Kagami Gorō(鏡五郎)

In 1967, Kagami Gorō(鏡五郎) made his debut with the song "The Tokyo that I am Sick and Tired of(嫌んなっちゃった東京 Iyan natchatta Tokyo)." Although his albums didn't sell much back then, he did appear on the famous jidaigeki "Rogue General(暴れん坊将軍 Abarenbō Shōgun)" where he had a chance to show off his favorite theatrical sword combat.

In 1985, he signed a recording contract with King Records.

In 1988, he became famous while appearing on the variety show "Kōkami Shōji's All Night Nippon(鴻上尚史のオールナイトニッポン)." The show was parodying the popularity of the nisei singers and actors at the time and had started a corner called "Letters from the Junior(Jr.からの手紙 Juniakarano tegami)." During one show, Kōkami Shōji(鴻上尚史) half-jokingly asked for letters from "an unsuccessful enka singer(売れない演歌歌手のJr. urenai enka kashuno junia)." Kagami Gorō(鏡五郎)'s real son, Yamanaka Takamasa(山中孝真) who was a junior high school student at the time, responded with a letter. This incident attracted attention and Takasama went on to become a regular on the show and even released a single titled "A Letter from the Junior(Jr.からの手紙 Junia Karano Tegami)" while his dad went on to become a popular enka singer after the release of "The Lives of Lovebirds(おしどり人生)."

This blog post translates information from the Wikipedia article 鏡五郎 which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.