Yumi Arai (Yumi Matsutoya)

Overview

Yumi Matsutoya (松任谷由実, born January 19, 1954), nicknamed "Yuming," is a Japanese singer-songwriter, lyricist, composer and pianist. She debuted in 1972 under her maiden name Yumi Arai (荒井由実) and has recorded as Matsutoya since marrying in 1976. For songs written for other artists she sometimes uses the pen name Kureda Karuho (呉田軽穂), a play on Greta Garbo. Her husband, arranger Masataka Matsutoya, also serves as her music producer.

She received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in spring 2013 and, in fiscal 2022, became the first singer-songwriter ever named a Person of Cultural Merit. She has topped the Oricon album chart across six consecutive decades, from the 1970s to the 2020s, which earned her a Guinness World Record in 2023 for the most consecutive decades with a number-one album in Japan. Her total sales exceed 40 million records.

Career

Early life and first compositions

Born in Hachioji, Tokyo, into a family that ran the draper's shop Arai Gofukuten (founded 1912), she began piano at six, shamisen at eleven and bass at fourteen. As a junior high student she frequented the Italian restaurant Chianti in Tokyo, a salon for cultural figures; the regulars there went on to found Alfa, the company behind her debut. At Rikkyo Girls' School she was struck by Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and at the Ochanomizu art prep school she became fond of Rimbaud and Prévert. Her nickname "Yuming" came from Sy Chen, who began calling her that when she was around 14.

In 1971 she made her debut as a composer at 17 when Katsumi Kahashi, formerly of The Tigers, recorded her song "Ai wa Totsuzen ni." In April 1972 she entered Tama Art University and signed with Alfa Music.

The Yumi Arai years (1972–1976)

She wanted to be a songwriter, but Alfa founder Kunihiko Murai encouraged her to perform. On July 5, 1972 she debuted with "Henji wa Iranai," produced by Hiroshi Kamayatsu, which sold only about 300 copies.

Her first album, Hikōki-gumo (November 1973), was recorded with Caramel Mama (Tin Pan Alley: Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, Tateo Hayashi and Masataka Matsutoya); its title track was later used as the theme of the film The Wind Rises (2013). Supported by radio host Yoshio Hayashi on TBS Radio's Pack in Music, she slowly gained recognition and began full-scale stage activity in April 1974 with the debut concert "FIRST IMPRESSION." MISSLIM and the single "12-gatsu no Ame" followed in October 1974, with all songs arranged by Masataka Matsutoya, and "Rouge no Dengon" in February 1975.

In 1975 her compositions "Sotsugyō Shashin" (covered by Hi-Fi Set) and "Ichigo Hakusho o Mō Ichido" (by BanBan, a number one on Oricon) made her famous as a songwriter. Her third album, COBALT HOUR (June 1975), featured Tatsuro Yamashita, Minako Yoshida and Taeko Onuki. Her single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" (October 1975), the theme of the TBS drama Katei no Himitsu, became her first Oricon number one and the tenth-best-selling single of 1976. The success lifted sales of her earlier albums, and her first best-of, YUMING BRAND (1976), hit number one on the album chart. She also released "Kageriyuku Heya" (March 1976) and The 14th Moon (November 1976), her last album under the Arai name.

The Matsutoya years (1976 onward)

She married Masataka Matsutoya on November 29, 1976 at Yokohama Yamate Church and continued as Yumi Matsutoya. Album sales dipped to 100,000–200,000 in 1978–80, yet classics such as "Futō o Wataru Kaze," "Aoi Air Mail," "Destiny" and "Koibito ga Santa Claus" date from this period. From 1978 to 1983 she released two original albums a year and established the resort-concert style.

The single "Mamotte Agetai" (June 1981) ranked tenth for the year, and the album Sakuban Oai Shimashō began a streak of 17 consecutive Oricon number-one albums that ran through Cowgirl Dreamin' (1997). Sales soared with Diamond Dust ga Kienu Ma ni (1987) and Delight Slight Light KISS (1988, 1.59 million). In 1990 The Gates of Heaven became the first album by a Japanese artist to ship over two million copies. She had eight consecutive million-sellers from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, and THE DANCING SUN (1994) reached 2.17 million, her best-selling studio album. Million-selling singles include "Manatsu no Yoru no Yume," "Hello, my friend" and "Haru yo, Koi." In the 1980s she supplied songs for the ski film Take Me Out to the Snow, and Mitsubishi Motors used her music and image in its advertising.

Her concerts grew ever larger from 1979, with a live elephant in "OLIVE," magic in "MAGICAL PUMPKIN," an elevator in "BROWN'S HOTEL," a fountain show in "SURF & SNOW" and a 30-meter dragon in "Mizu no Naka no Asia e."

In 1996 she returned briefly to the Yumi Arai name with the self-cover single "Machibuse" and the concert "Yumi Arai The Concert with old Friends." The 1998 best-of Neue Musik sold 3.8 million copies, her top seller. The Shangri-La circus-style concerts, created with a Russian circus troupe, ran in 1999, 2003 and 2007, with total costs above 12 billion yen and a combined audience of one million.

2000s onward

In 2005 she formed "Yumi Matsutoya with Friends of Love the Earth" at the closing concert of Expo 2005 Aichi and released "Smile again"; the unit also appeared on Kōhaku Uta Gassen. In 2011 she released new versions of "Haru yo, Koi" as digital singles for NHK's SONGS, donating the proceeds to areas hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Her 2012 best-of Nihon no Koi to, Yuming to. went million, lifting her cumulative sales past 30 million, a first for a Japanese solo or female artist. In 2013 she moved to Universal Music after the takeover of EMI Music Japan, received the Medal with Purple Ribbon, and "Hikōki-gumo" was issued as a single. She became Ishikawa Prefecture's tourism brand producer in 2015 and a member of the Tokyo arts and culture council in 2017, and is an honorary citizen of Setagaya. In September 2022 she released the single "Call me back."

Musical style

Drawing on progressive rock and European pop, Matsutoya created a sophisticated, urban sound at a time when Japanese music was dominated by folk. Rather than expressing everyday emotion directly, her lyrics are lyrical and poetic, evoking stylish city scenery; COBALT HOUR is regarded as the first full realization of this idiom, and several 1970s songs are considered early J-pop classics. Her work spans kayokyoku, city pop and J-pop, and she is known for her idiosyncratic voice and lavish live productions.