Hitomi Ishikawa -- Migi Muke Migi （右向け右）

I distinctly remember the 2nd entry in this blog being Hitomi Ishikawa's（石川ひとみ）"Machibuse"（まちぶせ）. I chose that hit since it had been one of the big songs in my 1981 epiphany that steered me into my long relationship listening to kayo kyoku. However, up to now it had been the only Ishikawa song that I knew, and recently I was wondering how some of her other songs sounded.

So I decided to go all the way back to her beginnings. "Migi Muke Migi" (Turning Right) was her debut in May 1978, and it was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, a frequent lyricist for Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, and composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, the man behind the grand theme song for "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）. I've only heard it a few times now and it struck me as being a harmless and pleasant enough 70s aidoru tune about a boy and girl reluctantly turning away in opposite directions. There was nothing too elaborate or challenging about it (yes, I do realize that I am talking about aidoru tunes here), so it was good enough for a young 18-year-old Ishikawa to cut her teeth upon. Man, writing that age down just has me comparing her with what Namie Amuro （安室奈美恵）did when she was 19 years old several years later.

I didn't write anything about Ishikawa's history for "Machibuse", so allow me to rectify that situation. She was born in 1959 in Aichi Prefecture, and in contrast with that stereotypical aidoru look that she had, she grew up as a tomboy. In fact, according to her J-Wiki profile, she got into a huge donnybrook with one kid in kindergarten in a rice paddy which left her coming home completely covered in mud. When she was in her 2nd year of high school, she had actually auditioned for the Fuji-TV talent program "Kimi koso Star da!" （君こそスターだ...You Are The Star!）but kerfuffled the lyrics for Hiromi Iwasaki's （岩崎宏美）"Dream" which led to her screaming out "SORRY!!!" Still, she was able to become the champion on the program. Then some time later, Ishikawa visited the Nagoya branch of the Tokyo Music Academy on the day that she was supposed to take an entrance examination for another institute of higher learning. The staffer at the academy invited her to take the exam there, and since she passed, the rest was history.