Yumi Matsutoya
Encyclopedia
, nicknamed , is an influential Japanese
singer, composer
, lyricist
and pianist
. She is renowned for her idiosyncratic
voice, and live performances, and is an important figure in Japanese popular music.
Her recording career has been commercially successful with more than 42 million records sold. In 1990, her album The Gates of Heaven became the first album to be certified "2x million" by the RIAJ
, and she has had twenty-one #1 albums listed on the Oricon
charts. She is the only artist to have at least one number-one album every year on the Oricon charts for 18 consecutive years.
After gaining several years of experience as a session musician
, she debuted as a singer-songwriter
in 1972. During her early career, she worked under her birth name . In 1975, Arai became known as a composer for "Ichigo Hakusho wo Mou Ichido", a commercially successful song recorded by the folk duo BanBan. She also gained popularity as a vocalist in the same year, through the success of "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" that became her first number-one spot on the Japan's Oricon Charts.
After marrying her musical collaborator Masataka Matsutoya
in 1976 and changing her stage name
, she has continued her recording career up until now. Throughout the 1980s
, Matsutoya's music was prominently featured in advertisements for Mitsubishi Motors
in her native Japan and her image was used to promote their vehicles. In addition to multiple hit singles, she has obtained enormous commercial success on the Japanese Albums Chart, particularly during the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s.
, Tokyo
. She had three brothers and sisters, and her family ran a draper's shop which was called "Arai Gofukuten," established in 1912. When she was a Junior high school
student, she used to go to an Italian restaurant called "Chianti", started in 1960. In those days, many celebrities went to the restaurant; Akira Kurosawa
, Yukio Mishima
, Kōbō Abe
, Seiji Ozawa
, Ryu Murakami
, Taro Okamoto, Kishin Shinoyama
, and Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu, who eventually became her first record producer. Alfa Records, the label to which she belonged early her in career, was founded by the people who were regular customers at "Chianti".
Her nickname "Yuming" was given to her by her Chinese lover. She began her music career when she was still young. At the age of 14, she worked as a musician for the first time. Having worked as a studio musician, she also wrote many original songs. When she was 17 years old, her first original song titled "Ai wa Totsuzen ni" was released. It was sung by Katsumi Kahashi, the former guitarist of the 1960s Japanese influential band The Tigers.
In April 1972, Arai entered Tama Art University
. At the same time, she signed with Alfa as a music artist. At first, she wanted to be a songwriter. However, the founder of the record company, Kunihiko Murai, encouraged her to work as a singer-songwriter.
She recorded her first full album, Hiko-ki Gumo, with the band "Caramel Mama", better known as "Tin Pan Alley," which consisted of Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, Tateo Hayashi and Matsutoya Masataka, and was released in November 1973. For her next album, Misslim, (1974), Masataka Matsutoya, who was the keyboardist of Tin Pan Alley, arranged all of her songs. Her third studio album, Cobalt Hour, (1975) featured her early famous song "Sotsugyō Shashin". The same year, it was covered by the chorus group Hi-fi Set on their first album with the same name. That cover version also succeeded as a single. In later years, it was covered by many Japanese artists and became one of Japan's classic pop songs. The same year, the duo composed of male singers called BanBan sang her song "Ichigo Hakusho o Mou Ichido" and reached number one on the Oricon chart. Because of the commercial success of other artists, she became famous as a songwriter.
Yumi achieved moderate success with her fifth single, Rouge no Dengon ["Lipstick Message"], an up-tempo song considered to be an early J-Pop classic. She gained a television appearance singing this song with the top Japanese girl group of the time, Candies, and the song has been covered by a number of artists over the years.
Her first top hit as a singer-songwriter was her sixth single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai". In August 1975, it was used as the theme song for the TBS
TV drama Katei no Himitsu. Two months later, it was released as a single and reached the top on the Oricon chart. The 14th Moon (1976), her final album as "Yumi Arai" had featured Leland Sklar
on bass and Mike Baird on drums. Since this album, Masataka Matsutoya has produced all her albums herself. She considers her nickname "Yuming" to also mean the name of the union with her husband. Following the success with "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai", it became her first album that reached number one on the Oricon chart. Besides, in the end of the year chart in 1976, three of her albums ranked in the top 10. Four years after the debuted, she dominated the Japanese album charts. This astonishing record has never been broken by anyone since.
In 1989, her fifth single "Rouge no Dengon" and another song, "Yasashisa ni Tsutsumaretanara" (from her second album), were featured as the theme songs of the film Kiki's Delivery Service
. Nowadays, those tunes are known as her early notable songs. Some of her songs were deeply influenced by many American and European musicians, such as Joni Mitchell
and Carole King
. As a pioneering singer-songwriter who mixed Western culture and Japanese pop, she left a strong impression on Japanese popular music. Today, many music critics in Japan consider that her works as Yumi Arai were her peak as a musician.
