is a former Japanese singer, actress, and radio personality. Tsugunaga joined

Hello! Project is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but has s ...

as a member of Hello! Project Kids at the age of 10 and later became part of the

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Berryz Kobo was a Japanese girl group formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2004 and associated with Hello! Project. The group's members consisted of Hello! Project Kids members Saki Shimizu, Momoko Tsugunaga, Miyabi Natsuyaki, Chinami Tokunaga, Maasa Sudo, Yuri ...

and

Buono! was a subgroup of the Japanese girl groups Berryz Kobo and Cute (Japanese idol group), Cute, formed in 2007 by Up-Front Promotion and associated with Hello! Project. The members consisted of Momoko Tsugunaga and Miyabi Natsuyaki from Berryz Kob ...

Following Berryz Kobo's hiatus, she became the playing manager of

Country Girls Country Girl(s) may refer to: Literature * ''Country Girl'' (memoir), a 2012 book by Edna O'Brien Music * ''A Country Girl'', a long-running British 1902 musical * Country Girls (band), a Japanese female idol group Albums * ''Country Girl'' ( ...

. In 2017, Tsugunaga retired from entertainment to become a kindergarten teacher.

Career

2002-2004: Hello! Project Kids and ZYX

In 2002, Tsugunaga auditioned for Hello! Project Kids with the song "Koi wo Shicchaimashita!" by

Tanpopo was a sub-group of the Japanese idol girl group Morning Musume and associated with Hello! Project. It was formed by Up-Front Promotion in November 1998 as Morning Musume's first sub-group. While the main group Morning Musume features predominan ...

. Her audition tape was aired on

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

's variety show ''

Hello! Morning was a weekly Japanese TV show featuring members of Morning Musume, and sometimes other Hello! Project members on TV Tokyo. It was also known by the shorter name of . On April 1, 2007, the show ended after seven years of broadcast. A new show f ...

''. She was placed in the group with 14 other girls. In the same year, she starred in the movie ''

Koinu Dan no Monogatari , is a 2002 Japanese film directed by Shinichi Sawai, starring Hello! Project Kids, Morning Musume, and Maki Goto. The film was given a limited screening on December 14, 2002, where it was screened as a double-feature with ''Mini-Moni the Movie ...

'' as the main character, Mao Morishita. In 2003, Tsugunaga appeared in the music video for

Miki Fujimoto (born February 26, 1985), professionally known by her birth name of , and nicknamed Mikitty, is a Japanese actress and former pop singer. After failing the audition to join girl group Morning Musume with the fourth generation members, Fujimoto d ...

's " Boogie Train '03." She also became a member of the subgroup

ZYX ZYX or Zyx may refer to: * Zyx, a region in the North Caucasus inhabited by the Zygii * Zyx (cartoonist) (1950–2015), French-Canadian cartoonist * ZyX (company), a Japanese company that makes erotic video games * ZYX (gene), a gene that encod ...

along with

Mari Yaguchi is a Japanese singer, actress, and television personality. She joined the girl group Morning Musume in 1998 as a second generation member and was the leader of subgroups within Hello! Project, such as Mini-Moni, Morning Musume Sakuragumi, and ZY ...

from

Erika Umeda is a Japanese singer and former model. She was a member of the Japanese idol girl group ZYX and Cute up until departing to pursue a solo career in modeling. In 2013, she returned to her music career with the release of her debut solo single "Cr ...

Maimi Yajima is a Japanese singer and actress. She was a member and the leader of Cute, a girl idol group within Hello! Project. Career Yajima first joined Hello! Project in 2002 as one of the fifteen children chosen from the Hello! Project Kids audi ...

Saki Shimizu is a J-pop singer. Her career began in 2002 when she passed the audition for Hello! Project Kids, an all-female teen pop group within Hello! Project. She continued to sing in that group and became a part of two smaller groups composed of H ...

, and

Megumi Murakami is a Japanese choreographer and former singer and actress. She first gained recognition when she joined Hello! Project Kids and later became the lead vocalist of the girl group Cute until her retirement in 2006. Career 2002–2005: Hello! P ...

