ZARD Shrine

ZARD
Real Name: Kamachi Sachiko　蒲池幸子
Artist Name: Sakai Izumi　坂井泉水
Date of Birth: 6 February 1967
Active Years: 1991 - 2007
Date of Death: 27 May 2007 (40)

Profile: Sakai Izumi started her celebrity career as a model and has released albums featuring her model life. In 1991, she formed the band named ZARD, which name she thought would just sound like a rock band. The name was also derived from words like "wizard", "hazard" and "blizzard". Afterwards, four other male members joined the band and they released their first single on 10 February 1991, named Good-bye my Loneliness. It was a great hit and reached the 9th place on the Oricon chart, earning the band much fame and sent their music career soaring. However, the next two singles did not sell well. During the fourth single, Nemurenai Yoru wo Daite, they changed style and began to make the music video brighter. This song was another great hit and earned them 4 TV performances, which made up more than half of their total TV appearances. However, the best was yet to come.

Their sixth single, Makenaide, greatly appealed to the Japanese public as its lyrics are thought to be very encouraging. Sakai Izumi said that this song was written to encourage people taking university exams, but others also got motivated by this song. Overall, this song sold more than 2 million copies.

After this, the other 4 members gradually began to leave the band, leaving only Sakai, who continued using the band name ZARD. She went on to release up to 42 singles in total, and 17 albums in her lifetime. Besides singing, she was also a lyricist, who wrote the lyrics to all her songs, and even some for others, like DEEN, WANDS, and the late mainland Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng. In 1993, she sold more CDs than any other singers in Japan. At the same time, she was ranked the second best lyricist in Japan. In the 1990s, she sold more CDs than any other female singers, surpassing even Amuro Namie. Her total CD sales ranked her as the top 8th artist in Japan.

Death: Although she led a very healthy lifestyle and abstained from tobacco and alcohol, she was severely sick at times. In 2001, she was down with an unnamed illness and did not release any singles that year. She only recovered a couple of years later, before starting to work in full force. Sakai Izumi was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2006. She was admitted to the hospital and had her tumour removed. It was, however, discovered that the cancer cells had spread to her lungs in April 2007, and she was hospitalized once again. It was revealed that during her stay in the hospital, she took morning walks frequently when she was feeling fine. And during her morning walk on 26 May, she fell over the railing of the emergency staircase and landed 3 metres on the ground, head first. That was the place where she liked to take a rest after taking a walk. Her mother, on an interview, said that it might have been the side effects of the anti-cancer drug that caused her to fall from the platform. She was found at 5am JST, and sent to the emergency room immediately. However, she died the next day due to head concussion. She was only 40. People suspected that it was suicide, but her agency strongly denies it.Even until her death, she was very optimistic and did not seem like one with cancer. During an interview, she raised the example of Shiozawa Toki, she was diagnosed to have had cancer when she was 30, but she continued to live to 79. She was also very anxious to recover and accompany her family to go on vacations, and she was also looking forward to a comeback. During her free time in the hospital, she would write lyrics.

Posthumous: Many memorial CDs and merchandises are put for sale by the company after her unfortunate death. Two concerts, "What a beautiful memory", named after the only tour ZARD has went on, "What a beautiful moment", were held on the 7th and 14th September 2007, in the Osaka Festival Hall and Nippon Budokan respectively. It was revealed on the second concert that she was preparing for her 43rd single, "Glorious Mind" before she was admitted to the hospital. The music video of this song was played during the concert, to the audience's surprise. This single has not been released, but the song will be used for Detective Conan's theme starting from 15 October 2007. Although the song had not been completed by the time of Sakai Izumi's death, the chorus part had been recorded. The other minutes sung in English are from another unrelated and unreleased song. In February 2008, Being Inc. announced that they still have another unreleased song, Tsubasa wo Hirogete, which will be released with a re-arranged version of the coupling song for their first single, Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de, as a double side-A single. The song was written by Izumi-san for DEEN in 1993, and she had covered it herself, but it wasn't included in the album as planned. This song will be used as the theme song for the 12th Detective Conan Movie: Full Score of Fear, marking ZARD's third work for the Detective Conan movies and her 9th work overall for Detective Conan, and possibly her last.

It is definitely sad to hear about the death of a great singer like her. I was shocked to receive the news of her death, and I'm still mourning for her now. Her songs were great. The lyrics were motivative and meaningful, and she was the one who wrote them. I've gotten to know her from Unmei no Ruuretto Mawashite from Detective Conan, and it was this song that made me know about her death. Her death is definitely a great loss for both the music industry and music lovers like me. ZARD, may you Rest in Peace.

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ZARD's Singles Collection:

1) Good-bye My Loneliness
2) Fushigi ne...
3) Mou Sagasanai
4) Nemurenai Yoru wo Daite
5) In My Arms Tonight
6) Makenaide
7) Kimi ga Inai
8) Yureru Omoi
9) Mou Sukoshi Ato Sukoshi
10) Kitto Wasurenai
11) Kono Ai ni Oyogi Tsukarete mo
12) Konna ni Soba ni Iru Noni
13) Anata wo Kanjite Itai
14) Just Believe in Love
15) Ai ga Mienai
16) Sayonara wa Ima mo Kono Mune ni Imasu
17) My Friend18) Kokoro wo Hiraite
19) Don't You See!
20) Kimi ni Aitaku Nattara
21) Kaze ga Toori Nukeru Machi e
22) Eien
23) My Baby Grand ~Nukumori ga Hoshikute~
24) Iki mo Dekinai
25) Unmei no Ruuretto Mawashite
26) Atarashii Door ~Fuyu no Himawari~
27) Good Day
28) Mind Games
29) Sekai wa Kitto Mirai no Naka
30) Itai Kurai Kimi ga Afurete Iru yo
31) Kono Namida Hoshi ni Nare
32) Get U're Dream
33) Promised You
34) Sawayaka na Kimi no Kimochi
35) Ashita wo Yumemite
36) Hitomi Tojite
37) Motto Chikakude Kimi no Yokogao Mite Itai
38) Kakegae no Nai Mono
39) Kyou wa Yukkuri Hanasou
40) Hoshi no Kagayaki yo / Natsu wo Matsu Seiru no You ni
41) Kanashii Hodo Anata ga Suki
42) Heart ni Hi wo Tsukete
43) Glorious Mind
44) Tsubasa wo Hirogete

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Trivia: On the 487th episode of Detective Conan, which was also the first episode Zard's last single, Glorious Mind, was set to be the opening theme, a mystery writer's assistant was said to have died some time ago, in a mysterious way. The mystery writer actually wanted to write a novel about his locked-room death, but it was stopped by the new assistant as it would cause the public to think of his death as something complicated. This, be it intentional or not, explained why Sakai's death could not be written into a Detective Conan story.