was a Japanese singer. His recording career spanned nearly the entire

Shōwa era The was a historical period of History of Japan, Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the T ...

Life and career

Dick Mine was born on October 8, 1908, in the city of Tokushima. Mine's father, Enjurō Mine, had taught at

Tokyo Imperial University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...

and was the first ever principal at Tosa High School; his maternal grandfather had been a priest at the

Nikkō Tōshō-gū is a Tōshō-gū Shinto shrine located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Together with Futarasan Shrine and Rinnō-ji, it forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 42 structures of the shrine included in the ...

. Mine became interested in Western music by listening to his mother's record collection. His interest developed quickly and by his late teens was singing part-time—under the stage name Kōichi Mine—in jazz bands and dance halls while a student at

Rikkyo University , also known as Saint Paul's University, is a private university, in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan. Rikkyo is one of the five MARCH (Japanese universities), MARCH universities, the group of private universities in the Kantō region, Kanto region, toge ...

. He also learned to play the steel guitar, a comparatively rare talent at the time in Japan, which gained him session work for

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

backing well-known singers such as

Miss Columbia Columbia (; ), also known as Lady Columbia or Miss Columbia, is a female national personification of the United States. It was also a historical name applied to the Americas and to the New World. The association has given rise to the names of ...

among others. After graduating, a recommendation from his father led to a bank clerk job. The young Mine, however, abandoned the banking profession determined to make a career in music. It was working as a singer and drummer with

Noriko Awaya was a Japanese female soprano chanteuse and popular music (''ryūkōka'') singer. She was dubbed the in Japan. Life and career Awaya was born as in Aomori, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. She was the oldest daughter of a wealthy merchant, whose b ...

's backing orchestra on the dance hall circuit that Mine began to win fame. He was later approached by

Teichiku Records is a Japanese record label, run by , that specializes in enka, kayōkyoku, and similar music. Teichiku is an abbreviation for , the former name of the company. Teichiku Entertainment also runs the record labels Imperial Records, Takumi Note ...

with a record contract, resulting in the beginning of his recorded singing career and the founding of his own band. Together they would come to be known as , though they also would perform as the Teichiku Jazz Orchestra. Among the band's personnel was the California-born

Nisei is a Japanese language, Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the nikkeijin, ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or . The , or Second generation imm ...

, Betty Inada. On August 7, 1934, the band cut their first record. That was followed up shortly thereafter with a cover of

Dinah In the Book of Genesis, Dinah (; ) was the seventh child and only named daughter of Leah and Jacob. The episode of her rape by Shechem, son of a Canaanite or Hivite prince, and the subsequent revenge of her brothers Simeon and Levi, commonly ...

, which had been suggested to Mine by Teichiku's house composer,

Masao Koga was a Japanese composer, mandolinist, and guitarist of the Shōwa era who was dubbed "Japan's Irving Berlin" by Universal Press Syndicate. His melancholy style, based upon Nakayama Shimpei's '' yonanuki'' scale, was popularly known in Japan ...

. Their cover—the first record employing Mine's new stage name, Dick Mine—became a smash hit and the song would be identified with Mine for the rest of his life. In the late 1930s, Mine was signed up by Nikkatsu Studios and played supporting roles in a number of films, including ''

Singing Lovebirds is a 1939 Japanese musical comedy film directed by Masahiro Makino. Makino made the film in only two weeks while the production of another film, ''Yaji Kita Dōchūki'', was put on hold after its star, Chiezō Kataoka, came down with appendicitis ...

'' directed by

Masahiro Makino was a Japanese film director. He directed more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza film, yakuza genres. His real name was , but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times (including , , and ). ...

. In 1941, under pressure from anti-Western Japanese censors, Mine reverted to using Kōichi Mine as a stage name. After the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

broke out, Mine divided his career between Japan and Shanghai. Mine picked up his career after the war, continuing with successes in music and film. In the 1960s he became a prominent anti-nuclear activist. In 1982, he enjoyed his last hit—a duet with Noriko Awaya called ''Modern Age''.

Death

Mine died from heart failure on June 10, 1991. He is buried in the

Tama Cemetery in Tokyo is the largest municipal cemetery in Japan. It is split between the cities of Fuchū, Tokyo, Fuchu and Koganei, Tokyo, Koganei within the Tokyo Metropolis. First established in April 1923 as , it was redesignated Tama Cemetery in 1935. ...

in Tokyo.

Select discography

* 1934 as Dick Mine and his Serenaders (credited as translator and lyricist under ''Koichi Mine''); 1940 with A. L. King and his Florida Serenaders * (lit. ''Young Girl of Ireland'') 1935 * 1935 * 1936 * 1936 * 1939 * 1939 * 1939 * (lit. ''Mandarin Duck Song Contest'') 1939 * 1939 * 1940 * 1941 * (with Noriko Awaya) 1982

References

External links

Dick Mine
at Find a Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Mine, Dick People from Tokushima (city) Japanese jazz singers Rikkyo University alumni 1908 births 1991 deaths Singers from Tokushima Prefecture 20th-century Japanese male singers 20th-century Japanese singers Japanese male jazz musicians Crooners