It's not only the final day of the year today but it's also another weekend so it's time for the regular Gosanke（御三家）article. Last week, after writing on the 1970s Shin Sannin Musume（新三人娘）consisting of aidoru Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）, Mari Amachi（天地真理）and Saori Minami（南沙織）, I did get at least one comment about another trio of aidoru that got its own name.
Fascinatingly enough, the Hana no Chuusan Trio (The Trio of Third-Year Junior High School Students) , also from the early 1970s, consisting of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）and Masako Mori（森昌子）may have been the very first female gosanke that I'd ever seen in my life, thanks to some ancient VCR footage. Of course, back in the day when I was a kid, I hadn't been aware of these media-influenced trios that were put together for fan pleasure and excitement. It was just me going "Oh, OK, three big singers together on the stage".
Apparently, the name was placed onto Yamaguchi, Sakurada and Mori when Fumio Ikeda（池田文雄）, executive producer for famed NTV audition show "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生！）, was in the midst of setting up the commemorative 100th episode of the show (August 26th 1973) when he realized that all three ladies were in the same third year (Grade 9) of junior high school. With the various gosanke and sannin musume that have come before, it was time to strike the iron while it was hot when it came to these fresh-faced aidoru. Considering the concert that took place as shown above, Ikeda's idea bore some very ripe fruit. Not only that, a "Shuukan Post"（週刊ポスト...The Weekly Post） article via J-Wiki noted that the birth of this trio helped in sparking the 1970s aidoru boom.
Of course, with the girls growing up through the education system into the different years of high school, the name had to change each year until they attained the status of Third-Year Senior High School Students later in the decade. By that point, it was decided that the trio would "retire" in 1977, although Yamaguchi, Sakurada and Mori would chug along on their individual careers. Yamaguchi herself would truly retire from showbiz a few years later in 1980 with her upcoming marriage.
Momoe Yamaguchi -- Toshigoro （としごろ）
Junko Sakurada -- Watashi no Aoi Tori （わたしの青い鳥）
Masako Mori -- Chuugaku Sannen-sei （中学三年生）
In terms of sheer talent, has there been a better academic year than that which included the likes of the above 3, Sakiko Ito and Hiromi Iwasaki? If we go for 12 months, then you could include Sayuri Ishikawa as well (Sayuri 30th Jan 1958, Momoe 17ths Jan 1959).
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