Early life
Ichimaru grew up in Japan with eleven siblings under harsh conditions. She left her family at the age of fourteen or fifteen to work at a geisha house. She spent much of her early years working at a hot springs spa in Asama, located in the Nagano Prefecture as an oshaku waitress. One time she was asked to sing by one of her customers, she was terribly embarrassed at her inability to sing and vowed to improve her skills. At the age of nineteen she moved to Tokyo and joined the Ichimatsuya Okiya, and took on her new name, Asakusa Ichimaru.Recording career
In an effort to improve her singing skills when she moved to Tokyo, Ichimaru undertook shamisen and singing lessons from Enchiga Kiyomoto, who was a famous female shamisen artist. She made great progress but still felt she could get better. Ichimaru then undertook training with the Grand Head Master Enjudaiyu Kiyomoto V's son, Eijudaiyu. The training paid off and soon she was in great demand in not only her own geisha district but others around hers such as Yanagibashi, Akasaka and Shinbashi. Due to her great singing talent, Ichimaru was asked by The Victor Recording Company to sign a contract in 1931, along with another popular geisha singer, Katsutaro. She recorded her first song ''Chakkiri bushi'' (Picking tea song) which became a hit. Composed by a poet Kitahara Hakushu to promoted an amusement park. She followed her debut up with another hit, "Tenryū Kudareba" (Down the Tenryū River, 1933), which saw her become a superstar. Due to the success of her budding music career she decided to retire from being a geisha to concentrate solely on her singing career. In around mid-1930s was called "Katsu-Ichi Jidai" or "Ichi-Katsu Jidai", when she and Katsutaro Kouta became big rival on song and kimono style and other fees, which sometimes caused problems. Throughout the 1930s Ichimaru continued to record new songs and performed for Japanese troops at home and abroad. By the end of the decade her recording career had slowed down to a complete halt due toTeaching career
In 1984, Ichimaru founded the ''Edo Ko-uta Ichiju Society'' with the hopes of popularizing Edo ko-uta. She had an active role in training students in this style, and continued to teach well into 80s. She was also granted the title of Head Master of Nakamura School of Edo Ko-uta in 1960, due to her successful singing career and her support of the style.Legacy
Ichimaru died at the age of 90 in 1997, leaving a legacy of traditional folk music for modern day Japanese. Throughout her career she recorded two-hundred-seventy pieces of ''ha-uta, zokkyoku'' melodies and ''ko-uta'', and won many prestigious awards including ''Geijutsusai Shorei Sho'' in 1970, ''Shiju Hoso'' (Imperial Order of the Purple Ribbon) in 1972 and ''Kun Yonto Zui-ho Sho'' (4th Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure) in 1981. Her legacy continues to live on in the form of a generous donation of kimono, obi and memorabilia by Mrs. Fumi Suzuki, a friend of Ichimaru, to theReferences
Further reading
* Barry Till, Michiko Wargentyne and Judith Patt. "From Geisha to Diva. The Kimono of Ichimaru" pp. 56–75. (May–June 2003). ''Arts of Asia''. {{Authority control 1906 births 1997 deaths 20th-century Japanese composers 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singers 20th-century women composers Geishas Japanese women composers Musicians from Nagano Prefecture