[Bright & sparkling]
No.183 "Haru-yasumi" by Mari Mizutani
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Today's song, "Haru-yasumi" (Spring break) is a bright & sparkling pop tune performed by "Mari Mizutani", a popular idol star in the late '80s.
"Mari Mizutani" was only active for 2 years from 1986 to 1988, but left a strong impression, and passionated fans.
If you like, please listen.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
Some contents have been put away in tabs with " ▼ " marks in each section, so please click it to read.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Haru-yasumi |
|---|---|
| Artist | Mari Mizutani |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | VICL-63966 |
| Track No. | 15 |
| Duration | 4:39 |
| Released | 1988(2004) |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Kenzō Saeki Lyricist
"Kenzō Saeki" is a musician, lyricist, music producer, and used to be a dentist active since 1980.
"Saeki" is known as a vocalist of a popular electro pop-rock band, "Pearl brothers" teamed up in 1983 by 5 extraordinary musicians.
He is also knows as an originator of a known new-wave band, "Halmens" which eventually became an incubator hatched very unique bands and musicians like, "Guernica", "Yapoos", "Hikashū", "Jun Togawa", or "Maki Nomiya" in the '80s.
Early days
"Kenzō Saeki" has been a passionated rock fan since school kid days.
In high school, he formed an amateur rock band with friends, and met with the members who became long-term music peers later.
While "Saeki" was studying in a dental school, he teamed up a, now legendary, rock band "Halmens" with 4 other members, and debuted as a professional rock group in 1980.
Pearl brothers
"Halmens",however, was only lasted until 1982, since other members were keen to form different units like, "Guernica".
Then, "Saeki" formed a new rock band called, "Pearl brothers" in 1982 with 4 other members.
It seems this is the band that "Saeki" has been a member for the longest time.
As a lyricist
"Kenzō Saeki" is also known as a unique lyricist, and popular in the Japanese popular music scene.
He has offered lyrics to dozens of pop singers, or groups to date.
And among them, the songs like, "Morning Musume"'s debut song "Ai-no tane" (Seed of love), or "Jun Togawa"'s, "Tonari-no indo-jin" (An indian next door) has been well known hit songs.
References
For more information about "Kenzō Saeki", please check the references below, since they provide more detailed information.
Thank you.
Video clip
Finally, here is a music clip of "Pearl brothers" uploaded in 2018.
The song title is "Uma-no youni" (Like a horse).
"Pearl brothers", which "Kenzō Saeki" has been the main vocalist & "eldest son", is a 5-piece progressive rock group formed in 1983.
The song is a light & rhythmic pop rock, but its lyrics is a bit surreal as usual.
Just for your information, this animation of horses, which look primitive, are drawn by a prominent manga artist, "Kotobuki Shiri-agari".
If you like, please listen.
Natsumi Hirai Composer
"Natsumi Hirai" is another name of a notable music producer, "Shinji Kawahara" who has been active since mid '70s.
"Kawahara" is using few other names depending on the situation, when he is writing music as a composer, we do not know why though.
"Yōsui Ino-ue"'s hit song "Shōnen jidai" (boyhood days), released in 1990, is a well known work of "Kawahara". (Under "Natsumi Hirai" name.)
music producer
"Shinji Kawahara" started his career as a music producer by joining a record company in the mid '70s.
Since then, he has produced dozens of artists, like "The good bye", "Iyo Matsumoto", or "TOKIO" until today.
As a composer
"Shinji Kawahara" began to write some melodies in the late '70s to the artists he was producing at that time.
But due to the record company's internal rule, he couldn't open up his name as a composer.
Then, in 1981 he had an opportunity to write a melody for a popular singer "Seiko Matsuda".
The song titled "Romance" was released as a coupling song for her 7th single "Kaze tachinu" (A swift wind blows), and became a formal debut song for "Kawahara" as a composer.
"Shōnen jidai"
In 1990, "Kawahara" collaborated with a prominent singer-songwriter, "Yōsui Ino-ue".
"Ino-ue" released his 29th single, "Shōnen jidai", and "Kawahara" contributed to this song as a joint-composer under "Natsumi Hirai" name.
This became a smash hit, and sold more than million copies.
And the song has been attracting widespread popularity as one of the standard in the J-pop.
Ryō Kawakami Arranger
"Ryō Kawakami" is a composer, and arranger active since the mid '70s.
He has composed, and arranged quite a few pop songs in main stream popular music field, but also involved in creating, screen music, anime music, and also some electro pop by providing melodies to a maestro, "Hideki Matsutake".
There is, howver, no much information about him on the inter-net.
So, we would like to update this section in the future, if we find any useful references about "Kawakami".
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Bright & rhythmic
This is a bright & lively happy pop song in up-tempo rhythm.
