Mayumi Yamazaki -- YOU MAY STOP

 

Well, last Friday I introduced this lass through an AI art generator site and placed her photo for the VTuber duet "SHINKIRO". I was only asking for an 80s aidoru done up in anime style through the request box and what was developed looked like a combination between Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）from the mid-80s when she had more freedom in her fashion preferences and a 21st-century teenybopper. Out of my usual sense of whimsy, I then asked if anyone had ideas for names.

Of course, veteran commenter Daemonskald who's been a help on many an occasion chimed in with the name Kayo which is a common female name in Japan, and of course, it's the first word of our blog. Buoyed by that choice, I mused that I couldn't just stop at the mononym; she needed to have a full name. I wracked my brain for a few minutes for good family names and then I opted for a Hail Mary and punched in kyoku into the name part of Jisho.org. Crazily enough, there was an actual family name Kyoku although the kanji is completely different from kyoku meaning "song"「曲」. 

Problem almost solved. Matching my own full name, I also wanted to have an English name for the lass and for the heck of it, I went with Grace. So, allow me to officially introduce all readers, commenters and contributors to Kayo Grace Kyoku or simply Kayo Kyoku as said in the Western order of nomenclature. Of course, in the Japanese order, it would be Kyoku Kayo 「旭花耀」with that given name meaning "shining flower".

(Unfortunately the video has been taken down.

But since this article also introduces Kayo-chan,

I'm keeping it up.)

Anyways, now that we are in aidoru mode here for this final article of the day, allow me to also introduce Mayumi Yamazaki（山崎真由美）from Yokohama. Auditioning for Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）in 1986 as a junior high school student through their popular TV show "Yuyake Nyan Nyan"（夕やけニャンニャン）, she became part of the B-team for the group and tagged as the No. 5 member but never made it to the main group.

In 1988, she set out on a solo aidoru career with four singles up to 1992 but no albums. Her 3rd single was "YOU MAY STOP" which was a pretty spritely and summery ditty from April 1989. Written by Yuu Koreko（暮醐遊）and composed by Ichinen Yamazaki（山崎一稔）under his alternate name of Minoru Yamazaki（山崎稔）...presumably no relation with the aidoru...the singer didn't show much of a vocal range but the arrangement helped out to a certain degree. 

Without any hits as an aidoru, Yamazaki decided to change gears and went into a career as a pin-up and photography book model, although she also did appear on variety shows and videotapes. For a brief time, she even joined up with fellow models/tarento Fumie Hosokawa（細川ふみえ）and Hitomi Fujisaki（藤崎仁美）to form the trio Lady's. In 1994, she retired from show business following her marriage. Currently, she teaches how to make Hawaiian quilts in her native prefecture of Kanagawa.

Also AI generated