http://youtu.be/2GoFL5dzz3E
Title song from the TV anime Tomorrow’s Joe (“Ashita no Jo”); lyrics by Shuji Terayama, music by Masao Yagi, performed by Isao Bito. Lyrics in English as follows –
The face of that guy I hate
Floats and sinks on the punchbag
Thump, thump, thump
Inside me boils the blood of a beast
All the same – lu, lu, lu, lu
Tomorrow something happens for sure
Tomorrow it’s him or me
Lads who have fathers better go back home
If you hang with me, be like the wolf
Howl, howl, howl
Inside of me I want the wilderness
All the same – lu ,lu ,lu, lu
Tomorrow something happens for sure
Tomorrow it’s him or me
The sky above the reformatory
Blazes and gleams at sunset
Do it, do it, do it
Inside of me is the pride to fight
All the same – lu ,lu ,lu, lu
Tomorrow something happens for sure
Tomorrow it’s him or me
Tomorrow’s Joe was a boxing-themed manga authored by Tetsuya Chiba and Ikki Kajiwara and serialized in the Weekly Shonen Magazine from 1968 to 1973. It rapidly became a social phenomenon and cumulative sales have topped 20 million copies.
The story follows the progress of Jo Yabuki, a brilliant young boxer who starts off as a teenage tearaway in Tokyo’s Sanya flophouse district and goes on to fight for the world bantamweight championship, enduring various tribulations and setbacks along the way.
Jo’s great rival is the handsome but ruthless Toru Rikiishi, who he first encounters when both are under lock and key in a reformatory. While Jo stays loyal to the gym started by his impoverished mentor, Rikiishi becomes the star of the Shiraki gym, run by the scion of a wealthy zaibatsu family.
The two boxers finally meet in the ring after Rikiishi drops a couple of weight grades to make the contest possible. After a titanic struggle Rikiishi emerges victorious, but collapses and breathes his last in the ring.
Rikiishi’s Theme from the TV anime series; lyrics by Shuji Terayama, music by Masao Yagi, performed by Yuki Hide. Here are the lyrics in English.
Into the wilderness we boxers go
The sunset shining on a man’s dreams
Tears are for tomorrow, today be the wolf
Lick your own wounds yourself
People call me merciless
I howl at the moon alone – woo,ooo
A homeless parentless nameless boxer
I tear away my chains with my teeth – ya, ya, ya
Into the wilderness we boxers go
Tomorrow the sun rises inside a man’s chest
Toru Rikiishi, I write my name
On drifting clouds with my finger
Listen to the blues I sing alone
Never show your tears to anyone
Somewhere a blind star is blazing
With just one punch I’ll bring it down
A homeless parentless nameless boxer
I tear away my chains with my teeth – ya, ya, ya
Into the wilderness we boxers go
Tomorrow the sun rises inside a man’s chest
Joe became even more popular as a TV anime. The first series, broadcast in 1970-1, ran for 79 episodes, and the second series, in 1980-1, for 47 episodes. Two anime films came out in the early 1980s and non-anime feature films were released in 1970 and 2011.
Additionally Joe has appeared in console and mobile games, on Joe-themed Pachinko machines and has advertised products ranging from life insurance to soft drinks.
The story of Jo, a lone outsider pitting his talent and fighting spirit against the forces of money and power, had immense appeal in the cultural ferment of the era.
Yukio Mishima, a devoted fan, was in the habit of buying the Weekly Shonen Magazine on the day of publication. The story goes that on one occasion he was too busy to spare the time while the shops were open. Unwilling to wait another day for the latest instalment, he went directly to the publishers’ office late in the evening and demanded a copy.
The extreme left was equally smitten. The Japanese Red Army militants who hi-jacked a JAL plane to Pyongyang in 1970 claimed “we are Tomorrow’s Joe.” The survivors remain in Pyongyang today and are now on Twitter.
Boxing was a huge sport in 1960s Japan, with Japanese fighters frequently challenging for World and Asian titles. Shuji Terayama was a regular fight-goer. Characteristically he preferred the dramatic, improvisational nature of the sport to the structure and discipline of traditional Japanese martial arts.
As Steven C. Ridgely notes in his masterful study of Terayama, Japanese Counterculture: The Anti-establishment Art of Terayama Shuji, Terayama positioned boxing “in a cluster of formations, including stuttering, graffiti, jazz and gambling, which in their ad-libbed style enhance a sensation of presence and a feeling of being in the now.”
It was part of Terayama’s personal mythology – though not necessarily factual – that he had been a keen boxer in his early teens. He wrote numerous essays about the sport and a novel about a boxer who dies in the ring. He was also friendly with several professional boxers, especially Masahiko “Fighting” Harada, world bantamweight champion from 1965 to 1968, who was capable of dropping weight grades a la Rikiishi. Harada sent a message of condolence on the passing of Terayama’s widow, Kyoko Kujo, last year.
Aside from writing songs for the TV anime series, Terayama made another startling contribution to the Tomorrow’s Joe franchise. After the sensational death of Jo’s rival, Rikiishi, he “produced” a funeral for him at the publishing company’s head office. An actual Buddhist priest presided over the ceremony, which featured the usual paraphernalia of wreathes, incense and the chanting of sutras, as well as a re-enactment of the fatal bout featuring a professional boxer. 600 people lined up to pay their respects to the deceased cartoon hero.
The melding of fact and fiction, a familiar procedure in today’s world, still packed a transgressional punch in 1970. True to the anti-establishment tenor of the social mood, Terayama’s eulogy made clear that Jo represented the rebellious underdog, whereas Rikiishi was an ill-fated stooge of the system.
Steven C. Ridgely points out that Terayama had read Norman Mailer’s essay on death in boxing and may have known Bob Dylan’s song on the subject, Who Killed Davey Moore?
The eulogy began on a subdued note. “Rikiishi, you are the tomorrow of Tomorrow’s Joe…” Then built up to an impassioned climax. “All readers dreamed of a time when Jo would give you a hammering in the ring, but at the same time they knew from their own everyday experience that Jo could never win…. Who killed you, Rikiishi! Who was it who really killed you!”
