F or many, the YouTube algorithm has become a trusted tool for music discovery, with rewards to rival those of a trip to the second-hand record shop. In recent years, seekers of vintage Japanese music may have found themselves entranced by a haunting cover image in their recommendations, depicting a young woman with a piercing gaze, standing in a grassy field beneath a blue-violet sky. Those lucky enough to stumble upon Yoshiko Sai’s Mangekyou online or in a dusty record bin are likely to find themselves similarly captivated by her ethereal voice and the dreamy blend of folk, psychedelic rock, traditional Japanese instrumentation, and electronics that define this 1975 gem. Original vinyl copies have become highly coveted but, thanks to the Paris-based Wewantsounds label, it was reissued in 2024, marking its first-ever release on the international market. Yoshiko Sai has long been an elusive figure, with scarce information about her life online. She disappeared from the music scene after 1978, just three years after her debut, only to return for a handful of recordings and appearances more than two decades later. After I informed her that it had taken nearly ten months to track her down for an interview, she laughed and told me, “I haven’t performed live that much, so some people don’t think that I exist.” Sai was born in 1953 in Uda, Nara Prefecture, a region known for its deep history and abundance of ancient temples. Her father was a public servant, and although she did not grow up in an
artistic household, she loved drawing and writing poetry from an early age. “Since I loved drawing, I joined the art club in junior high,” Sai recalled.“I also joined the chorus club, and after entering high school, my parents bought me a guitar.A popular band at the time called Akai Tori inspired me, so my high school friends and I formed a band and played their songs.When I entered college, I became a fan of artists like Yosui Inoue and Takuro Yoshida, but I was not the type to listen to records all day. I was more interested in making my own music.” Although she had hoped to attend art school, Sai enrolled in a law program at Doshisha University in Kyoto. “When I arrived at the university, many students were playing music, which made me want to try writing my own songs,” she remembered. “But at about eighteen years old I became very ill with [kidney ailment] acute nephritis and had to take a year off to recover. I had always been healthy and active, but after getting sick it made me think about death for the first time, and I realized how fragile life is.” During her hospitalization and long recovery at home, Sai read fantasy literature as an escape, and soon began to write her own lyrics. “While I was in the hospital, I started reading books by writers such as Edogawa Ranpo,Yumeno Kyusaku, Juran Hisao, and Seishi Yokomizo,” she explained. “These writers reflected the atmosphere and mood of Japan from the pre-war to the post-war era, where Western elements were just beginning to seep into the older Japanese landscape. I think it also has to do with the fact that I was born and raised in Nara, a place with strong traditional
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( opening spread ) Yoshiko Sai on Kyoto’s Nagarebashi Bridge, in a photo used on the back sleeve of 1975’s Mangekyou . Photo by Studio ELLE, courtesy of Teichiku. ( top ) A promotional image for Yoshiki Sai’s 1977 album, Taiji no Yume .
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