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- In 1933 Ichimaru recorded a song for the movie Wet Swallow (Nure Tsubame) produced by the Shochika movie company, which became a major hit. This was followed by the production of Nikkatsu�s Three Mile mountain Pass (Toge Sanri), Shochiku�s Two Stone lanterns (Futatsu Toro) and Tenryu River Ride (Tenryu Kudareba), the last of which proved to be a mega hit that would elevate Ichimaru�s position to that of superstar status. Her rendition of the Tenryu River Ride song was praised by Shinpei Nakayama, the composer of the song. It was this praise that encouraged Ichimaru to give up her life as a geisha and become a full-time recording artist. The Tenryu Kudareba song and another one she recorded entitled Ryukyo Ko-Uta were both folk songs of Nagano, which helped turn the mountainous region into an important tourist location. There is now a stone monument at the Tenryu River gorge with engravings of these songs, which she recorded commemorating the region for its famous cherry blossoms.
On a side note, it was in 1932, that a prominent Shin Hanga (New Print Movement) artist named Kiyoshi Kobayakawa (1898-1948) met her and became infatuated with her. He produced a magnificent painting of her, which is featured on the front of this publication, and a popular award winning woodblock print of her (see back cover). Ichimaru was mainly interested in her own career and an artist would obviously never be able to keep her in the lifestyle to which she had grown accustomed, so nothing further became of their relationship. In fact, Ichimaru would follow the geisha lifestyle throughout her life and would never get married, even after she had left the geisha world in 1933. Another interesting anecdote to Ichimaru is that she met the famous silent film star, Charlie Chaplin, in the mid 1930s.
Geisha-style Diva
During the 1930�s Japan was involved with expansionist wars in Manchuria and China. Ichimaru was called upon to perform for the factory workers of the war effort and for troops, both at home and abroad. She was not accustomed to being so busy and to so much extensive travel. In her early career, she had been used to entertaining in comparatively small and intimate confines such as the ozashiki (dining rooms of inn- restaurants), but now she was thrust into the spotlight on large stages to perform in front of huge audiences. She had to change her performance style to fit the situation and it became a turning point in her career. She had to learn how to effectively sing on a big stage and how to best convey the sentiment of her songs. Her refined movements gave way to more expressive gestures.
In 1940 she recorded more new songs, which were authored by top Japanese songwriters and composers of traditional Japanese music. She openly courted famous poets and composers and would invite them to her home in Yanagibashi. However, with the beginning of the full-scale war with the United States in late 1941, her recordings gradually decreased and eventually stopped by 1944.
In 1948, Ichimaru resumed her recording career and tried to brighten the gloomy and chaotic post-war society. In 1949 she established her radio program entitled �Mitsukoshi Calendar of Songs�, which would last for ten years.
Before the war Ichimaru had studied the combination of playing the shamisen and singing known as kiyomoto under the tutelage of shamisen master, Enchiga Kiyomoto,
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