Akie Yoshizawa -- Marronier Douri（マロニエ通り）

 

When I was thinking of writing up an article for this particular song, it was due to the fact that the title was quite familiar to me. There is actually a rather tony street going up to the northern edge of the Ginza district with the name Marronier Douri (although the sign is spelled Maronie as you can barely see in the thumbnail) I also remember seeing a big shiny complex called Marronier Gate in the area. I'd assumed that Tokyo lifted the name from a similar avenue in Paris but actually the street was named after the fact that "marronier" is French for "horse chestnuts" and horse chestnut trees line that particular street in Ginza. So, my life is now complete.

I've probably walked on Marronier Douri a number of times as a shortcut between Ginza and Yurakucho and one time, a student was generous enough to take me out for lunch at a Chinese vegetarian restaurant in one of the buildings along the street. It was one of the few culinary experiences that I've had in Ginza that didn't involve a couple of golden arches.

Anyways, allow me to introduce Akie Yoshizawa（吉沢秋絵）to KKP. A member of Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）for a little over a year (August 1985 ~ September 1986), her ID number was 25, and she was even able to become part of the "Sukeban Deka"（スケバン刑事）franchise as an actress. Apparently, actor Tadanobu Asano（浅野忠信）of "Thor" and "Ichi the Killer" fame was a big fan of hers.

During her time with Onyanko Club and afterwards, Yoshizawa released 8 singles and 3 original albums of which her final single was "Marronier Douri" (Marronier Street) which came out in November 1988. Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）and composed by Mioko Yamaguchi（山口未央子）, the fact that Yamaguchi was behind the melody had me interested immediately. Sure enough, the music is dreamy and wistful as if the titular street had been transplanted into the City of Lights and a boy-meets-girl romance had been taking place there. Considering that the song came out in the middle of the Bubble Era, the boy probably had one heck of a wallet to afford the date in Ginza.

Yoshizawa retired from show business in 1991 but then went into publishing for at least a while.