condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (light foxing inside gatefold)

Gatefold sleeve. No obi.

Minatomachi Blues, the port-town blues, was one of the biggest enka hits of 1969, and every mood-tenor player in Tokyo cut a version. Yujiro Mabuchi's Crown album takes it as title track and mission statement: a whole side of harbour melancholy, tenor with echo over a rhythm section that never rises above a slow sway, then a second side of similar material from the same season.

Crown was the budget end of the Japanese majors, and its mood records have a rougher, closer sound than Victor's or Columbia's, which is part of their appeal. The "alluring" of the title (miwaku) is a standard genre word; the record earns it. Japanese pressing with obi.