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Hibari Misora (美空 ひばり, Misora Hibari^?), (May 29, 1937 - June 24, 1989) was a Japanese singer and the predominant figure in postwar enka music.

She is ranked at number 5, in a list of Japans top 100 musicians, provided by HMV. ^[1]

Contents 1 Life and career 1.1 Death 1.2 Posthumous reputation 2 Notable songs 3 Claims of Korean ancestry 4 References 5 External links 6 Sources

Hibari was born Kazue Kato (加藤 和枝, Katō Kazue^?) to a family in Yokohama. Her father, a fishmonger, was Masukichi Kato (加藤 増吉, Katō Masukichi^?) and her mother Kimie Kato (加藤 喜美枝, Katō Kimie^?). She showed musical talent from an early age, and had become an accomplished singer by the age of seven. She became best known for her performance of enka, the emotional, sentimental form of Japanese popular music which became popular during the early part of the 20th century. As the "queen of enka" her style of performing was highly emotional, including "profuse, unchecked and unwiped" tears.^[2]

As the first major Japanese celebrity of the postwar era, Misora was popularly known as the "Queen of Showa". She appeared in film for the first time at age 12. Her performance in Tokyo Kiddo (1950), in which she played a street orphan, made her symbolic of both the hardship and the national optimism of the post-World War II era in Japan.^[3][4] Between 1949's Kanashiki kuchibue and 1971's Onna no Hanamichi, she appeared in over 60 movies. In her musical career, she released about 1,200 songs.^[5] At the time of her death, she sold more than 68 million records. She received numerous awards and was an actress in many Japanese musical movies and plays. Her popularity was such that a riot-like situation occurred while people were waiting to attend one of her concerts in 1956. Ten people were injured in the incident.^[4]

Misora was married to popular singer/actor Akira Kobayashi in 1962, but the marriage ended in divorce two years later in 1964.^[6]

In April of 1987, on the way to a performance in Fukuoka, Misora suddenly collapsed. Rushed to hospital, she was diagnosed with bilateral femoral necrosis brought on by chronic hepatitis. Until August she was confined to hospital and eventually showed signs of recovery. She commenced recording a new song "Midaregami" in October, and in 1988 performed at a concert called Fushichou konsaato (Phoenix Concert) at the Tokyo Dome. Despite overwhelming pain in her legs, she performed a total of 39 songs while assuring her fans that she had completely recovered. However, on 24 June 1989, having been re-admitted to the Juntendo hospital in Tokyo, she died from interstitial pneumonitis at the age of 52. Her death was widely mourned throughout Japan.

Misora's premature death put all Japan into mourning. During the six months following her death, sales of Misora's recordings multiplied by twenty-five times.^[4] In July 1989 after her death, she became the first female recipient of the National Prize of Honor (国民栄誉賞, National Prize of Honor^?) for her longstanding contributions to the music industry.

In 1994, the Misora Hibari-kan museum opened in Arashiyama, Kyoto. This large, complex building traced the history of Misora's life and career in multi-media exhibits.^[7] It was popular with fans and tourists for a number of years, but due to declining turnout it closed on November 30, 2006.

In a 1997 NHK poll, Misora's most famous song, "Kawa no nagare no yō ni" (1989), was voted the best Japanese song of all time.

• Kappa Boogie Woogie (河童ブギウギ, 1949)
• Kanashiki Kuchibue (悲しき口笛, 1949)
• Tokyo Kiddo (東京キッド, 1950)
• Omatsuri Mambo (お祭りマンボ, 1952)
• Ringo Oiwake (リンゴ追分, 1952)
• Minatomachi 13-banchi (港町十三番地, 1957)
• Yawara (柔, 1964)
• Kanashii Sake (悲しい酒, 1966)
• Makkana Taiyo (真赤な太陽, 1967)
• Aisansan (愛燦燦（あいさんさん）, 1986)
• Midaregami (みだれ髪, 1987)
• Kawa no nagare no yō ni (川の流れのように, 1989)

There are Korean sources as well as English-language non-Korean sources claiming that Hibari Misora was ethnic Korean^{[8][9][10][11]}. However, this claim is not substantiated by any Japanese source. On July 9, 1989, a weekly magazine in South Korea wrote that Hibari Misora was Korean. Shukan Bunshu, a weekly magazine in Japan wrote that it investigated this claim in detail on August 10, 1989. Shukan Bunshu concluded that she was not Korean. ^[12] Ohshita Eiji, a Hibari Misora expert, has investigated the ancestry of the parents of Hibari as well, and concluded that they were not Korean. ^[13]

• Hibari Misora at the Internet Movie Database
• Hibari Misora, Japanese Singer, 52 Obituary at The New York Times, June 25, 1989. Accessed January 13, 2007.
• 美空ひばり (Misora Hibari) Filmography at jmdb.ne.jp (in Japanese)

• McClure, Steve (1998). "Hibari Misora", Nipponpop: 日本のポップ・ミュ－ジック (in English). Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, p.10. ISBN 0-8048-2107-0. 
• Tansman, Alan (1996). "Mournful tears and sake: The postwar myth of Misora Hibari", in John Whittier Treat: Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0-824818-54-7.