Yumi Arai

Artist: Yumi Arai

LP: The 14th Moon

Song: "Chuo Freeway"

[ listen ]

Born in Hachioji, Japan in 1954, singer/songwriter/pianist Yumi Arai got started in the music business while in her early teens by hanging out at Chianti, a popular Italian restaurant frequented by artists like Yukio Mishima, Akira Kurosawa, Taro Okamoto, and Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu, who ended up producing Yumi Arai's first record. Nicknamed "Yuming" by her Chinese lover, Yumi released four LPs under her birth name of Yumi Arai in the early-to-mid 1970s ("The 14th Moon" from 1976 was the last) before marrying musical collaborator Masataka Matsutoya in 1976 and changing her professional name to Yumi Matsutoya. You can read all about the life and ongoing career of Yumi Arai—aka Yuming—aka Yumi Matsutoya on Wikipedia here, and watch a neat but oddly edited 1973 Yumi Arai music video here:

Yumi Arai on YouTube:

[ "Kamihikô-ki" ]