Before the release of Benisuzume, a compilation named Album was released by Toshiba EMI. It mainly contained songs she had released as Yumi Arai, and two songs released as singles only. Matsutoya didn't want to release this compilation; in her autobiography released in 1982, she writes about this album and calls it "The biggest stain on my music career." Because of this, she never allowed the release of another compilation album until 1998. However, her ex-record-label Alfa Records had released many compilations which consisted of her old tunes without her permission. Hence, in the late 1990s, she bought the copyrights of all her songs which she had written under her maiden name.
Her tenth album, Surf and Snow (1980), changed the negative tide for her. When the album was released, it did not sell as others had previously. However, in 1986, "Koibito ga Santa Claus" became popular as the theme song for the hit movie Watashi wo Ski ni Tsuretette. The album eventually sold over 400,000 copies. In 1987, she returned to the top of Japanese pop music. Her husband wrote the score for the movie Nerawareta Gakuen, which was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and distributed by Kadokawa Pictures. She wrote "Mamotte Agetai" as the theme song for the movie. The single of this song reached number two on Oricon and sold nearly 700,000 copies. Following the success of the single, her eleventh album Sakuban Oaishimasho (1981) became her second number one album. From that year through 1997, 17 studio albums which she released reached number one on the charts.
In 1982, she published an autobiography, Rouge no Dengon. In this book, she wrote about her life in an exaggerated style. She contemplated doing the artwork on her own albums. The artwork of the album Sakuban Oaishimasho(1981) was designed by Hipgnosis
, and the video Compartment was produced by Storm Thorgerson
, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson
. A logo design from the latter film also became the logo of "Yuming", and was used as the cover of the 1984 album No Side. Aubrey Powell and Richard Evans
of Hipgnosis
also designed the cover of the 1983 album "Voyager". Since the 1970s, she has also been famous as an artist who performs in concerts using gorgeous and novel sets. She used elaborated visual technology on the stage and it is said that they cost over a hundred million yen. She has released two live albums and several videos. In 1986, she released her first live album, Yuming Visualive DA-DI-DA,. It was released on CD and cassette tape only, and it became one of the rarest items among her fans for many years.
. In addition, they were recorded by a lot of famous West Coast musicians. However, in later years, Masataka Matsutoya, her record producer and husband, regretted the cheap rhythm section on those albums. Before the Diamond Dust Fades.... (1987) sold more than any of her albums at that time. In the late 1980s, her record sales increased. Delight Slight Light KISS (1988) became the first million-selling record for her. From this album in 1995 to the album Kathmandu, she released eight studio albums and all of them sold over million copies. Above all, two of those albums, The Gates of Heaven (1990), and The Dancing Sun (1994), sold over double-million copies. The former is the first double million-selling album in Japan. Dawn Purple (1991) sold over a million copies in only a week after the album's release. Her astonishing record sales were appraised by the Japanese music industry. Before the Diamond Dust Fades... won Japan Record Award
s of 1988 and The Gates of Heaven won a Japanese gold disc grand prix of 1991.
The Gates of Heaven and several of her albums in those years reflected an optimistic atmosphere in Japan caused by the asset price bubble
around the end of the 1980s and early 90s. She was often called "Charisma of Youth" or "The Enthusiastic Leader of Love" in those days. In order to make people buy the album, she didn't release any single at all for about four years in the early 1990s. However, in autumn 1993, she released "Manatsu no Yo no Yume", the first single in 4 years since "Anniversary", already known as the theme song of the TV drama Dare nimo Ienai. It sold over 1,400,000 copies and became the 89th best-selling single in Japan. It is her most successful single.
The next year, she produced the two-million-selling singles called "Hello My Friend" and "Haru-yo, Koi". Both of these singles were used in TV dramas (the former was featured on Kimi to Ita Natsu, the latter was used on the same titled program broadcast by NHK
). Particularly the latter is famous as one of her standard numbers. Those songs were also included on the album The Dancing Sun. Because of those strong tunes, it became her second double million-selling album.
She was interested in the spiritual world
for many years, and this preference was often represented in her songs, a tendency that became deeper in the 1990s.
In August 1996, about twenty years after her marriage, Yumi Matsutoya came back as "Yumi Arai" and performed only 3 days at Nakano Sunplaza, Tokyo. Excerpts of that live recording were released on video and CD. A month before the live performances, a newly-recorded version of her early standard song, "Machibuse" (she did not sing it herself), was released as a single. Until 1995, she had released studio albums every year, but her popularity began to decline around 1996. After her twenty-ninth studio album, The Waves of Zuvuya, (1997) her record sale declined more and more.
