, known by the stage names and , was a Japanese singer and television personality. After going to a jazz school, she had a prolific career in commercial songs, including her 1990 cover of Shoukichi Kina's song "", which won the Japan Advertising Music Association's 1991 Best Vocalist Award of Commercial Music. She also performed music for anime and live-action works, including ''

I'm Gonna Be An Angel! is a Japanese anime television series conceptualized by Hiroshi Nishikiori and produced by TV Tokyo, Yomiko Advertising & Bandai Visual and animated by Pierrot. It is directed by Nishikiori, with Mamiko Ikeda handling series scripts, Hiromi ...

'', ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese Anime film, animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho..hack//Legend of the Twilight'', and '' Hotarubi no Mori e'', and she was a regular cast member on the

NHK Educational TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, documentaries, cultural, children's or intellectual n ...

show .

Early life and education

Shizuko Ōtaka was born on 11 April 1952 in

Nakano, Tokyo Nakano (, Latn, ja, Nakano-ku) is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Nakano City (, Latn, ja, Nakano-ku).

, and was educated at the

Musashi University is a university in Tokyo, Japan. The university grew out of the leading boys private high school, Musashi Junior and Senior High School, first established by businessman Nezu Kaichirō in 1922. The university has faculties of economics estab ...

Faculty of Humanities. She began studying classical voice as a young child, and while studying at Musashi, she decided upon a singing career instead of becoming a

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

artist, and she was part of a global traveling band, attended a jazz school, and worked the night shift at Kokusai Denshin Denwa.

Career

She started a career in commercial songs during the 1980s, and with her diverse voice styles and a rate of ten songs per month, earned the nickname . In 1989, she and began releasing music as part a duo called Dido. Ohtaka's solo debut came in 1990, when she covered the Shoukichi Kina song "" for commercials promoting

Fujifilm , trading as , or simply Fuji, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the areas of photography, optics, Office supplies, office and Biomedical engine ...

's magnetic media brand Axia, and she later won the Japan Advertising Music Association's 1991 Best Vocalist Award of Commercial Music for said cover. She became affiliated with Teichiku Records after the success of her "Hana" cover. In 1992, she covered The Folk Crusaders's song "" as part of the film '' Sumo Do, Sumo Don't'', and her album "Return" later won the Adlib Best Record Award for New Age Music and World Music. She also appeared as a vocalist for Nubian musician

Hamza El Din Hamza El Din (Arabic حمزة علاء الدين) (July 10, 1929 – May 22, 2006) was an Egyptian Nubian composer, oud player, tar player, and vocalist. He was born in southern Egypt and was an internationally known musician of his native reg ...

's 1999 album ''A Wish''. A compilation album, , was released in May 2022, four months before her death. She had entered into non-genre music due to a newfound interest in folk, jazz, and world music, and ''CDJournal'' describes her musical style as "full of Japanese spirit and ..influenced by classical, jazz, and folk music". Ohtaka's song "Ai wa Umi" was the ending theme of ''

'' (1999). She also performed music for several other works, such as (1997), ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese Anime film, animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho..hack//Legend of the Twilight'' (2003), and '' Hotarubi no Mori e'' (2011). In 2003, she became a regular cast member on the

show , where she performed improv music and interacted with children.

Personal life

Ohtaka advocated for

nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...

, performed worldwide at memorial concerts in response to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

, and organized the improv workshop . She was also known by the nickname . Ohtaka was married to Tokuo Konishi until her death.

Death

She was diagnosed with cancer, and in March 2022, she started a career hiatus for treatment. She died on 5 September 2022 from the disease, aged 70.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohtaka, Sizzle 1952 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Japanese singers 20th-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers Japanese television personalities Japanese women television personalities Singers from Tokyo People from Nakano, Tokyo Teichiku Records artists Classical singers Women in classical music 20th-century Japanese classical musicians 21st-century Japanese classical musicians