is a Japanese

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, lyricist, actor and composer.

Background

He was born Minoru Ōno (大野穣), in Shiriuchi, Hokkaidō, to a fisherman. He was very poor due to the effects of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and was forced to work while he studied.

Music career

When he was about to graduate from high school, he decided to become a singer. His debut single was called "Bungacha-Bushi," which was released in 1962. He has many famous songs, including "Namida Bune" (1962), "Kyōdai Jingi" (1965), "Yosaku" (1978) and "Kita no Ryōba" (1986). His 1965 song "Kaerokana" was written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer

Hachidai Nakamura was a Japanese songwriter and jazz pianist. Biography Hachidai Nakamura was born in Tsingtao, Republic of China, to Japanese parents, before moving to Kurume at a young age, where he attended high school. He graduated from Waseda University in ...

. He is very popular in Japan partly due to his looks of a physical laborer, and he mostly sings in the spirit of Japan's working class and rural laborers. Kitajima regularly appeared on ''

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

'', an annual end-of-year TV program where many major Japanese singers gather to perform, before announcing his retirement from the show in 2013. He participated a record 50 times, was the "anchor" (final solo performer) 13 times and led the grand finale 11 times. His participation included the infamous

DJ Ozma , known professionally as DJ Ozma (stylized DJ OZMA) and legally as , is a Japanese pop singer and musical artist. He is also known as Show Ayanocozey of the rock band Kishidan and Naomi Camelia Yazima of the drag queen pop group Yazima Beauty ...

performance at the ''

57th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen The , referred to from hereon as "Kōhaku," aired on December 31, 2006. This event was filmed and aired from NHK Hall in Japan. Air time was from 19:20 to 23:45 (with an interruption from 21:25 to 21:30 for news). All times are JST. Viewership r ...

''. He returned at the '' 69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen'' in 2018 for a special performance. Kitajima released single on January 1, 2010 at the age of 73. It debuted at No. 10 on the Japanese

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

weekly single charts. It became the first single to reach Top 10 by a solo artist in his 70s in Oricon charts history. He does a lot of concerts overseas and is contributing a lot of work to the culture of Japanese music.

Other activities

In addition to his singing career, Kitajima acted in the role of Tatsugorō on the television series ''

Abarenbō Shōgun (Abarenbō Shōgun) was a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa ''shōgun''. The program started in 1978 under the title '' ...

''. During the quarter-century life of the series, he also sang its theme songs. He is also a successful owner of Thoroughbred racehorses including Kitasan Black.

Honours

* Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2016)

References

External links

Official homepage
Enka singers Japanese male composers Japanese composers Japanese male singer-songwriters Japanese singer-songwriters Japanese lyricists Japanese male television actors 1936 births Living people Actors from Hokkaido Musicians from Hokkaido Japanese racehorse owners and breeders {{japan-singer-stub