. They released their debut single, "Iku ZYX! Fly High" on August 6, 2003, followed by "Shiroi Tokyo" on December 10, 2003. Later, in 2004, she participated in singing "

All for One & One for All! ''All for One & One for All!'' is the first (and only) mini album by Hello! Project unit H.P. All Stars, released on December 1, 2004 in both a normal and limited edition, the limited edition having a different cover. It reached a peak of #5 on t ...

", a collaboration single released by all Hello! Project artists under the name "H.P. All Stars."

2004-2015: Berryz Kobo and Buono!

In 2004, Tsugunaga was one of the eight girls from Hello! Project Kids were selected to form

. Berryz Kobo debuted on March 3, 2004 with the single " Anata Nashi de wa Ikite Yukenai", and she was one of the lead singers of the group. From 2009 until 2014, Tsugunaga also hosted a radio show titled "Momoko Tsugunaga from Berryz Kobo's Pri-Pri-Princess." Continuing with her "Momochi" personality, Tsugunaga released a solo song and music video called "Momochi! Yurushite Nyan Taiso", which was released as a B-side to Berryz Kobo's 29th single, " Cha Cha Sing." In 2007, Tsugunaga also became part of the subgroup

with

Miyabi Natsuyaki is a Japanese singer. Her career began in 2002 when she passed the audition for Hello! Project Kids, an all-female child pop group under Hello! Project. She continued to sing in that group and became a part of four smaller groups composed of ...

and

Airi Suzuki is a Japanese singer, actress, model, and radio personality associated with Up-Front Works. In 2002, she joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Project Kids and later debuted as one of the lead vocalists of the Japanese girl group Cute in ...

from

Cute Cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance, as well as a scientific concept and analytical model in ethology, first introduced by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz proposed the concept ...

. The group formed to perform the opening and ending songs for the anime ''

Shugo Chara! , also known as ''My Guardian Characters'', is a Japanese ''shōjo'' manga series created by the manga author duo, Peach-Pit. The story centers on elementary school girl Amu Hinamori, whose popular exterior, referred to as "cool and spic ...

'' They released their first single, "

Honto no Jibun is the title of the first single by the Hello! Project unit Buono!. Maimi Yajima and Chisato Okai appear as background characters in the song's Promotional Video. It was first performed on August 22, 2007 at Odaiba's Palette Town and later on ...

", on October 31, 2007. After the show's end, Buono continued on as a side project until its disbandment in 2017.

2015-2017: Country Girls and retirement

In 2014, Berryz Kobo announced they would end activities the following year. After Berryz Kobo went on hiatus, Tsugunaga took on the role as the "playing manager" for the girl group

, a revival of a Hello! Project group formerly under the name Country Musume. On November 5, 2016 at Shinjuku ReNY, during Country Girls' second anniversary event, Tsugunaga announced that she would retire from the entertainment industry the following year to become a kindergarten teacher. To commemorate her graduation, a compilation CD album titled was released on June 21, 2017, with songs selected by fan vote. Tsugunaga held her final concert on June 30, 2017 in an outdoor venue at Odaiba, exactly 15 years after her debut in Hello! Project Kids. 8,000 people attended the concert, including Berryz Kobo and

Personal life

Public image

During Berryz Kobo's later years, Tsugunaga became known as the "cutesy character" of the group and with her mannerisms and twintail hairstyle. She was often referred to by the nickname in media and press. After Berryz Kobo went on hiatus, she began playing down her "Momochi" image and stopped wearing her hair in twintails, citing that she has grown up.

Education

Tsugunaga majored in education and graduated in 2014.

Discography

Albums

DVD

Bibliography

Photobooks

* (June 19, 2007, ) * (March 19, 2008, ) * (November 21, 2008,

Wani Books is a Japanese publishing company focused on manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehis ...

, ) * (August 21, 2009, Wani Books, ) * (October 20, 2010, Wani Books, ) * (March 6, 2012, Wani Books, )

Photo-essays

* ( Photographic essay, June 22, 2013, Wani Books, )

Filmography

Film

Television

Theater

Music video

Radio

References

External links

Official Hello! Project profile

Official blog
(Ameba)
Country Girls Official blog
(Ameba) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsugunaga, Momoko 1992 births Berryz Kobo members People from Kashiwa Japanese women pop singers Buono! members Hello! Project Kids members Japanese idols Japanese child singers Japanese child actresses Living people ZYX (pop group) members Musicians from Chiba Prefecture 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese women singers