As "Yumi Matsutoya", she had not released any compilation albums since 1977. Formerly, she didn't want to release compilation albums. However, in 1998, she released a double album compilation, Neue Musik: Yumi Matsutoya Complete Best Vol. 1. It included 28 songs and two new songs recorded with the former members of Tin-Pan-Alley. In addition, several songs of this album were selected by votes by her fans. At this stage, it is her biggest-selling and final million-selling album.
, Hiromi Gō
, Toshihiko Tahara, Reimy and many other artists. Some of them became big hits, such as "Ichigo Hakusho o Mou Ichido"(Performed by Banban, 1975) "Machibuse" (Performed by Seiko Miki, Hitomi Ishikawa, originally released in 1975). Most of their hit tunes were sung by an idol singer Seiko Matsuda
. Several songs sung by Matsuda reached number one at Oricon singles chart; such as "Akai Sweet Pea," "Nagisa no Balcony"(1982) and "Hitomi wa Diamond"(1986). These singles are known as notable Matsuda's song. Matsutoya has collaborated with many songwriters and lyricists; Yosui Inoue
, Takashi Matsumoto, Koki Mitani
, Kunihiko Kase, Shizuka Ijuin and many others. When Matsutoya wrote songs for other singers, she often used pseudonyms . It was parody on the name of Greta Garbo
.
, Taeko Onuki, Akiko Yano
and Minako Yoshida. Yamashita had usually arranged chorus part of her song in the '70s. But in later year, he criticized her late 1980s music career by his own song called "Queen of Hype Blues". In over 30 years career, Matsutoya has ever had duet with many singers; Takao Kisugi, Toshinobu Kubota, Masumi Okada
, and Takao Tajima.
She has often recorded several collaboration singles with other musicians. In 1985, she released the song "Imadakara" with Kazumasa Oda
and Kazuo Zaitsu. It was mostly composed by Oda and Matsutoya, arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto
and played by former Sadistic Mika Band
members. At the live event performed in June of same year, having added Matsutoya for vocalist, the band reunited as "Sadistic Yuming Band" and performed this song.
In 1986, Matsutoya wrote a theme song for TV program with Keisuke Kuwata
, a leader of Southern All Stars
. On "Kissin' Christmas", the song screened only on TV, collaboration by two most successful Japanese songwriters was realized. However, at the stage now, this song hasn't released on any format.
In 1992, Matsutoya and Karl Smokey Ishii
cooperated for the single "Ai no Wave". She wrote it and the B-Side "Roman no Dengon" with him. The same year, Ishii had released "Kimi ga Irudake de",the fifth best-selling single in Japan. Therefore, the single climbed to the top of the hit parade naturally. The title of "Roman no Gengon" was self parody of their songs; it was named under Matsutoya's "Rouge no Dengon" and Kome Kome Club's "Roman Hikou".
When her popularity was quickly diminished in the end of '90s, she recorded the song with the popular group Pocket Biscuits. They collaborated on the single "Millennium" in 2000, but it didn't provide expected success.
In 2005, Matsutoya formed the group called "Yumi Matsutoya and the Friends of the Earth" with four East Asian artists; Dick Lee
from Singapore
, Lim Hyung-Joo from South Korea
, amin
and Xu Ke from China
.
Matsutoya wrote the song "Smile Again" for the new group, and it was released on iTMS only. When Matsutoya appeared at the Expo 2005
concert in September of the same year, they appeared as guests and sang this song. On New Year's Eve
the same year, they appeared in the Japanese traditional annual TV music program Kohaku Uta Gassen
, and performed "Smile Again". The next year, Matsutoya re-recorded the song and released it on her album A Girl in Summer. In autumn of 2006, this unit added more members. They had only one concert and released the new single "Knockin' at the Door" on CD.
In 2006, she wrote a song "Still Crazy for You" for Crazy Cats, a Japanese comedy team popular in the late 1950s and 1960s, and sung a duet with the vocalist Kei Tani
. It was released as the group's first new single since 1986, and climbed to #14 on the Oricon chart. It was the highest chart position they have ever reached.
found the number one selling song Valentine's Radio (1,606,780 copies) to be the third most popular Valentine's Day song in Japan. The most popular song was Sayuri Kokushō
's 1986 debut single Valentine Kiss
, which sold only 317,000 copies. The other songs in the top five were (in order) Love Love Love from Dreams Come True (2,488,630 copies), Happy Happy Greeting from the Kinki Kids
(608,790 copies), and My Funny Valentine
by Miles Davis
.
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
singer, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. She is renowned for her idiosyncratic
Idiosyncrasy
An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person . The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be .-Etymology:...
voice, and live performances, and is an important figure in Japanese popular music.
Her recording career has been commercially successful with more than 42 million records sold. In 1990, her album The Gates of Heaven became the first album to be certified "2x million" by the RIAJ
Recording Industry Association of Japan
The Recording Industry Association of Japan is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved the music industry...
