Japanese Beauty - Miss Maki Nomiya
October 29th, 2007 by Mike
A little while ago, my net buddy 4 life, Nick Ramsay wrote a post on Japanese Beauties and so this inspired me to write a post on my favorite Japanese Beauty - Miss Maki Nomiya.
I don’t really like Japanese music, especially pop music, but there is one Japanese band that I love and they Pizzicato Five. Pizzicato Five has had a few different members over the years, but the nucleus of the band has always been Miss Maki Nomiya and Mr. Yasuharu Konishi.
I’ve been a fan of Pizzicato Five ever since I first heard their “Made In The USA” album. The album was was released to the North American market back in the early nineties. Half of the album is sung in Japanese, and the other half in English. While it is pop music, I have to say it’s great pop music. Even 15 years on, I still listen to it and it’s hard to believe that those songs were made so long ago.
While Mr. Konishi isn’t the best looking guy in the world I’d definitely consider him a creative genius as he wrote nearly all of Pizzicato’s songs. Miss Maki Nomiya is incredibly beautiful, and I believe that she used to model in Europe before she became a singer. She’s definitely got an interesting fashion sense, and even though she is now 47, I’m still madly in love with her!
The music video below features the song, “It’s a beautiful day” and was released on an album after “Made In The USA.” The lyrics are all in Japanese but don’t let a lack of understanding stop you from enjoying the song. The lyrics don’t make a lot of sense to me but she is basically singing about love, angels, dreams, happiness, and the start of a new day.
Check out the video for “It’s a beautiful day” below. Miss Maki Nomiya is obviously the lead singer and Mr. Konishi is the base guitarist. I also have to give a shout out to the unknown drummer. He’s like 100 years old, but still rockin’ it and even has a little neck bandana! That guy rules!
Possibly related:
-Ultra Cool Japanese Music Super Group - Pizzicato Five
-Finally… Japanese Cigarettes with Less Stink!
-Stuck, But Not Sleepless In Seattle
-My Japanese Family in Canada
-Cute Japanese Girls On A Swing
Posted: October 29th, 2007 under Crazy Japan, Music you should listen to.
Comments: 7
Hey! Don’t diss the drummer, he’s got skillz with stickz!
That was great, Mike. I didn’t realize Japanese music was so good back then. It certainly beats a lot of the crap they churn out now … ahem … bottom biting bug song.. cough..
Whether the girl is beautiful or not is debatable. Heck, even I look beautiful in black and white!
He does have skills!
Yeah Pizzicato Five is the only Japanese band that I ever really liked. So cool.
Mike,
I’m happy to know that P5 have another fan. Your statement about the nucleus of the band is incorrect — Konishi-san is the ONLY constant member of the band for their entire history. Nomiya Maki was in fact the band’s THIRD lead vocalist. The band had recorded 3 albums (plus several EPs and singles) before Maki-chan did a guest spot on the single “Lover’s Rock”. A couple years later she joined the band for good, and remained until they broke up.
Also, Konishi wrote most of the songs during this later period, but Keitaro Takanami (aka K-Taro) wrote many songs during their first few years.
Lastly, I would not characterize their music as “pop”. Generally, Japanese pop music is as insipid as the American equivalent. Pizzicato Five were pioneers of the genre known as “Shibuya-kei”, which was specific to the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo, and which was popular among hipsters rather than a general audience. They are probably more popular in the west than in Japan.
You can find more info at http://www.chipple.net/p5/ as well as on the Yahoo Group.
Until next time!
Hey first of all, thanks for visiting my site. I hope you will keep coming back in the future.
Thanks for correcting me and I’m also happy to hear that P5 has another fan that actually somehow found my site.. How did you do that? How did you find my site?
Its amazing that 6 years after they broke up there are still people talking about them eh? I guess that is just a testament to how good the music is… Although to be honest there is a lot of P5 stuff that I don’t like. That Made In The USA album was awesome though…
How did you first get in to them?
Mike,
I found your site through GOOGLE ALERTS http://www.google.com/alerts . I set up an alert for “Pizzicato Five”, so every day I get an e-mail with all the news stories and blog postings from the previous day. (I’ll keep an eye on your site in the future, and continue to comments on subjects that interest me.)
I’m not surprised that P5 continue to be popular. The band lasted for 17 years, which (according to Konishi) is longer than a car lasts, or about as long as a well-crafted toy.
In that time they put out dozens of albums worth of material (especially if you count all the cool EPs and b-sides). They were just a flash in the pan in the US. (A close friend, who owned a record store during the 90s, says that Made In The USA was the only album of theirs that sold, at least to the Seattle indie music scenesters). But their true fans tend to be very LOYAL.
I first got into P5 through another Shibuya-Kei group, Puffy (aka Puffy AmiYumi). I heard Puffy’s theme song to the TEEN TITANS cartoon on cable and looked them up on Napster. I found about a dozen cuts, most of which I enjoyed, so I started buying their CDs. Internet research on Puffy led me to learn about the Shibuya-Kei genre and Pizzicato Five (and Cornelius, and Fantastic Plastic Machine, etc. etc. and so on). I vaguely remember seeing Pizzicato Five CDs in my friend’s store back in ‘94 but apparently never listened to them at the time. He says he played their stuff in the store a lot when it came out, but maybe I didn’t notice it because I wasn’t familiar with Burt Bacharach back then and therefore lacked the proper frame of reference. In any case I’ve collected Puffy, P5, and various other Shibuya-Kei artists ever since.
Until next time,
-Rob
Nice tip. I might start using Google Alerts myself. I often browse through Google Blog Search or Google News, but your way would be better. And what a good way to find new blogs on subjects you like!
Hey Rob,
Thanks for your comments! Much appreciated! I wish P5 would reform and tour Canada so that I could see them!