Toshiko Sekiya
Toshiko Sekiya, also written Sekiya Toshiko, was a Japanese singer and composer. As a soprano she was noted for her exceptional vocal control and precision of tone. She wrote several songs and operas, some left unfinished after she took her own life at the early age of 37.
Early life and education
Sekiya was born in Tokyo, the daughter of businessman Yonosuke Sekiya. Her maternal grandfather was French-born American diplomat and Union Army veteran Charles Le Gendre. Her uncle was a kabuki actor,. Matsudaira Yoshinaga was her great-grandfather.Sekiya began studying and performing music as a small girl, including an event where she sang two songs for the Empress Shōken. She studied at Tokyo University of the Arts and with opera singers Tamaki Miura, Rosina Storchio, and Adolfo Sarcoli. She moved to Italy for further studies. In 1928, she earned a diploma from the Royal Academia Filarmonica di Bologna.
Career
Sekiya had a lyric soprano voice. She sang on opera stages and gave recitals in Spain, Germany, Italy, England, and the United States. A Los Angeles critic in 1931 described her as possessing "an indescribable sweetness and charm", and Sekiya's own compositions in the program as "oddly beautiful and fascinating." Her clothing, hairstyles, shoes, and skin were described in press reports.Sekiya made several recordings as a singer, in 1929 for the Gramaphone label, and in 1932 for the Victor label. She appeared in one of the first Japanese sound films, Komoriuta, directed by Shigeyoshi Suzuki. She wrote and published an opera, Onatsu Kyoran. She starred in the first production of the opera; she also designed the sets and contributed to the choreography. Her second opera, Futari Kuzuba, was first produced in Japan in 1935. In her later years, she mentored a young American singer, Elizabeth Misako Russell, and encouraged a young Canadian singer, Aiko Saita.
Personal life and death
Sekiya married Gorō Yagyū, a member of the minor Japanese nobility, in 1937. The marriage was not a happy one, and they divorced in 1941. That same year, on 23 November, suffering from overwork and despondent at the breakdown of her marriage, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and died at the age of 37. In her suicide note, left on the back cover of the sheet music for her song Noibara, she referred to herself in the third person, asking that people remember her and the art of Japanese music:Her grave is located on the grounds of Sōji Temple in Yokohama.
Compositions
O-natsu seijūrō, opera, 1933Noibara, songHama uta, songFutari Kuzuba, opera, 1935Tomoe Gozen, opera, 1941, based on the legend of the onna-musha of the same nameDiscography
Tsubomi no hana, Nippon RecordMaria Mari, Nippon RecordEdo Komoriuta / Edo Lullaby, Nippon RecordSanza jigure, Nippon Record- Funiculì, Funiculà, Nippon RecordNoibara, Nippon RecordKaratachi no hana, Columbia Records, children's song composed by Kōsaku Yamada, text by Hakushū KitaharaNīna no shi, Victor RecordsYotsuba no kurōbā, Victor RecordsFurusato no kaika, Victor Records
- La Paloma, Victor Records