, and she has had twenty-one #1 albums listed on the Oricon
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
charts. She is the only artist to have at least one number-one album every year on the Oricon charts for 18 consecutive years.
After gaining several years of experience as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, she debuted as a singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
in 1972. During her early career, she worked under her birth name . In 1975, Arai became known as a composer for "Ichigo Hakusho wo Mou Ichido", a commercially successful song recorded by the folk duo BanBan. She also gained popularity as a vocalist in the same year, through the success of "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" that became her first number-one spot on the Japan's Oricon Charts.
After marrying her musical collaborator Masataka Matsutoya
Masataka Matsutoya
is a Japanese arranger, composer, music producer, and motor journalist. He currently resides in Setagaya, Tokyo. He is a graduate of Keio Senior High School and Keio University. Aliases include and...
in 1976 and changing her stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
, she has continued her recording career up until now. Throughout the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, Matsutoya's music was prominently featured in advertisements for Mitsubishi Motors
Mitsubishi Motors
is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...
in her native Japan and her image was used to promote their vehicles. In addition to multiple hit singles, she has obtained enormous commercial success on the Japanese Albums Chart, particularly during the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s.
Early years
Yumi Arai was born in 1954 in HachiōjiHachioji, Tokyo
is a city located in Tokyo, Japan, about 40 kilometers west of the center of the special wards of Tokyo.As of January 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 551,901 and a population density of 2,962.27/km². The total area is 186.31 km². It is the eighth largest city in the...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. She had three brothers and sisters, and her family ran a draper's shop which was called "Arai Gofukuten," established in 1912. When she was a Junior high school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
student, she used to go to an Italian restaurant called "Chianti", started in 1960. In those days, many celebrities went to the restaurant; Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
, Kōbō Abe
Kobo Abe
, pseudonym of was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor. Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities....
, Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa
is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
, Ryu Murakami
Ryu Murakami
is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker. He is colloquially referred to as the "Maradona of Japanese literature".-Biography:Born as Ryūnosuke Murakami in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 19, 1952...
, Taro Okamoto, Kishin Shinoyama
Kishin Shinoyama
is a Japanese photographer.Shinoyama graduated from Nihon University. He worked with the Light Publicity agency while still a student, and freelanced after graduation....
, and Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu, who eventually became her first record producer. Alfa Records, the label to which she belonged early her in career, was founded by the people who were regular customers at "Chianti".
Her nickname "Yuming" was given to her by her Chinese lover. She began her music career when she was still young. At the age of 14, she worked as a musician for the first time. Having worked as a studio musician, she also wrote many original songs. When she was 17 years old, her first original song titled "Ai wa Totsuzen ni" was released. It was sung by Katsumi Kahashi, the former guitarist of the 1960s Japanese influential band The Tigers.
In April 1972, Arai entered Tama Art University
Tama Art University
is a private university in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1935 as a spinoff from what is today Musashino Art University...
. At the same time, she signed with Alfa as a music artist. At first, she wanted to be a songwriter. However, the founder of the record company, Kunihiko Murai, encouraged her to work as a singer-songwriter.
Early career; works as Yumi Arai
On July 5, 1972, Arai released her debut single "Henji wa Iranai". It was produced by Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu, the former vocalist of The Spiders. Her first single sold only 300 copies.She recorded her first full album, Hiko-ki Gumo, with the band "Caramel Mama", better known as "Tin Pan Alley," which consisted of Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, Tateo Hayashi and Matsutoya Masataka, and was released in November 1973. For her next album, Misslim, (1974), Masataka Matsutoya, who was the keyboardist of Tin Pan Alley, arranged all of her songs. Her third studio album, Cobalt Hour, (1975) featured her early famous song "Sotsugyō Shashin". The same year, it was covered by the chorus group Hi-fi Set on their first album with the same name. That cover version also succeeded as a single. In later years, it was covered by many Japanese artists and became one of Japan's classic pop songs. The same year, the duo composed of male singers called BanBan sang her song "Ichigo Hakusho o Mou Ichido" and reached number one on the Oricon chart. Because of the commercial success of other artists, she became famous as a songwriter.
Yumi achieved moderate success with her fifth single, Rouge no Dengon ["Lipstick Message"], an up-tempo song considered to be an early J-Pop classic. She gained a television appearance singing this song with the top Japanese girl group of the time, Candies, and the song has been covered by a number of artists over the years.
Her first top hit as a singer-songwriter was her sixth single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai". In August 1975, it was used as the theme song for the TBS
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
TV drama Katei no Himitsu. Two months later, it was released as a single and reached the top on the Oricon chart. The 14th Moon (1976), her final album as "Yumi Arai" had featured Leland Sklar
Leland Sklar
Leland "Lee" Bruce Sklar is an American musician, singer-songwriter and film score composer. A prominent bass guitarist, Sklar has contributed to thousands of albums as a session musician...
on bass and Mike Baird on drums. Since this album, Masataka Matsutoya has produced all her albums herself. She considers her nickname "Yuming" to also mean the name of the union with her husband. Following the success with "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai", it became her first album that reached number one on the Oricon chart. Besides, in the end of the year chart in 1976, three of her albums ranked in the top 10. Four years after the debuted, she dominated the Japanese album charts. This astonishing record has never been broken by anyone since.
