The Dawn of Trendy Songs - Chiyoko Sato and "Tokyo March" 1920s-1960s

The Dawn of Trendy Songs - Chiyoko Sato and "Tokyo March" 1920s-1960s

Chiyoko Sato was Japan's first commercial record singer, and her "Tokyo Koshinkyoku" (Tokyo March) in 1929 became a huge hit, selling 250,000 copies and propelling popular music into a national pastime. Born in Tendo City, Yamagata Prefecture, he studied at the Tokyo Music School and toured the country with Amejo Noguchi and Shimpei Nakayama to spread his songs. With the start of radio broadcasting in 1924, he brought his voice to the whole country and supported the song world in its early days. His representative song "Tokyo Koshinkyoku (Tokyo March)" sold phenomenally well in the era of phonographs, of which there were only 100,000 available at the time, and was an opportunity for Saijo Hachiju to be introduced to the world of song. It is also important to note that "Beniya no Musume" and "Kuroyuri no Hana (Black Lily Flower)" also gained popularity, as did Masao Koga's "Kagewoso wo Mochiete (I adore the shadow)," which introduced him to the world of Japanese folk music. He
also made pioneering attempts to introduce Japanese folk songs overseas by studying opera, but after returning to Japan, he was overshadowed by the rise of a new generation, including Ichiro Fujiyama. During the war, she encouraged soldiers with her consolatory activities, but after the war, she suffered from poverty and arrests, and was called a "singer of the lowly". She died in 1968 at the age of 71, reportedly singing "Tokyo March" on her sickbed. Compared to Tokai Rintaro and Noriko Awatani, who were active for a long time, Sato embodied the glory and fall of a short life and symbolized the light and shadow of Japanese popular songs.