Kozo Murashita

Overview

Kozo Murashita (村下孝蔵, 1953–1999) was a Japanese folk singer and singer-songwriter born in Minamata, Kumamoto. He is best known for love-themed hits such as "Hatsukoi," "Odoriko," "Yuko" and "Hidamari." He died of a brain hemorrhage in 1999 at the age of 46.

Career

Early life

Born on February 28, 1953, the third child of a family that ran movie theaters, Murashita grew up watching films and listening to kayokyoku on the radio with his older sister. Rockabilly, the Ventures and Yuzo Kayama inspired him so much that he built his own guitar. A competitive breaststroke swimmer from junior high school, he entered Chinzei High School on a swimming scholarship.

Hiroshima years

After graduating in 1971 he joined the Nippon Steel Yawata works swim team but left in September that year and moved to Hiroshima. In 1972 he entered the Japan Designers Gakuin Hiroshima campus (interior design), formed the four-piece group Colorful, entered folk contests and self-released a 300-copy single, "Hitoripocchi no Ame no Naka." He then worked at Yamaha Hiroshima, qualified as a piano tuner, and from 1975 worked as a tuner while performing at hotel lounges. Backed by Chugoku Broadcasting radio, he self-financed the album Sorezore no Kaze, released July 25, 1979.

Professional debut and breakthrough

He won the grand prize at the first CBS/Sony SD Audition in 1979 and debuted on May 21, 1980, at age 27, with the single "Tsuki Akari." He avoided television and kept performing live in Hiroshima. "Shun'u" (1981) reached No. 58, and "Yuko" (1982) caught fire through Sapporo cable radio and peaked at No. 23. His fifth single, "Hatsukoi" (1983), reached No. 3 on the Oricon chart. Written as a ballad, it was rearranged at a faster tempo in a pop style by arranger Kimio Mizutani. Hiroko Mita covered it in 1983 (Murashita chose her himself); later versions include Yuka Imai (2000, Boys Be...), Saori Hayami (2007, Sora no Otoshimono) and Nao Toyama (2017, Tsuki ga Kirei), and Samantha Lam's 1984 Cantonese cover was used in Stephen Chow's God of Cookery.

Illness and later work

Hepatitis, brought on by a punishing promotional schedule, forced him to cancel appearances, and he moved to Tokyo at the end of 1984. After repeated hospital stays in 1985, he resumed national tours in 1987 and began the annual Tanabata concert. "Hidamari" (September 1987) became a theme song for the anime Maison Ikkoku. In 1988 he fulfilled a dream by guesting with the Ventures, and his album Koibumi included "Koibumi – Shanghai kara," mourning victims of the Shanghai train accident. He released Nogiku yo Boku wa... (1989), the single "Romance Car" (1992), and in 1994 the theme "Hitotsubu no Suna" for a program tied to the Hiroshima Asian Games, followed by "16-sai" (1996) and "Dosokai" (1998).

Death and legacy

On June 20, 1999, he fell ill during concert rehearsal and was hospitalized with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage; he died on June 24 aged 46. About 550 mourners, including Masashi Sada, attended the funeral on June 26, where his favorite song, "Romance Car," was played. Memorial albums Dosokai and Shinobi Aruki no Tasogare ni appeared in 1999, followed by Ramune to Beach Sandal (2000) and Junjo Karen (2001, with rare amateur-era recordings), plus compilations through 2019.

Musical style

Starting from electric guitar influences such as the Ventures and Yuzo Kayama, Murashita began songwriting on acoustic guitar in Hiroshima. His lyrical folk-based melodies and romantic lyrics defined his work, and his music is categorized across kayokyoku, enka, city pop and J-pop.