Masako Togawa
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Masako Togawa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Native name | 戸川昌子 (Togawa Masako) |
| Born | 23 March 1931 |
| Died | 26 April 2016 (aged 85) |
| Notable works | The Grand Illusion (1962) |
Masako Togawa (戸川昌子, Togawa Masako) (23 March 1931 – 26 April 2016) was a Japanese Chanson singer/songwriter, actress, feminist, novelist, lesbian icon, former night club owner, metropolitan city planning panelist, and music educator.[1][2]
Masako Togawa grew up in "restricted circumstances" following the death of her father.[3] She worked as a typist for five years after leaving high school,[4] then, aged 23, she made her singing debut, at the well-known nightclub Gin-Pari.[1] 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.[5]
Togawa often made public appearances with a multicoloured "Afro" hairstyle.
She taught numerous musicians how to sing and compose.[5]
Chanson/club career
In 1967 Togawa turned her sister’s coffee shop into a nightclub, the Aoi Heya ("Blue Room"), which became a celebrity hangout, a lesbian night club, a chansonnier and, in recent years, a live music club.[6][7]
In 1975 she brought out her first record, "Lost Love", which was followed by "The Moral of the Story".[5]
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.[6] In May 2012 she expressed a desire for the club to be relaunched,[6] and there is now a "Monday Blue Room" hosted by the Tokyo Salavas.[6]
In February 2012, Togawa began a "Blue Room Grand Cabaret" delivered through a web TV channel, Scatch.TV,[6] and Chanson classes on the first and third Wednesdays of every month.[6] It appears that her only concern was that the venue might be "overflowing".[6]
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.[5] She also acted in the film The Hunter’s Diary (1974), adapted from stories that she co-wrote, and in the television show Ōi Naru Genei, based on her first novel (known in English as The Master Key).[5]
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.[1] The novel is set in the apartment she grew up in with her mother.[5] 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.[1]'
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.[5]
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 .... [an] hysterically overplotted soaper."[8]
