A Life Adrift: Soeda Azembo, Popular Song and Modern Mass Culture in Japan

This is a unique narrative of pre-war Japanese life as told from its lower depths by a tremendously popular social commentator and poet. An iconic figure in pre-war Japan, the balladeer and political activist Soeda Azembo was one of Japan's first modern mass entertainers, the writer of popular enka songs sung by ordinary working people. These songs uniquely impart an understanding of everyday life in the tumult of pre-war Japan, serving as a kind of shorthand for popular attitudes to political corruption, sex scandals, inflation, war, patriotism, class conflict and gender relations. Japanese people valued Azembo's music for being of them and for them, both modern and home-grown, qualities rare at a time when western cultural influences were increasing. Michael Lewis's annotated work introduces Azembo and his social and cultural milieu to an international audience for the first time. A Life Adrift, the only memoir of its kind, extends beyond biography to encompass the creation of modern mass culture in Japan and the role of the popular artist in that process.

Michael Lewis is Professor of History at Michigan State University.