Ayumi Shirota -- Koishikute（恋しくて）

Getting the information together for this article, I realized that Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）has been one of those relatively rare composers who have created melodies spanning everything from enka to City Pop. He's also done Mood Kayo and even helped one famous singer of that genre to cross over into pop.

Moreover, Tsushimi has also provided music for aidoru including Ayumi Shirota（白田あゆみ）who I had never heard of before. Shirota herself was born in 1970 in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo and was scouted through an idol-based magazine, Momoco, in the early 1980s. However, nothing really developed for her until the latter half of the decade, when she finally released her debut single "Koishikute" (I Miss You) in September 1987.

"Koishikute" is that wistful aidoru song that was created by Tsushimi with lyrics by Hiroto Natsu*（夏裕人）, and actually I like it because it goes over the border into straight pop. There's nothing especially treacly about "Koishikute" and even its arrangement reminds me of some of the works of Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. Shirota's vocals also come off as sounding quite self-assured which is why it's a pity (mind you, I'm only judging from this one song) that her singing career was so short having ended at only 3 singles and 2 albums. There were no hits that came about from Shirota, and she retired from show business in 1989.

*That first name gave me some fits about how to read it so I'm going with Hiroto for now but if anyone can either confirm or correct me, please let me know.