In 1989, her fifth single "Rouge no Dengon" and another song, "Yasashisa ni Tsutsumaretanara" (from her second album), were featured as the theme songs of the film Kiki's Delivery Service
Kiki's Delivery Service
is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film produced, written, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the fourth theatrically released Studio Ghibli film.The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1989...
. Nowadays, those tunes are known as her early notable songs. Some of her songs were deeply influenced by many American and European musicians, such as Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
. As a pioneering singer-songwriter who mixed Western culture and Japanese pop, she left a strong impression on Japanese popular music. Today, many music critics in Japan consider that her works as Yumi Arai were her peak as a musician.
Works as Yumi Matsutoya
After the marriage with Masataka Matsutoya on November 29, 1976, she had considered retirement. But eventually she decided to continue to work as a musician, and changed her stage name to her new family name, Yumi Matsutoya. In 1978, her memorable first album as Yumi Matsutoya, entitled Benisuzume was released. In the late 1970s and early 80s, she had released two albums every year. However, those albums hadn't succeeded the way others had when she was single. But she wrote several of her well-known songs during those years. Moreover, her albums reached the top 10 on the Oricon chart.Before the release of Benisuzume, a compilation named Album was released by Toshiba EMI. It mainly contained songs she had released as Yumi Arai, and two songs released as singles only. Matsutoya didn't want to release this compilation; in her autobiography released in 1982, she writes about this album and calls it "The biggest stain on my music career." Because of this, she never allowed the release of another compilation album until 1998. However, her ex-record-label Alfa Records had released many compilations which consisted of her old tunes without her permission. Hence, in the late 1990s, she bought the copyrights of all her songs which she had written under her maiden name.
Her tenth album, Surf and Snow (1980), changed the negative tide for her. When the album was released, it did not sell as others had previously. However, in 1986, "Koibito ga Santa Claus" became popular as the theme song for the hit movie Watashi wo Ski ni Tsuretette. The album eventually sold over 400,000 copies. In 1987, she returned to the top of Japanese pop music. Her husband wrote the score for the movie Nerawareta Gakuen, which was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and distributed by Kadokawa Pictures. She wrote "Mamotte Agetai" as the theme song for the movie. The single of this song reached number two on Oricon and sold nearly 700,000 copies. Following the success of the single, her eleventh album Sakuban Oaishimasho (1981) became her second number one album. From that year through 1997, 17 studio albums which she released reached number one on the charts.
In 1982, she published an autobiography, Rouge no Dengon. In this book, she wrote about her life in an exaggerated style. She contemplated doing the artwork on her own albums. The artwork of the album Sakuban Oaishimasho(1981) was designed by Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis was a British art design group that specialized in creating cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands, most notably Pink Floyd, T.Rex, The Pretty Things, UFO, 10cc, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, ELO and XTC...
, and the video Compartment was produced by Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson is an English graphic designer, known for his work for rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, 10cc, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Cranberries, and Biffy Clyro.-Biography:...
, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....
. A logo design from the latter film also became the logo of "Yuming", and was used as the cover of the 1984 album No Side. Aubrey Powell and Richard Evans
Richard Evans
-Literary figures:*Richard J. Evans , English historian on the subject of Germany before and during World War II*Richard Paul Evans , American author of books with Christian themes; best known for 1995's The Christmas Box...
of Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis was a British art design group that specialized in creating cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands, most notably Pink Floyd, T.Rex, The Pretty Things, UFO, 10cc, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, ELO and XTC...
also designed the cover of the 1983 album "Voyager". Since the 1970s, she has also been famous as an artist who performs in concerts using gorgeous and novel sets. She used elaborated visual technology on the stage and it is said that they cost over a hundred million yen. She has released two live albums and several videos. In 1986, she released her first live album, Yuming Visualive DA-DI-DA,. It was released on CD and cassette tape only, and it became one of the rarest items among her fans for many years.
Commercial peak and decline
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, her albums consisted of mechanical sounds which featured synclavierSynclavier
The Synclavier System was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation, manufactured by New England Digital Corporation, Norwich, VT. The original design and development of the Synclavier prototype occurred at Dartmouth College with the collaboration of...
