Chuo-ku Tourism Association correspondent blog

We visited an exhibition at the Shiseido Gallery in Ginza 8-chome, "Creating Shiseido Beauty by Makoto Nakamura".

Makoto Nakamura worked on a representative advertisement for Shiseido from the mid-1950s to the 1980s.

Everyone may have seen advertisements modeled by Mimari Maeda and Koyoko Yamaguchi.

"One business, one company, one life, one advertisement"

 

Under the motto, he spent his life visualizing Shiseido's image and has created a number of legendary advertisements.

 

 

Nakamura was born in Morioka in 1926.

 

It seems that he came to have a longing for painting and design because he was fascinated by the beauty of Shiseido posters affixed to pharmacies when he was a boy.

 

At the venue, a photograph of a monochrome small boat taken by Mr. Nakamura in high school was exhibited.

Even though it was a normal shore and a boat, it was a very poetic screen, and the beautiful completed composition was impressive.

 

After that, Mr. Nakamura, who went to Tokyo Bijutsu School, finds a poster by Setsuko Hara of Shiseido, which was affixed to a storefront where there was no product after the war.

 

Nakamura knew that it was a poster distributed by Shiseido to encourage shopkeepers who had nothing to sell, and decided to work at Shiseido and hit the gate.

 

Then, I was able to work as a part-time job at the advertising department where Fumio Yamana, who designed the cover of "Hanatsubaki", which I longed for as a boy, and in 1949 he joined as a full-time employee.

 

In 1957, I worked on perfume advertisements on behalf of my seniors, and since then I have been working on many Shiseido advertisements.

 

 

Above all, perfume is a product that becomes the face of a cosmetics company, and it is related to the brand image of a company, so it has been raised carefully.

 

One of Nakamura's perfume posters is as beautiful as poetry.

 

"Expressions, atmosphere, and air that cannot be expressed in counts.

 

It's not just about making advertisements, but

"Opening up the future of Japan with the beauty of Japanese women."

I felt a spirit similar to Mr. Nakamura's prayer, as if he always kept in mind.

 

An elegant and quiet passion and elegance.

The community FM radio in Chuo-ku, Chuo FM.

Local information useful for daily life and music programs of various genres are broadcast and entertained every day.

Among them, my favorite program is "Chuo-ku Street Corner Sketch".

It is a program that begins with a piano melody and introduces historical spots and people in Chuo-ku on a gentle sorrow melody.

Kachidokibashi, Kabuto-cho, Toki Bell, Akashicho, Takuboku Ishikawa, Ningyocho, Yaesu, Hiroshige Utagawa, Shintomicho, Tsukishima, Ryogoku Hirokoji, Tokasha 19, Tsukiji Hotel Hall ...

I am impressed every time I hear that there was such a wonderful story in the background of each city and people.

It's a very easy-to-understand program because it's broadcast several times a day.

(For broadcast time, please see the Timetable of Central FM.　http://fm840.jp/timetable.html　）

This program was also very useful when studying the Chuo-ku Tourism Certification Examination (^-^)

The music is very nice, so I wanted to know who it was, so when I contacted me in Chuo FM's lunch program `` Hello Radio City '', it was a song of a pianist named Fumie Sagawa I told you.

Sagawa's album "Wave a Light" and his self-produced version "Tamayura".

What a radio triggered me to meet Mr. Sagawa himself, and I handed it at that time.

It was a very friendly, bright and wonderful person, and I was really impressed to meet you.

The two songs used in "Chuo-ku Street Corner Sketch" are "Soon" that flows at the beginning and "Hikari no Ho".

As soon as you listen, the content of the program seems to be revived.

"Soon" is a song that is included only in the self-produced version, and "Hikari no Ho" is also included in the album "Wave a Light".

"Weave a Light" means "weave a light".

As the title suggests, Sagawa's spinning song makes you feel the light of various colors.

Mr. Sagawa, born in 1973, started playing piano at the age of eight, graduated from Toho College of Music, piano department, and went to the path of piano teacher.

 He has continued to perform with artists of various genres, and in 2006 he produced his own CD "Tamayura".

However, he was notified of cancer in 2007 and was hospitalized.

It seems that the view of life turned upside down after a big operation.

After a year of anticancer drug treatment, he has now returned to performance activities and work safely.

When I met, I was very energetic and lively, and I couldn't believe that I had such a big illness.

It was in 2010 that the album "Wave a Light" was released.

What I feel in Sagawa's song is the brilliance and gentleness of life.

It seems that warm light is dancing in the beautiful melody.

When I met, I realized that Sagawa's personality, talent, and effort can turn the pain and sadness that I experienced into music into the "light that impresses people" Did.

Sagawa is currently working as an artist with an individual piano teacher.

On June 19th, a live concert will be held at a shop called backstage in Nakameguro.

If you would like to listen to Sagawa's music with live performances, please (^-^) /

Sagawa's homepage also has a live schedule, and you can listen and purchase albums, so if you are interested, please see here.

http://sagawafumie.com/