is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter and pianist. After overcoming her tragic childhood, she released her debut single ''Asueno tobira'' (Door to Tomorrow) as the duo I Wish in 2003. She is well known for her numerous street performances. She is also known for her devotion to help children under circumstances similar to hers in Japan and rest of the world.

Early life

Kawashima was born and raised in

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...

, Japan. After her birth, her mother's health deteriorated and she died when Kawashima was only 3 years old. Because her father had been missing before she was born, she was taken to an orphanage and eventually adopted by the Kawashima family, owners of a construction company. Her foster father died when she was 10. After graduating from middle school, she moved to Tokyo. Her foster mother died when she was 16. She started playing the piano at the age of 3 and eventually began to think about a career as a singer.

Career

Kawashima started her career as an

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than '' ryūkōka'' music, ...

singer. At around the age of 10, she performed on stage at the

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

in New York. In 1999, she released her debut single, ''Juu-roku Koi Gokoro / Anata ni Kataomoi''. However, the enka project was crippled by poor sales and was abandoned entirely within a few months. After this initial failure, she began to sing her own songs on the busy street corners in

Shibuya Shibuya (渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

, Tokyo with a microphone and a radio cassette player. To become famous, she set herself the goal of performing 1,000 times on the street. Nobody paid attention to her songs at first, but the crowd gradually grew as she kept performing on streets and she met people who gave her support, culminating her major debut and the 2003 hit single "Asueno tobira" (Door to Tomorrow), which sold more than 900,000 copies. She sang the song as the vocalist of the duo I Wish. She has been performing solo since the duo broke up in 2005. Her second solo single, "12-ko no Kisetsu" (12 Seasons) ranked 10th on the Billboard Hits of the world, Japan. Even after her major debut, she kept performing on streets and, in 2005, she accomplished 1,000 street performances, which, according to Kawashima, became the foundation of her music. In 2009, she performed at Japan Day at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, New York.

Personal life

Kawashima has devoted her time and money to a project to build schools in developing countries. 3 schools have been finished so far and her goal is to build 100 schools. Every year since her mother's death, she has held a memorial concert on August 20. On the night of March 11, 2011, 20 elementary school students who were able to flee the devastating

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

after Tohoku earthquake comforted each other by singing the song ''Tabidachi no hi ni'' (On the day of departure) together at a local

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...

shrine where they spent the night. The students had been practicing the song for their graduation ceremony, which was only a week away. Having heard the story, Kawashima visited the students in a shelter on April 6 and sang the same song together. On August 21, she visited the students one more time to attend their belated graduation ceremony and sang the song together. The song ends with the words, "Let us bloom from this bud."

Discography

Kawashima's songs have been featured in various

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and video games. is the theme song of ''

Shining Force Neo is an action role-playing game co-developed by Neverland and published by Sega in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 as a part of the ''Shining'' series. It is not a turn-based strategy game as the other games of the ''Shining Force'' sub-series ...

''; "Compass" is the theme song of the eighth ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine '' Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chap ...

'' movie '' Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates'', and "Kimi no Koe" is the ending theme song of ''

The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a 2004 Japanese anime film written, produced, cinematographed, directed and edited by Makoto Shinkai in his feature film debut. Set over several years in an alternate history where the Soviet Union occupies half of Japan, it follows two c ...

''. One of her newest songs, "Door Crawl", is the theme song of '' Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon''.

