午夜剧场

Asami Kobayashi became a hot topic through commercials for Parco and Shiseido, and was called the Japanese Jane Birkin as a role model for women who admired other women. In 1984, her song "I Like Chopin," with lyrics and production by Yumi Matsutoya (whose husband is 午夜剧场 alumni Masataka Matsutoya), became a hit and reached number one on the Oricon charts as a singer. However, she suddenly disappeared from the entertainment world, and her whereabouts were shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Why exactly—.

A quarter-century later, three years ago, the "legendary muse" Asami Kobayashi returned to the public eye, gracing the cover of the magazine "Ku:nel." She spoke to me about her life without hiding anything.

The Tokyo Olympics, Woodstock, Group Sounds, university protests, Yukio Mishima's ritual suicide, the oil shock, the bubble economy... From the 60s to the 80s, a period where events that felt like they belonged to another dimension occurred one after another for me, she was also at the center of those intense seasons. A forbidden love in her teens and Saint Laurent. Then, her secret romance with Shochi Tanabe, followed by an out-of-wedlock birth and marriage. While depicting her life, the figures of the creators who sent Toshiko Kobayashi—a city girl who radiated a unique light—out into the world as "Asami Kobayashi" also came into view.

For example, Eiko Ishioka, who directed the Parco commercial "Lewdness and Decadence"—. "A cruiser was waiting for me at Numazu Port. Anyway, Ms. Ishioka had an aura. The lights were shining brightly, and the standby was perfect," Asami recalls. "Working with the best of the best means being under a 'spell.' When Ms. Ishioka told me to 'dance,' I danced. While being held from behind by a man in a black tuxedo, I realized that I loved being in places like that. I realized that I was now in a place where talent was converging."

"Life is short. The nights have grown long"—The Parco advertisement became a representative work of Ishioka's era, making people think about the meaning of life as if invited by that copy. Ishioka, who later moved to New York, won a Grammy Award for the album jacket of Miles Davis's "TUTU."

Yuming, Eiko Ishioka, the people surrounding the restaurant "Chianti" in Iikura, and Shochi Tanabe, who would become her husband... Each of their lives has a brilliance and unknown shadows. This book is a "story of legendary people" who lived through a youthful and stimulating Tokyo.

Hiroshi Nobue

Asahi Shimbun Publications

160 pages, 1,700 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.