"Pureness" is a song recorded by Japanese singer

Aya Ueto is a Japanese actress, singer and television personality. In 1997, Ueto participated in the seventh Japan Bishōjo Contest, where she won the special jury prize. Soon thereafter, Ueto joined the talent agency Oscar Promotion and began taking s ...

, from her debut studio album, ''

Ayaueto ''Ayaueto'' is the debut studio album by Japanese pop singer Aya Ueto. It was released on March 12, 2003 on Flight Master. Chart performance ''Ayaueto'' peaked at #4 on the Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head o ...

''. It was released through

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

's Flight Master imprint on August 28, 2002. The first pressing of the single included a DVD featuring the music video for "Pureness" and a special video message from Ueto.

Background

After the disbandment of Z-1, Ueto signed with

to debut as a solo artist. Ueto initially declined the offer, but was persuaded by her talent agency. Her first single was scheduled for a May release, however, with

Seiko Matsuda , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer-songwriter, known for being one of the most popular Japanese idols of the 1980s. Since then, she has continued to release new singles and albums, go on annual summer concert tours, perform at wi ...

's daughter,

Sayaka Kanda , also known professionally as Sayaka, Lily, and , was a Japanese actress, singer, and model. She was the only child of actor Masaki Kanda and pop singer Seiko Matsuda. Early life Kanda was born at Tokyo Teishin Hospital in Chiyoda, Tokyo. She ...

, also debuting around the same time, her management team decided to push back Ueto's debut and "Pureness" was subsequently postponed to August 2002. "Pureness" was chosen by Ueto and her team out of 600 songs. The song was written, composed, arranged and produced by

T2ya T2ya, born , is a Japanese songwriter and keyboardist from Gunma Prefecture. In the 1990s, he supported the agency Rising Production, which was later renamed Vision Factory. He wrote both the music and the lyrics of Olivia Lufkin's " I.L.Y. (Yokub� ...

. The look for the single's artwork and music video was based on Ueto's breakthrough role of Nao Tsurumoto on the TBS drama series '' 3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi-sensei''.

Live performances

On August 28, 2002, Ueto held a special event to commemorate her debut. The promotional event, held at

Zepp Tokyo The Zepp music halls are a group of Japanese music venues covering every area of the country. They play host to many international tours and are a popular stop among Japanese musicians. Each venue takes the Zepp name, along with the city in whic ...

, attracted over 2,000 fans. Due to overwhelming fan demand, a second event took place at Zepp Osaka on September 15, 2002. Ueto's first televised performance of "Pureness" was on the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

music program ''Pop Jam Summer Special''. She also performed the song on ''

Utaban was a Japanese music variety show, broadcast weekly from October 15, 1996 until March 23, 2010 on TBS. The name of the show is an abbreviation of , meaning "music program". A special version of the show, running for two hours, was occasionally a ...

'' and ''

Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ ''Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ'' was a Japanese music variety show on Fuji Television hosted by the comedy duo Downtown, which consists of Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada. It is a very popular show with comical hosts who like to pick on t ...

''. Ueto sang the song on live television on ''

Music Station , stylised in all caps, is a Japanese music television program. Broadcasting live weekly on TV Asahi since October 24, 1986, it currently airs from 9PM-10PM on Fridays. The program is also colloquially known as , , and . The show is currently sy ...

'', as well as at their year-end concert ''Music Station Super Live 2002''.

Chart performance

"Pureness" entered the daily

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard Single (music), singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track down ...

at number 5. The single rose to number-one on August 31, 2002. It peaked at number 4 on the weekly chart, with 46,000 copies sold in the first week, becoming the first debut single with no commercial

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, website, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original proper ...

by a female solo artist to reach the top five in over three years, since

Kyoko Fukada is a Japanese actress and singer. She is represented by the agency Horipro. She won the award for Best Actress at the Yokohama Film Festival for '' Kamikaze Girls''. Biography Kyoko Fukada was born and raised in Tokyo, on 2 November 1982. ...

's "Saigo no Kajitsu" (1999), which also debuted at number 4 and was coincidentally released by the same label. The single held onto the top ten on its second week, selling 20,000 copies. It fell to number 16 next, then number 18, dropping off from the top twenty on its fifth week. "Pureness" charted for eight weeks on the Oricon Singles Chart, selling a reported total of 96,000 copies during its run.

Track listing

Charts

Sales

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2002 songs 2002 debut singles Aya Ueto songs Song recordings produced by T2ya Songs written by T2ya