Japanese roots.The feeling of that era when the old and the new blended together felt very natural to me, and I found it incredibly compelling.” During this period, she started writing in a journal, which later became the foundation for her songwriting. “I kept a diary, so I was used to writing things down,” she said. “When I wrote something that felt like a complete poem, I thought, ‘Maybe I should turn it into a song.’ More people could hear it that way. While practicing guitar, I thought,‘Maybe I should try writing and singing my own songs.’ It all started with that carefree thought.” After returning to school,Sai found herself feeling unmotivated and devoid of purpose. “I had to start my studies over from the beginning,” she recalled. “I worried that my year away would put me at a disadvantage when applying for jobs.At that time, women often had to choose between marriage and a career. If a woman succeeded at work, it could be harder for her to marry. No one explained these rules directly, but they felt like a glass ceiling. Becoming an adult meant I would have to find a way through that wall.” During that second year of university, she decided to pour all the frustrations she had experienced during the previous year, and her longing for escape, into music. “I took part in radio auditions
The album’s psychedelic sound reflected Sai’s emotional turmoil during her illness, and her desire to push against societal expectations placed on women. “I was about nineteen or twenty when we started recording, and I knew nothing about the music industry,” she said. “I remember telling Ohno-san that I wanted to use traditional Japanese instrumentation on certain songs. I left the arrangements up to him, and he used the top studio musicians in the industry.”These included Yuji Ohno himself on keyboards, Takahiko Ishikawa and Tsunehide Matsuki on guitar, Akira Okazawa on bass, Kiyoshi Tanaka on drums, Masako Hirayama on the biwa (Japanese lute), Minoru Muraoka on the shakuhachi flute, and Kisaku Katada on taiko drums.“When I heard the final tracks, I was amazed at how they sounded, because I wrote them using only a guitar, many while I was recovering from my illness. The album sounded like the world that I had envisioned in my mind.” Although Mangekyou was a commercial success, Sai did not pursue touring.“I sang on radio shows and in small clubs, but I get nervous and do not like performing live very much,” she said. “I prefer small clubs where I can see the audience. I also performed with a band from Kyoto called Datetenryu. My goal was not to become a professional musician. I simply wanted to write songs and lyrics, draw album covers, and create at home.” After Mangekyou , Sai began work on her second album, Mikkou . While she did not start with a clear concept, the album
and a competition hosted by Yamaha, and also appeared on some radio programs,” Sai said. “I also opened for [singer-songwriter] Rabi Nakayama during my third year. After that performance, two record companies, including Teichiku, approached me about releasing a record. So, in my fourth year of university, I ended up releasing Mangekyou with Teichiku [on its Black Records subsidiary]. I also got married in the same year.” Yuji Ohno, the jazz pianist and film composer perhaps best known today for his work soundtracking the long-running Lupin III animation series, was brought on to produce Mangekyou , the title of which translates to kaleidoscope. “The songs that I had written for this album were diverse and full of different types of musical elements, so the director at Teichiku [Isamu Haruna] decided that a film composer would be most suited to making everything come together,” Sai said.
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( above ) Images from the Mangekyou album sleeve.
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