, known

mononymously A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...

as SAWA, is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

singer-songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk- acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has ...

music producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

, and DJ. In 2009, she signed onto

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

and joined its subsidiary,

Epic Records Japan Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama. Between 1978 and 1988 the label operated as a wholly owned subsidiary: Epic/Sony Inc. () was established in August 1978

. In 2012, she joined Bellwood Records for the release of her sixth mini-album, ''Soprano Rain'' (''ソプラノレイン''). She has composed commercial songs and jingles for numerous companies, including LINE for their "LINE Pay" and "LINE Shopping" services, , and for their consumer loan service Promise. She has also acted as music producer for a number of artists, including Especia, Nozomi Sasaki, and Koto.

Biography

In 2002, Kouchi debuted as a member of Jack Knife, a

tap dancing Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

managed by

Stardust Promotion is a leading Japanese talent agency, headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It was founded in 1979 and invests in entertainment forms including music, cinema, and modelling. The agency has a dominant share in the management of actresses. For example, ...

. The group received dance tutelage from

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

. Jack Knife would eventually disband in early 2004. In 2008, Kouchi would take up the stage name Sawa for her singing career. As Sawa, she debuted on the independent label Cyclops and released two mini-albums. The first mini-album, ''Colors'', was produced by Takeshi Hanzawa from and was released on 18 June 2008. Her second mini-album, ''Time & Space'', was produced by a number of musicians, including

Ram Rider is a Japanese music producer, musician, remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A so ...

, A Hundred Birds, and . It was released on 10 December 2008 on CD and on iTunes, where it topped the iTunes Music Store's dance chart in Japan. The song "Discovery" was used on the soundtrack and in promotional material for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

software '. The following year, Sawa made her major label debut with

. Her first release with the label, a mini-album titled ''I Can Fly'', was released on 22 July 2009. Songs from ''I Can Fly'' featured commercial tie-ins to

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed Ben Sulayem (born 1961), president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepales ...

TV fashion program "Dress" and a summer commercial for

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

. The mini-album peaked at No. 145 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

charts and charted for one week. A second mini-album, ''Swimming Dancing'', was released on 25 November 2009, with the first two tracks on the album produced by

Taku Takahashi is a Japanese DJ and record producer who debuted in 1997 as a producer of the hip hop group M-Flo. The group rose to prominence in the early 2000s, with hit singles such as "How You Like Me Now?" and "Come Again." Takahashi was also a member of ...

. The album reached a peak position of No. 210 on the Oricon, charting for one week. A third mini-album titled ''Ai ni Ikuyo (あいにいくよ)'' was released on 7 April 2010 and saw Sawa working with producers Hisashi Nawata, , and Junya Ookubo Zyun (ANA), as well as reuniting with producer Ram Rider. Sawa's first full-length studio album ''Welcome to Sa-World'' was released on 7 July 2010. The album featured several producers such as ,

TeddyLoid , known professionally as TeddyLoid, is a Japanese DJ and music producer. He is known for producing many songs in the soundtrack of ''Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt'', which charted on Oricon Albums Chart. He is also known for partnering with D ...

, and Ryuichiro Yamaki, with seven of the album's seventeen tracks produced by Sawa herself. The album would be followed by two digital download-only singles: "Mysterious Zone" in December 2010 and "Good Day Sunshine" in May 2012. Both songs would later be featured on Sawa's sixth mini-album ''Soprano Rain'', which was released on 19 December 2012. The first five tracks were produced by Sawa herself. The title track was used in 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 ...

TV show

Minna no Uta , literally ''Everyone's Songs'' ( English title: ''Songs for Everyone''), is a five-minute NHK TV and radio program which is broadcast several times daily in Japan. The program started on April 3, 1961. It is one of NHK's long-running program ...

. Sawa has composed and produced music for various artists throughout her career. In 2011, she produced "Colorful World" for Nozomi Sasaki's first studio album, ''Nozomi Collection''. The song would also receive a commercial tie-in for Kao Liese's Prettia line of

hair dye Hair coloring, or hair dyeing, is the practice of changing the color of the hair on humans' heads. The main reasons for this are cosmetic: to cover gray or white hair, to alter hair to create a specific look, to change a color to suit preferen ...

, with the commercials starring Sasaki herself. In 2013, she wrote and composed "Midnight Confusion" for Especia, a revivalist

Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese popular culture, Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in other performance skills such as acting, dancing, and modeling. Idol ...

girl group inspired by music from the 1980s and 1990s. In 2015, she produced "Juliet no Paradox" for Yufu Terashima, former member of BiS, and "Giza Giza no Lonely Night" for Koto, a singer and idol specializing in electronic dance music. Koto and Sawa would continue to collaborate afterward, releasing a collaboration single entitled "Kotosawa Sisters" that would be distributed at a live concert held to celebrate Koto's 17th birthday on September 25 that same year. Koto would later appear on an interlude on Sawa's 2017 mini-album ''Ijippari Mermaid''.

Discography

Albums

# ''Welcome to Sa-World'' (7 July 2010) # ''Kōuki Aisare Stance (高貴愛されスタンス)'' (14 March 2018) # ''Bijin Hakumei Aege Umi (美人薄命エーゲ海)'' (7 April 2019) # ''Tenshoku Katsudō (転職活動)'' (4 November 2020) # ''Tadashī Jun'ōsei (正しい順応性)'' (8 July 2024)

Mini-albums

# ''Colors'' (18 June 2008) # ''Time & Space'' (10 December 2008) # ''I Can Fly'' (22 July 2009) # ''Swimming Dancing'' (25 November 2009) # ''Ai ni Ikuyo (あいにいくよ)'' (7 April 2010) # ''Soprano Rain (ソプラノレイン)'' (19 December 2012) # ''RingaRinga'' (24 September 2014) # ''Odore Balcony (踊れバルコニー)'' (13 January 2016) # ''Ijippari Mermaid (いじっぱりマーメイド)'' (14 February 2017)

Song appearances

* Gekkan Probowler's fourth album ''eRETRO'' : 2. "SUMMER OF LOVE" * ''WIRED CAFE Music Recommendation Precious'' : 8. "Lovefool" * Suneohair's sixth album ''Birthday'' : 9. "" * ''Juicy Fruits'' : 2. "Raspberry Dream" * ''Judy and Mary 15th Anniversary Tribute Album'' : 5. "RADIO" * Sound Around's second album ''Every with You'' : 4. "Every with You" feat. SAWA * ''GUNDAM 30th CUSTOM'' : 8. "" * ''Seaside Town'' : 1. "Samba De Mar" * RYUKYUDISKO's fourth album ''Pleasure'' : 4. "SPLASH☆" feat. SAWA * Kentaro Takizawa's fourth album ''Big Room'' : 9. "Another Landscape" feat. SAWA : 11. "Keep Love Together" feat. The Big Room Family a.k.a. Mika Arisaka and Ryohei with Sawa, Mika Sawabe * Anan Ryoko's debut album ''Another Beginning'' : 12. "Dreaming" feat. SAWA : 16. "Dreaming" feat. SAWA -Japanese Ver.- * ''House Nation 3rd Anniversary'' : 19. "Swimming Dancing" * ''MemorieS ~Goodbye and Hello~'' : 5. ""

References

External links

Official Site

Official MySpace

Sawa Blog 「SAWABURO」

PlanetSAWA Fan Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawa Living people Japanese women pop singers Japanese-language singers King Records (Japan) artists Epic Records Japan artists 21st-century Japanese singer-songwriters 21st-century Japanese women singers Year of birth missing (living people)