Japanese popular music fans often call this type of songs as "Idol-pops", since they are chiefly performed by young idol stars.
Shiny & sparkling
The drums, bass, keyboards, electric piano, electric guitar, percussion, and brass section begin a rhythmic & cheerful introduction.
Shiny & sparkling sound of backing band supports natural and artless vocal of "Mizutani".
Short, but beautiful high-pitched trumpet solo appears in he bridge, and adding some elegance to the song.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Mari MizutaniA comet in the '80s
"Mari Mizutani" used to be a singer, and a popular idol star active from 1986 to around 1990.
Although her active period, as an idols star, was virtually only for 2 years. But she has left strong impression on fans in all over Japan.
"Mari Mizutani" debuted in 1986 with a single, "21-seiki made ai-shite" (Love me till 21st century). Since then, 8 singles, and 3 original, plus 3 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Mari Mizutani)
Early times
Interestingly, "Mari Mizutani" was not particularly keen to be an idol star, or starting a career in an entertainment business. did not send any application forms to various talent scout auditions, at her own initiative.
In 1985, when she was 14, one of her cousins secretly prepared an entry under"Mari Mizutani"'s name, and sent it to a popular teen cuty contest called, "Miss Hair cologne image girl contest".
("Hair-cologne" was a well liked brand of shampoo for young women, marketed by "Shiseido" .
"Mizutani" smoothly qualified at prejudging stage. And miraculously, she won the championship by beating 55,000 tough rivals.
This was actually a happening for her, and "Mizutani" got flummoxed a bit.
But as if it was a set process, her scheduled for debuting as an idol star was soon prepared by the professionals around her.
Debut
In March 1986, "Mari Mizutani" debuted as a fresh idol star, by releasing her 1st single, "21-seiki made ai-shite" (Love me till 21st century).
She was still 14 years old at this point of time.
Naturally, this song was used as a commercial jingle for "Shiseido Hair-cologne shampoo". And "Mari Mizutani" herself starred on this advertising.
Thanks to this exposures, the name of "Mari Mizutani" began to be recognized relatively quickly.
"Mari Mizutani" was certainly one of the front-runners among the singers, or idol stars freshly debuted in 1986.
So, she was given a few of honorable music awards together with her age peers.
Getting popular
"Mari Mizutani" had been successfully advancing her career as an idol star from the beginning
In the 2nd year of her as an idol star, "Mizutani" began to reveal her very unique personality, and earned more number of fans through radio & TV.
Retire
In 1987, "Mizutani" visited a studio of a top manga artist to interview him as a reporter from a monthly magazine. Actually, "Mizutani" had been a long fan of his comics.
She did a good job as an interviewer. But there was a little unexpected additional happening, because she had fallen in love with him.
This personal matter gradually became a more significant issue for her than continue to be an idol star.
She decided to retire from show business, and told her will to the office.
"Mizutani" then released her 8th single, "Haru Yasumi" (Spring break) in March 1988 as her last song, which sounds as if she was saying goodbye to enthusiastic her fans.
And later in the same month, she held the last concert in Tokyo, and finished her very short, but shining career as an idol star.
Marriage
She then moved back to her home town, and continued a bit of work as a personality, or a character for local commercials.
And in 1990, she finally married with that manga artist at eighteen.
Since then, she hasn't appeared in public as an ex-idol star.
"Haru-yasumi"
"Mizutani"'s 8th & the last single CD, "Haru-yasumi", which we are introducing today, was planned, and released after she told her wish to retire to the entertainment office she belonged to.
Even so, the song provided for her as the last one was very bright and cheerful, then we imagine the office & the song creators were wishing her good luck by presenting this nice song.
Best albums
It seems there are still some amount of passionated fans of her, and 2 released of best albums has been launched so far.
Both of hem are available from digital music shops. If you like, please check.
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(Ref: yoshihiko-chino.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
We could not find any official video of "Mari Mizutani", since she has stopped appearing on stage long time ago.
But we discovered a music video of "Mizutani"'s debut song, "21-seiki made ai-shite" (Love me till 21st century), covered by a popular model & singer, "Ami Tokitō".
So, we would like to introduce this today.
"Ami Tokitō" is an idol star, singer, photo model, and radio personality active since 2005.
She is well known as a "Megane-kko" idol star, who always wear stylish & charming glasses as part of her promotion & identity.
Revealing outfit
In this video, "Ami Tokitō" is wearing a Short pants (or hot pants) and Off shoulder top.
Because, she is a model too, used to wear clothes like those quite often when she was young.
So, if you think it could be a concern for you, please skip this video.
Otherwise, If you like, please listen.
Music Samples
15
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
15
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 春休み(Haru-yasumi) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 水谷麻里(Mari Mizutani) |
| Album Title | 水谷麻里コレクション(Mari Mizutani collection) |
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