Birth name Minoru Ono Years active 1962–present Role Singer-lyricist Albums 北の漁場, 風雪ながれ旅 | Name Saburo Kitajima Spouse Masako Ono (m. 1959) Siblings Hirokatsu Ohno | |
 | ||
Occupation(s) Singer, lyricist, composer Website www.kitajima-music.co.jp Movies and TV shows Abarenbo Shogun, Giovanni\'s Island Children Satoko Ono, Ryu Ono, Makoto Ono, Reiko Mizumachi Similar People Ichiro Toba, Takeshi Kitayama, Hiroshi Itsuki, Shinichi Mori, George Yamamoto | ||
Saburō Kitajima (北島 三郎, Kitajima Saburō, born October 4, 1936) is a well-known Japanese enka singer, lyricist and composer.
Contents
Saburo Kitajima 北島三郎
Background
He was born Minoru Ōno (大野 穣), in a little town in Hokkaidō to a fisherman. He was very poor because of the effects of World War II, and he was forced to work while he studied.
Music career
When he was about to graduate from high school, he decided to become a singer. His debut single was called "Bungacha-Bushi," which was released in 1962.
He has many famous songs, including "Namida Bune" (1962), "Kyōdai Jingi" (1965), "Yosaku" (1978) and "Kita no Ryōba" (1986). His 1965 song "Kaerokana" was written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura. He is very popular in Japan partly due to his looks of a physical laborer, and he mostly sings in the spirit of Japan's working class and rural laborers.
Kitajima regularly appeared on Kōhaku Uta Gassen, an annual end-of-year TV program where many major Japanese singers gather to perform, before announcing his retirement from the show in 2013. He participated a record 50 times, was the "anchor" (final solo performer) 13 times and led the grand finale 11 times.
Kitajima released single "Fūfu Isshō" (夫婦一生, lit. "Couple in a Lifetime") on January 1, 2010 at the age of 73. It debuted at No. 10 on the Japanese Oricon weekly single charts. It became the first single to reach Top 10 by a solo artist in his 70s in Oricon charts history.
He does a lot of concerts overseas and is contributing a lot of work to the culture of Japanese music.
Other activities
In addition to his singing career, Kitajima acted in the role of Tatsugorō on the television series Abarenbō Shōgun. During the quarter-century life of the series, he also sang its theme songs. He is also a successful owner of Thoroughbred racehorses including Kitasan Black.