Masako Togawa


Masako Togawa was a Japanese Chanson singer/songwriter, actress, feminist, novelist, lesbian icon, former night club owner, metropolitan city planning panelist, and music educator.
𝕏 KebaNeko

Personal life

Masako Togawa grew up in "restricted circumstances" following the death of her father. She worked as a typist for five years after leaving high school, then, aged 23, she made her singing debut, at the well-known nightclub Gin-Pari. Togawa had several children, the last of whom was born when she was 48 years old. Not much about her children has been made public.
Togawa often made public appearances with a multicoloured "Afro" hairstyle.
She taught numerous musicians how to sing and compose.

Chanson/club career

In 1967 Togawa turned her sister’s coffee shop into a nightclub, the Aoi Heya, which became a celebrity hangout, a lesbian night club, a chansonnier and, in recent years, a live music club.
In 1975 she brought out her first record, "Lost Love", which was followed by "The Moral of the Story".
In December 2011 Masako Togawa had to close the Aoi Heya after 43 years because of pressing financial difficulties, despite the endeavours of a Blue Room Relief Fund. In May 2012 she expressed a desire for the club to be relaunched, and there is now a "Monday Blue Room" hosted by the Tokyo Salavas.
In February 2012, Togawa began a "Blue Room Grand Cabaret" delivered through a web TV channel, Scatch.TV, and Chanson classes on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. It appears that her only concern was that the venue might be "overflowing".

Film and TV career

Masako Togawa had the lead role in the TV show Playgirl, which ran from 1969 to 1974. The plot centred on a character clearly based on Togawa herself, a mystery writer named Masako who creates an all-female company of detectives to uncover white-collar crimes. She also acted in the film The Hunter’s Diary, adapted from stories that she co-wrote, and in the television show Ōi Naru Genei, based on her first novel.

Writing career and critical reception

Masako Towaga began writing in 1961, backstage, between her stage appearances, and her first novel, The Master Key, was published in 1962. It won her the Edogawa Rampo Prize. The novel is set in the apartment she grew up in with her mother. Her second novel, The Lady Killer, followed in 1963, becoming a bestseller. It was adapted for both TV and film, and was nominated for the Naoki Prize.'
She wrote more than 30 novels and was one of the most popular mystery writers in Japan. Many of her novels were based on her experiences.
A reviewer in the Times Literary Supplement called her "the P. D. James of Japan", but an anonymous reviewer of Slow Fuse in Kirkus Reviews found the work "sluggishly paced and indifferently written.... hysterically overplotted soaper."

Literary works

Novels

The Grand Illusion. Kodansha. 1962.
  • * translated into English by Simon Grove in 1984 as The Master Key.
  • * winner of the 8th Edogawa Rampo Prize. Diary of a Hunter. Kodansha.1963.
  • * translated into English by Simon Grove in 1985 as The Lady Killer.
  • * nominated for the 50th Naoki Prize.Unpromised Shueisha. 1965.Pale Skin Bungeishunju Magazine. 1965.The Woman's White Road Sankei Shimbun. 1965.Sodom's Snare. Kodansha. 1965.Akasaka Wildlife Sanctuary . Kodansha. 1966.Poaching in Broad Daylight . Kodansha. 1966.Costume Parade Kodansha. 1967.Deep Slump Kodansha. 1967.
  • * translated into English by Simon Grove in 1995 as Slow Fuse.Rock Bottom Ginza . Bungei Shunju. 1967.The Book of Sleepless Nights: The Woman's Lustrous Brush . Seishun. 1967.Belt of Mirages. Yomiuri Shimbun. 1967.Louder! . Shinchōsha. 1968.Night Passport . Kodansha. 1968.Red Corona. Shinchōsha. 1969.Nightmare . Kodansha. 1969.Nature of Masks . Tokyo Books. 1969.Blue Snake . Tokuma Shoten. 1969.（1969年、徳間書店）Red Scratchmarks . Tokuma Shoten. 1970.Scene of Nude with Sacred Story . Best Sellers. 1970.Hour of the Hunt . Kodansha. 1970.
  • * later adapted as a manga by Yumiko Igarashi under the title La Nuit Magic: 夜は魔術 in 1990.Phantom's Fang. The Sankei Shimbun. 1970.Transparent Woman. Kōbunsha. 1971.Forced Marriage. Tokuma Shoten. 1972.The Female Trap . Tokuma Shoten. 1972.Requiem of Lust. Jitsugyō no Nihon Sha. 1973.Only One Lives: When You Try to Burn Your Life Into That Person. Seishun. 1974.Beautiful Prey . Bungei Shunjū. 1974.A Kiss of Fire. Kodansha. 1984.
  • * translated into English by Simon Grove in 1988 as A Kiss of Fire.

Novellas & Short Stories

Out of the Darkness. first published in Hōseki. 1963.
  • * later republished as part of Mystery Writers of Japan's Best 24 Mysteries of 1964.The Abortion of Scarlet. First published in Ōru Yomimono. 1964.
  • * later republished in the Mystery Writers of Japan's Best 24 Mysteries of 1965.The Shaking Woman . Kodansha. 1967.Intersection of Night. Tokyo Books. 1967.Honey Flavored . Tokyo Books. 1968.Severed Sleep. . Shinchōsha. 1968.Pulse of Flame. Tokyo Books. 1969.Scratches of Night. Tokyo Books. 1969.Wall of Love. Tokyo Books. 1969.Inside the Blue Room. Bungei Shunjū. 1969.Strange Partners. Tokyo Books.1969.Devilish Woman. Kodansha. 1969.A Swarm of Blue Nudes . Tokuma Shoten. 1970.The Yellow Vampire. Tuttle. 1970.
  • * published in English in the anthology Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan A collection of Togawa's short stories in Japanese was also published in 1978 under the same title.Holy Woman . Kodansha. 1971.Tale of the Japanese Temptress. Kodansha. 1971.
  • * later republished under the title Reality of the Wicked Woman .Tale of the East-West Enchantress . Shueisha. 1972.Coffin of Water. Kodansha. 1972.Underdog. Tokyo Books. 1974.Rebirth of Flesh . Marine Books. 1974.Like Freezing Flames . Pep. 1975.Victim of the Sun. Futabasha. 1978.
  • * later republished under the title Soul Colored.Black Honeymoon . Futabasha. 1980.The Mummy of Tsumagoi ''. Tokuma Shoten. 1987.