. In addition, they were recorded by a lot of famous West Coast musicians. However, in later years, Masataka Matsutoya, her record producer and husband, regretted the cheap rhythm section on those albums. Before the Diamond Dust Fades.... (1987) sold more than any of her albums at that time. In the late 1980s, her record sales increased. Delight Slight Light KISS (1988) became the first million-selling record for her. From this album in 1995 to the album Kathmandu, she released eight studio albums and all of them sold over million copies. Above all, two of those albums, The Gates of Heaven (1990), and The Dancing Sun (1994), sold over double-million copies. The former is the first double million-selling album in Japan. Dawn Purple (1991) sold over a million copies in only a week after the album's release. Her astonishing record sales were appraised by the Japanese music industry. Before the Diamond Dust Fades... won Japan Record Award
Japan Record Award
for outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association, is major music awards show held annually in Japan.- Categories :The Japan Record Award are four awards which are not restricted by genre....
s of 1988 and The Gates of Heaven won a Japanese gold disc grand prix of 1991.
The Gates of Heaven and several of her albums in those years reflected an optimistic atmosphere in Japan caused by the asset price bubble
Japanese asset price bubble
The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991, in which real estate and stock prices were greatly inflated. The bubble's collapse lasted for more than a decade with stock prices initially bottoming in 2003, although they would descend even further amidst the global crisis in 2008. The...
around the end of the 1980s and early 90s. She was often called "Charisma of Youth" or "The Enthusiastic Leader of Love" in those days. In order to make people buy the album, she didn't release any single at all for about four years in the early 1990s. However, in autumn 1993, she released "Manatsu no Yo no Yume", the first single in 4 years since "Anniversary", already known as the theme song of the TV drama Dare nimo Ienai. It sold over 1,400,000 copies and became the 89th best-selling single in Japan. It is her most successful single.
The next year, she produced the two-million-selling singles called "Hello My Friend" and "Haru-yo, Koi". Both of these singles were used in TV dramas (the former was featured on Kimi to Ita Natsu, the latter was used on the same titled program broadcast by NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
). Particularly the latter is famous as one of her standard numbers. Those songs were also included on the album The Dancing Sun. Because of those strong tunes, it became her second double million-selling album.
She was interested in the spiritual world
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
for many years, and this preference was often represented in her songs, a tendency that became deeper in the 1990s.
In August 1996, about twenty years after her marriage, Yumi Matsutoya came back as "Yumi Arai" and performed only 3 days at Nakano Sunplaza, Tokyo. Excerpts of that live recording were released on video and CD. A month before the live performances, a newly-recorded version of her early standard song, "Machibuse" (she did not sing it herself), was released as a single. Until 1995, she had released studio albums every year, but her popularity began to decline around 1996. After her twenty-ninth studio album, The Waves of Zuvuya, (1997) her record sale declined more and more.
As "Yumi Matsutoya", she had not released any compilation albums since 1977. Formerly, she didn't want to release compilation albums. However, in 1998, she released a double album compilation, Neue Musik: Yumi Matsutoya Complete Best Vol. 1. It included 28 songs and two new songs recorded with the former members of Tin-Pan-Alley. In addition, several songs of this album were selected by votes by her fans. At this stage, it is her biggest-selling and final million-selling album.
Recent years
After the release of her well-sold compilation album, she declared that she would make the music she wants to. From 1999 on, she has released five studio albums (one every two years).Songwriter
As a songwriter and lyricist, Yumi Matsutoya wrote hundreds of songs for Hi-Fi Set, Asami Kobayashi, Kenji SawadaKenji Sawada
, nicknamed "Julie" , also-known as vocalist for the Japanese rock band The Tigers, is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and actor. He was born in Tsunoi, Iwami , Tottori Prefecture, Japan, and raised in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto at age 3...
, Hiromi Gō
Hiromi Go
is a Japanese singer, part of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. His real name is .In the 1970s, he was called "New Big Three" with Goro Noguchi and Hideki Saijo. He belonged to Johnny & Associates, but later left the agency...
, Toshihiko Tahara, Reimy and many other artists. Some of them became big hits, such as "Ichigo Hakusho o Mou Ichido"(Performed by Banban, 1975) "Machibuse" (Performed by Seiko Miki, Hitomi Ishikawa, originally released in 1975). Most of their hit tunes were sung by an idol singer Seiko Matsuda
Seiko Matsuda
is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter. Due to her popularity in the 1980s and her long career, she has been dubbed the "Eternal idol" by the Japanese media.- Biography :...
. Several songs sung by Matsuda reached number one at Oricon singles chart; such as "Akai Sweet Pea," "Nagisa no Balcony"(1982) and "Hitomi wa Diamond"(1986). These singles are known as notable Matsuda's song. Matsutoya has collaborated with many songwriters and lyricists; Yosui Inoue
Yosui Inoue
is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, guitarist and record producer, who is an important figure in Japanese music. He is renowned for his unique tone, eccentric lyrics, and dark sunglasses which he always wears....