Singles

# 003.08.21Tenshitachi no Melody / Tabidachi no Asa (「天使たちのメロディー/旅立ちの朝」) # 004.02.1812-ko no Kisetsu ~4 Dome no Haru~ (「12個の季節～4度目の春～」) # 004.05.25/06.02Page 525 (525ページ) # 004.08.04Mermaid (「マーメイド」) # 004.11.17'Sayonara' 'Arigatō' ~Tatta Hitotsu no Basho~ (「さよなら」「ありがとう」～たった一つの場所～) # 005.04.06Zetsubō to Kibō (「絶望と希望」) # 005.08.24...Arigatō... (「・・・ありがとう．．．」) # 006.02.01Dear / Tabidachi no Hi ni... (Dear/旅立ちの日に...) # 006.04.19Mienai Tsubasa (「見えない翼」) # 006.10.11Taisetsu na Yakusoku / Mou Hitotsu no Yakusoku (「大切な約束/もう１つの約束」) # 007.02.14My Love # 007.03.14Compass # 007.05.30Kimi ni..... (「君に･････」) # 007.10.03Shiawase Desu ka / Suitcase (「幸せですか/スーツケース」) # 007.12.12Door Crawl (「ドアクロール」) # 008.08.20Kakera (「カケラ」) # 009.04.08Daijōbu da yo (「大丈夫だよ」) # 009.12.16Daisuki da yo (「大好きだよ」) # 010.04.07haru no yume (「春の夢」) # 010.12.16I Remember feat.

Joe Sample Joseph Leslie Sample (February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014) was an American keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, the band which shortened its name to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained ...

# 013.04.10Yes/No / T # 014.02.19Sora wa koko ni aru (「空はここにある」) # 015.07.01Tobira (「とびら」)

Mini albums

# 002.07.13Kono Basho Kara... (「この場所から・・・」) # 002.10.18Habatakeru Hi Made... (「はばたける日まで・・・」) # 002.12.26Ayumi Tsuzukeru Tame ni... (「歩みつづけるために・・・」) # 003.03.08Yuki ni Saku Hana no yō ni... (「雪に咲く花のように・・・」) # 003.05.23Ashita o Shinjite... (「明日を信じて・・・」) # 003.08.02Utai Tsuzukeru Kara... (「歌いつづけるから・・・」)

Albums

005.05.18 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

12-ko no Uta (Message) (12個の歌(メッセージ)) # 005.09.28Rojōshū 1-gō (「路上集I号」) # 006.05.24Thank You! (サンキュー!) # 006.08.23Piano Songs: Rojōshū 2-gō (Piano Songs～路上集2号～) # 007.06.27Ashiato (足あと) # 008.04.23Café & Musique: Rojōshū 3-gō (Café & Musique ～路上集3号～) # 008.06.04Single Best # 008.06.04Coupling Best # 009.06.03Simple Treasure # 010.05.2624/24 # 011.06.29My favorite songs – Wing # 012.02.22My favorite songs – Tabidachi # 013.06.26One song # 014.06.25Shutter # 015.10.21Be Your Side

DVDs

# 004.12.01道の途中で...。 (Michi no Tochuu de...) # 005.06.08ライブ1000回達成記念～1136日の記録～ (Live 1000-kai Tassei Kinen 1136 Nichi no Kiroku) # 005.12.21PV Collection +α # 006.11.01ドラマ (大切な約束) (Drama (Taisetsu na Yakusoku)) # 006.11.29つばさ祭'06～秘密の陣～ (Tsubasa-Sai '06: Himitsu no Jin) # 006.12.20川嶋あいConcert Tour2006 ～サンキュー！～ (Kawashima Ai Concert Tour 2006: Thank You!) # 007.04.112003.8.20 渋谷公会堂～旅立ちの朝～ (2003.8.20 Shibuya Kōkaidō: Tabidachi no Asa) # 007.06.27つばさ祭'07～春の陣～ (Tsubasa-Sai '07 ~Haru no Jin~) # 007.12.26Ai Kawashima Concert 2007 足あと (Ai Kawashima Concert 2007 Ashi Ato) # 009.04.08The Best: Seventeenfivetwentyto- Ai Kawashima Concert Tour 2008 # 010.01.13What's your Simple Treasure? Special Ai Kawashima Concert Tour 2009 渋谷C.C.Lemonホール (What's your Simple Treasure? Special Ai Kawashima Concert Tour 2009 Shibuya C.C.Lemon Hall) # 012.01.08WING 〜Ai Kawashima Live Concert 2011〜 # 012.12.26My Room – 8 Gatsu 20 Ka 10 Kai Kinen

Books

* * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawashima, Ai 1986 births Living people Sony Music Entertainment Japan artists Japanese women singer-songwriters People from Fukuoka Musicians from Fukuoka Prefecture 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singers Japanese adoptees