"Kizuna" (stylized as "kizuna") is a song recorded by Japanese singer Aya Ueto, from her debut studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, '' Ayaueto''. It was released as the album's second single by Flight Master on November 7, 2002. The first pressing of the single included a bonus CD-ROM featuring a special video message from Ueto, as well as a program allowing fans to receive emails from her for a limited period. The song was used in commercials for Karaoke Station by

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

, starring Ueto herself.

Background

"Kizuna" was released two months following the debut single " Pureness". The track is a midtempo ballad and, like "Pureness," it was written, composed, arranged and produced by

T2ya T2ya, born , is a Japanese songwriter and keyboardist from Gunma Prefecture. In the 1990s, he supported the agency Rising Production, which was later renamed Vision Factory. He wrote both the music and the lyrics of Olivia Lufkin's " I.L.Y. (Yokub� ...

. It was recorded by Ueto on September 13, 2002, the day before her seventeenth birthday. At the time of release, Ueto was in the middle of filming her first feature film, ''

Azumi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yū Koyama. Its story concerns the title character, a young woman brought up as part of a team of assassins, charged with killing the warlords that threaten the uneasy peace in Feudal Jap ...

'' (2003), and had to learn the lyrics to "Kizuna" on the day of recording. Due to the hectic filming schedule at the time, Ueto did not do any televised promotion for the single. The music video for "Kizuna" was shot on the rooftop of a hotel in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

. The video shoot was squeezed in an opening in the filming schedule when the crew for ''Azumi'' were moving locations from Kyoto to Hiroshima, giving Ueto just enough time to film the video and get back to set the next day. Ueto has stated that the music video for "Kizuna" is one of her personal favorites.

Chart performance

"Kizuna" entered the daily

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

at number 3. The single debuted on the weekly chart at number 5, with 32,000 copies sold in the first week. It spent a second week in the top twenty, at number 19, selling 11,000copies, before dropping out the following week. "Kizuna" charted on the Oricon Singles Chart for eleven weeks, selling a reported total of 57,000 copies during its run.

Track listing

Charts

Sales

Release history

References

{{authority control 2002 songs 2002 singles Aya Ueto songs Song recordings produced by T2ya Songs written by T2ya