, Takashi Matsumoto, Koki Mitani
Koki Mitani
is a Japanese playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director. He was previously married to Japanese actress Satomi Kobayashi. The name "Koki" is a combination of two Japanese characters - 幸 "Happy" and 喜 "Pleased". In an attempt to add his own character to his movies, as a director he takes...
, Kunihiko Kase, Shizuka Ijuin and many others. When Matsutoya wrote songs for other singers, she often used pseudonyms . It was parody on the name of Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
.
Collaboration with other artists
In her early albums, several 1970s famous Japanese singer-songwriters who had not succeeded at that time sang as the backing vocalists; Tatsuro YamashitaTatsuro Yamashita
is a Japanese singer-songwriter, and record producer. He has been known by his musical style deeply influenced from 1960s American pop and rock music....
, Taeko Onuki, Akiko Yano
Akiko Yano
is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer. She was born as Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo and raised in Aomori, Aomori, and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s...
and Minako Yoshida. Yamashita had usually arranged chorus part of her song in the '70s. But in later year, he criticized her late 1980s music career by his own song called "Queen of Hype Blues". In over 30 years career, Matsutoya has ever had duet with many singers; Takao Kisugi, Toshinobu Kubota, Masumi Okada
Masumi Okada
was a professional actor, singer, stand-up comedian, and film producer. Also known by his nickname, "Fanfan", he was born in Nice, France, to a Japanese father, Minoru Okada, who was an artist, and a Danish mother, Ingeborg Sevaldsen, who was the sister of Eline Eriksen, the model for the "Mermaid...
, and Takao Tajima.
She has often recorded several collaboration singles with other musicians. In 1985, she released the song "Imadakara" with Kazumasa Oda
Kazumasa Oda
is a Japanese singer-songwriter, composer and is also known as the leader of the folk rock band Off Course.As a vocalist and leader of Off Course, Oda wrote many Japanese standard numbers in the 70s and 80s. He and Yasuhiro Suzuki were important composers in the band...
and Kazuo Zaitsu. It was mostly composed by Oda and Matsutoya, arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto
After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as...
and played by former Sadistic Mika Band
Sadistic Mika Band
was a Japanese rock group formed in 1972. Its name is a parody of the "Plastic Ono Band". Produced by Masatoshi Hashiba on Toshiba-EMI Records , the band was led by the then husband and wife team of guitarist Kazuhiko Kato, and his wife, singer Mika Fukui...
members. At the live event performed in June of same year, having added Matsutoya for vocalist, the band reunited as "Sadistic Yuming Band" and performed this song.
In 1986, Matsutoya wrote a theme song for TV program with Keisuke Kuwata
Keisuke Kuwata
has gained fame as a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and frontman for the Southern All-Stars, as well as his own solo band, the Kuwata band. He has also done significant amount of scoring music for films. He went to Aoyama Gakuin University....
, a leader of Southern All Stars
Southern All Stars
, also known by the abbreviations or SAS, is a Japanese pop/rock band that formed in the mid 1970s.The band is composed of Keisuke Kuwata , Yuko Hara , Kazuyuki Sekiguchi , Hiroshi Matsuda and Hideyuki "Kegani" Nozawa...
. On "Kissin' Christmas", the song screened only on TV, collaboration by two most successful Japanese songwriters was realized. However, at the stage now, this song hasn't released on any format.
In 1992, Matsutoya and Karl Smokey Ishii
Tatsuya Ishii
, also known as Tatuya Ishii is a Japanese singer, songwriter, artist, and industrial designer from Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.- Biography :...
cooperated for the single "Ai no Wave". She wrote it and the B-Side "Roman no Dengon" with him. The same year, Ishii had released "Kimi ga Irudake de",the fifth best-selling single in Japan. Therefore, the single climbed to the top of the hit parade naturally. The title of "Roman no Gengon" was self parody of their songs; it was named under Matsutoya's "Rouge no Dengon" and Kome Kome Club's "Roman Hikou".
When her popularity was quickly diminished in the end of '90s, she recorded the song with the popular group Pocket Biscuits. They collaborated on the single "Millennium" in 2000, but it didn't provide expected success.
