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- and singing master, Toyo Kasuga, who granted her the name of Toyomaru Kasuga. She continued her training during the war under the supervision of Master Eijudaiyu Kiyomoto and Master Eijuro Kiyomoto. In addition, she began training in classical music with Master Senju Miyasono, who also granted her a name, Senichi Miyasono. Ichimaru also began collaborative work in kokyoku (small melodies) with Michio Miyagi (a famous, blind koto player and composer) and Shunso Tomizawa.
In 1950 Ichimaru was the first Japanese singer after the war to be invited to perform in Hawaii. In 1951 she was invited by the Japanese community in Brazil to perform there. She also sang songs for Kabuki theatre performances and composed her own Ko-uta songs, which showed her talent at expressing lyrical feelings in her songs. Her style came to be known as �Ichimaru Air�. She always performed with her shamisen accompanist Shizuko Shamisen, who also played along even if there was an orchestra.
With the arrival of television in Japan, she became a popular guest on national television. Her performances became more diverse and mature throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s. From the 1960s through into the 1990s, Ichimaru received numerous honorific
titles and awards. To name a few.....in 1960 she was granted the title of Head Master
of the Nakamura School Edo Ko-uta upon the recommendation of Mr. Kanzaburo Nakamura, Grand Head master of the Nakamura School of Performing Arts, in recognition of her resurrection of Edo-style songs of the Nakamura school which had disappeared; in 1970 she received the Art Festival Award (Geijutsusai Shorei Sho); in 1972 she received the Imperial Order of the Purple Ribbon [Shiju Hosho); in 1975 she received the NHK Radio/TV Cultural Award (NHK Hoso Bunkasho); in 1981, she was awarded the 4th Imperial Order of Precious Treasures (Kun Yonto Zui-ho Sho); and in 1990 she received the Pola Culture Promotion Society�s 10th Anniversary Special Grand Prize.
Even late in her career she continued to record many songs for the Victor Recording label. For example, in 1969 she recorded 50 pieces of traditional Ha-uta songs and Zokkyoku (folk) melodies, which had been newly rearranged for performing with an orchestra in an attempt to make classical music more popular. In 1971, she recorded 100 classical Ha-uta songs over a one-year period; and in 1973 she recorded 120 compositions of classical Ko-uta songs. In 1984 Ichimaru founded the Edo Ko-uta Ichiju Society for the purpose of popularizing the Edo Ko-uta music and would play an active role in training students in this style of music.
Ichimaru would continue to teach and perform well into her senior years although unfortunately when she passed away in 1997 at the age of 91, she did not have much of a fortune left. Throughout her life, her impoverished sisters would regularly visit her to request loans and she would generously give them money and, near the end of her life her housekeeper maid-servant walked off with much of her fortune, thought to be as much as 80,000,000 yen. Ichimaru did however, leave behind a tremendous legacy to the Japanese music industry and her triumph over adversity, in perfecting her arts to become an outstanding diva, is indeed a remarkable story.
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