, (born ; July 19, 1923 – April 14, 2001) was 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 in postwar Japan.

Early life

He was born Bunji Kitazume (北詰文司 ''Kitazume Bunji'') in

Nagaoka, Niigata is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It is the second largest city in the prefecture, after the capital city of Niigata. , the city had an estimated population of 264,611 in 109,283 households and a population density of . The total ...

, Japan.

Career

In 1939, at the age of 16, Bunji debuted as a performer of rōkyoku, a type of narrative singing, under the name . Bunji joined the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

in 1944 and was sent to

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

. He was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

and spent four years at a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

camp near Khabarovsk. He returned to Japan in 1949 and resumed his career as a rōkyoku singer. He adopted his stage name Haruo Minami in 1957 and started performing

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

(only later would his music be classified as

, a term not in existence at the time of his debut). He attracted attention for performing while dressed in

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

, which was unheard of for male pop singers at the time. Hideo Murata was regarded as his rival as they both came from rōkyoku backgrounds. Among his many hit songs was "Tokyo Gorin Ondo", the theme song of the 1964 Summer Olympics in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. It sold over one and a half million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. In 1992, Minami enjoyed a popularity resurgence when he performed the ending music for the

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

series ''Super Zugan''. Previously popular primarily among adults, enka music gained many younger fans due to this song.

Death

On April 14, 2001, Minami died of prostate cancer at a hospital in Tokyo, at the age of 77.

Approach to audience

Haruo Minami is known for popularizing the saying "Okyakusama wa kamisama desu". It is directly translated, "The audience/guests are god", meaning "the customer is always right" or "the customer is a god" symbolising patronage. The kamisama is Japanese shintō's

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

. When he sang his songs, he was concentrating as if to

pray Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...

before kami. He looked on his audience as kami to make his performance perfect. The Minami's words were spread by Let's-Go-Sanbiki, a trio of Japanese comedian that had come to watch Minami's show.「お客様は神様です」について (about "Okyakusama wa kamisama desu")
Haruo Minami official site. In October 2016 his voice was released for software synthesizer CeVIO Creative Studio.

References

External links

Haruo Minami official site
1923 births 2001 deaths Japanese anti-communists Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Japanese prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union Enka singers People from Nagaoka, Niigata Deaths from prostate cancer Musicians from Niigata Prefecture Siberian internees Deaths from cancer in Japan 20th-century Japanese male singers 20th-century Japanese singers {{Japan-musician-stub