Kitajima Saburō(北島三郎)

When Kitajima Saburō(北島三郎) was in high school, he saved a drowning boy, and the incident was reported in the Hakodate Newspaper(函館新聞 Hakodate Shinbun).

When the famous singing show NHK Amateur Singing Contest(NHKのど自慢 NHK Nodo Jiman) came around to Hakodate, Kitajima entered the contest, but didn't qualify for the finals. The show's announcer at the time, Miyata Teru(宮田輝), did mention that he had a good singing voice. This gave encouragement to the young Kitajima, and he started to wonder if he could succeed as a singer.

In 1954, he went to Tokyo to attend the Tokyo Vocal Speciality Music School (東京声専音楽学校 Tokyo Seisen Ongaku Gakkō). Because he wanted to sing kayōkyoku, he sung in Shibuya shops hoping to make a debut. Around this time, he married his landlord's daughter Masako(雅子) in spite of her parent's objections that he did not have a steady job.

One day, the entertainment director at Japan Columbia heard him sing and asked him to drop by a cafe. There, Kitajima met composer Funamura Tōru(船村 徹), and Kitajima became Funamura's student. Funamura did his best to secure a chance for Kitajima to make a debut but struggled since rockabilly was popular at the time, and pure enka singers weren't as popular.

When Kitajima finally made his debut, it was with the song Bungachabushi(ブンガチャ節), but a week after ir was released, it was banned from sale, apparently because the "kyu kyu" sound voiced in the song resembled the sound made by the springs in a bed mattress. They scrambled to find an alternate song, and they released "Ship of Tears(なみだ船 Namidabune)" instead, which became an instant hit. Although he was married, he hid this fact on his profile because at the time, new singers were all single.

Next year, he switched recording companies to the newly formed Crown Records, and made his debut on the Kōhaku Utagassen. His eldest son was born this year. The press caught wind of this fact, and he was forced to reveal that he was already married.

He continued his success through the decade, and in 1972, he formed his own talent office, Kitajima Music Office （北島音楽事務所 Kitajima Ongaku Jimusho).

In 1985, he held the world's first serious concert on an airplane using a specially built stage for the occasion.

Starting from 1963, he performed in fifty Kōhaku Utagassen, his last performance coming in 2013. He has announced his retirement from the annual show, having sung in the tori(トリ) position thirteen times and in the tori mae(トリ前) position thirteen times.

He has been appointed the sightseeing ambassador for Hachiōji(八王子).

He uses the pen name Hara Jōji(原譲二) when he writes lyrics and composes music.

His nickname is "Sabuchan(サブちゃん)."

This blog post translates information from the Wikipedia article 北島三郎 which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.