread among the populace.
Then as musical instrumentation was added.
The lyrics became to having emotional meanings and became
into the enka of today.

Most of enka are about broken hearts, regret the loss of lover,
resentment and bitterness, tragic love story, problems between man and woman,
duty and sentiment, etc.

Lyrics often contain words like sake, port city, tears, rain, woman,
night, bar, sea, snow, northland, etc.
Today, young people are not so interested in enka, but popular among over middle-age people.