Gosanke: 3M

 

Well, I gather that this is a first for the Toronto area. We've gotten our third snowstorm in nine days, and this one last night piled about half the season's total of snow accumulation in one fell swoop. There was even a very brief power outage in my neighbourhood so I was actually adjusting clocks at about 1 am this morning. 

Getting outside this morning, I was greeted by lovely scenery of snow and ice on trees although a few of them ended up collapsing under the weight of that precipitation which blocked at least a couple of sidewalks that I usually walk upon. The trip to get the daily newspaper was far more arduous than usual, taking several times longer due to the foot-deep snow, unplowed sidewalks and tree blockage. I've got quite a few muscle aches in my neck and legs as I'm typing.

Anyways to the matter at hand, and so it's time for the weekly Gosanke（御三家）or Sannin Musume（三人娘）report. I'm just about done with the source of those singing trios at "idol.ne.jp" and it didn't contain this rather unusually named trio. I actually found this on J-Wiki under their own Sannin Musume article. Considering that I've covered other trios with names that reflected corporate sponsors, I'd initially thought that these three ladies were being named after the famous international conglomerate producing adhesives, health and safety products and the like.

Such wasn't the case at all. Popular thespians and singers Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）, Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）and Riho Makise（牧瀬里穂）were joined together as 3M simply because their family names all being with the letter "M". But it's a cute and slightly mirthful name considering the connection with 3M the company. Mind you, I don't know if all of them have actually been on the stage in front of the camera at the same time (for that matter, I don't know whether any of them have ever advertised for the actual 3M). I was rather surprised to learn that Mizuki has been in show business since 1980 or 1981 since as a four-year-old, she got into her first commercial. I, and perhaps most of the world, got to know about her for the first time a decade later when she appeared as this willowy teenage model on television before breaking into acting and singing. I'm basically going with the year 1991 for Labels because both she and Makise released their debut singles then while Miyazawa had her first single come out in 1989.

Rie Miyazawa -- Dream Rush

Riho Makise -- Miracle Love

Arisa Mizuki -- Densetsu no Shojo （伝説の少女）