In 2005, Matsutoya formed the group called "Yumi Matsutoya and the Friends of the Earth" with four East Asian artists; Dick Lee
Dick Lee
Richard "Dick" Lee Peng Boon is a Singaporean pop singer, composer, songwriter, and playwright. He is best known as a Singapore Idol judge, but often too as spokesperson for the New Asian generation....
from Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Lim Hyung-Joo from South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, amin
Amin
In Arabic Amin ' for males means 'faithful, trustworthy'. The female equivalent is Amina, which is a widely used name among female Arabs .-People:امین*al-Amin, nickname of Muhammad in his youth*Amin Ahsan Islahi...
and Xu Ke from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Matsutoya wrote the song "Smile Again" for the new group, and it was released on iTMS only. When Matsutoya appeared at the Expo 2005
Expo 2005
Expo 2005 was the World's Fair held for 185 days between Friday, March 25 and Sunday, September 25, 2005, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, east of the city of Nagoya. It was a Specialized International Exhibition under the scheme of the 1972 protocol of the Convention relating to International Exhibitions...
concert in September of the same year, they appeared as guests and sang this song. On New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
the same year, they appeared in the Japanese traditional annual TV music program Kohaku Uta Gassen
Kohaku Uta Gassen
, more commonly known as simply Kōhaku, is an annual music show on New Year's Eve produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK and broadcast on both television and radio, nationally and internationally by NHK's networks and some overseas broadcasters which bought the program...
, and performed "Smile Again". The next year, Matsutoya re-recorded the song and released it on her album A Girl in Summer. In autumn of 2006, this unit added more members. They had only one concert and released the new single "Knockin' at the Door" on CD.
In 2006, she wrote a song "Still Crazy for You" for Crazy Cats, a Japanese comedy team popular in the late 1950s and 1960s, and sung a duet with the vocalist Kei Tani
Kei Tani
was a Japanese comedian, actor and musician. Born in Tokyo, he learned to play the trombone and, while a student at Chuo University, began playing in jazz bands performing for American soldiers during the Occupation of Japan. He quit university and joined the City Slickers with Frankie Sakai in 1953...
. It was released as the group's first new single since 1986, and climbed to #14 on the Oricon chart. It was the highest chart position they have ever reached.
Studio albums
- Hikōki-gumo (1973) (credited to "Yumi Arai")
- Misslim (1974) (credited to "Yumi Arai")
- Cobalt Hour (1975) (credited to "Yumi Arai")
- The 14th Moon (14-banme no Tsuki) (1976) (credited to "Yumi Arai")
- Benisuzume (1978)
- Ryūsenkei '80 (1978)
- Olive (1979)
- Gallery in My Heart (Kanasii hodo Otenki) (1979)
- Toki no Nai HotelToki no Nai Hotelis the ninth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya, released in June 1980.Pictures featured on the back and front sleeve art were taken at the Brown's Hotel in London. No songs were released as a single except "Tamerai", which was first appeared on B-Side of a non-album track...
(1980) - Surf and Snow Volume One (1980)
- Mizu no Naka no Asia e (1981)
- Sakuban Oaisimashō (1981)
- Pearl Pierce (1982)
- Reincernation (1983)
- Voyager (1983)
- No Side (1984)
- DA-DI-DA (1985)
- ALARM à la mode (1986)
- Before the DIAMOND DUST fades... (Diamond Dust ga Kienumani) (1987)
- Delight Slight Light KISS (1988)
- Love Wars (1989)
- Tengoku no Door (The Gates of Heaven) (1990)
- Dawn Purple (1991)
- Tears and Reasons (1992)
- U-miz (1993)
- The Dancing Sun (1994)
- Kathmandu (1995)
- Cowgirl Dreamin' (1997)
- Suyua no Nami (The Wave of Zuvuya) (1997)
- Frozen Roses (1999)
- Acacia (2001)
- Wings of Winter, Shades of Summer (2002)
- Yuming Compositions:FACES (2003)
- VIVA! 6×7 (2004)
- A Girl in Summer (2006)
- And I Will Dream Again (2009)
- Road Show (2011)
Reception
In a 2006 survey of people between 10 and 49 years of age in Japan, Oricon StyleOricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
found the number one selling song Valentine's Radio (1,606,780 copies) to be the third most popular Valentine's Day song in Japan. The most popular song was Sayuri Kokushō
Sayuri Kokushō
is a Japanese actor, singer, and tarento. She was an original member of Onyanko Club. She works for the talent management firm Sony Music Artists. Her debut single, Valentine Kiss, is the most popular Valentine's Day song in Japan.- Brief biography :...
's 1986 debut single Valentine Kiss
Valentine Kiss
is the solo debut J-pop single from Sayuri Kokushō released on February 1, 1986 by CBS Sony in Japan. Kokushō was the eighth member of Onyanko Club. The B-side song was ....
, which sold only 317,000 copies. The other songs in the top five were (in order) Love Love Love from Dreams Come True (2,488,630 copies), Happy Happy Greeting from the Kinki Kids
KinKi Kids
is a Japanese duo consisting of Koichi Domoto and Tsuyoshi Domoto under the talent agency Johnny & Associates. Although the members share the same surname, the only relation they have to each other is that they both hail from the Kinki region, hence the duo's name....
(608,790 copies), and My Funny Valentine
My Funny Valentine
"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green...
by Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
.
External links
- YUMING SOUND LIBRARY— Matsutoya's official site by EMI Music Japan (JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
) - Nippop Profile |Yumi Matsutoya