Kyu Sakamoto's last concert: Hiroshima Heiankaku, August 10, 1985

About the artist

Kyu Sakamoto was born on December 10, 1941, in Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo. His real name was Hisashi Oshima, written with the character for "nine," and he was the youngest of nine children^[1]. He started singing out of admiration for Elvis Presley and was spotted by the Manase Production agency while performing in a jazz café^[2]. In 1958, still a high school student, he joined a rockabilly band called the Drifters, won a newcomer's prize at his first Nichigeki Western Carnival in August, and in November became a member of Danny Iida and Paradise King. He made his recording debut with Victor in June 1959, and his 1960 single "Kanashiki Rokujussai" for Toshiba became a hit, as did "Suteki na Taimingu" the same year^[1].

The turning point came in 1961. "Ue o Muite Arukō," with music by Hachidai Nakamura and words by Rokusuke Ei, was introduced at a Nakamura recital on July 21 and caught on after Sakamoto sang it on the NHK television show "Yume de Aimashō," prompting a flood of requests for the sheet music. At the end of that year he made his first appearance on NHK's New Year's Eve "Kōhaku Uta Gassen," and he returned for the next ten years in a row^[3][1].

On May 3, 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as "Sukiyaki." A British instrumental version by Kenny Ball's band had reached No. 10 in the UK the year before, but in America it was a DJ in Fresno, California, playing Sakamoto's own recording that started the response^[4]. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 79 on May 11, reached No. 1 on June 15 and stayed there for three weeks; it also spent four weeks at the top of the Cash Box chart. In August he flew to the US to appear on ABC's "The Steve Allen Show." Sales passed one million, and on May 15, 1964, he became the first Japanese artist to receive a gold record^[3].

More hits followed: "Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi o" and "Ashita ga Aru sa" in 1963 and "Shiawase Nara Te o Tatakō" in 1964^[1]. He also took part in "Ayumi no Hako," a charity drive that grew out of visits to institutions for disabled children begun in 1963 by actors Junzaburo Ban and Hisaya Morishige; according to his official site, his performance of "Tomodachi" at the charity show drew a strong response^[3]. He was a fixture as a host as well, presenting "Kōhaku" for the first time in 1968, serving as master of ceremonies of the World Popular Song Festival from 1970 to 1984, starting the Sapporo TV program "Fureai Hiroba Sunday Kyu" in 1976 and becoming the third host of Nippon TV's talent show "Star Tanjō!" in 1981. He married the actress Yukiko Kashiwagi on December 8, 1971^[1].

Why this was the last show

The Hiroshima concert was never billed as a farewell. According to his official performance log, Sakamoto's 1985 began with a New Year dinner show at the Shin Takanawa Prince Hotel on January 2, followed by a music copyright society festival at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in February, a show in Okinawa, a school thank-you party in March, two shows in Atsugi in April and a two-night engagement in Sapporo in June. Hiroshima on August 10 was simply the next date^[5].

He was just as busy on television and radio. His official timeline lists recordings and broadcasts month after month for Sapporo TV's "Fureai Hiroba Sunday Kyu," TBS's "Kitchen Patrol" and TV Shin-Hiroshima's quiz show "Quiz Cross 5." On March 25 he appeared live on the final broadcast of Fuji TV's music show "Yoru no Hit Studio," and in late April he was filming on location in Brazil^[6]. He was also the host of NHK General TV's "Kono Hito" profile series^[7]. On May 22 he released a single on the Fun House label, "Natsukashiki Love-Song" backed with "Kokoro no Hitomi," and on June 8 the A-side was named one of the winning entries at the Koga Masao Memorial Music Awards, broadcast live on NHK television^[6].

Two days after Hiroshima, on Monday, August 12, Sakamoto was in Studio 505 at NHK Broadcasting Center in Shibuya, Tokyo, for the public recording of an NHK-FM special, "Aki Ichiban! Sakamoto Kyu." According to the radio records on his official site, the guest was the singer Ouyang Fei Fei and the pianist was Kentaro Haneda. Sakamoto sang "Suteki na Taimingu," a duet of "Ue o Muite Arukō" with Ouyang and "For the Good Times," led the studio audience in "We Are the World," and went on to "Kokoro no Hitomi," "Oyaji," "Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi o" and "Natsukashiki Love-Song"^[8]. Studio 505 was where he had sung on the live NHK Radio 1 program "Hatsuratsu Studio 505" in May^[8].

After the recording he took a Japan Air Lines flight to Osaka^[6]. He died in the crash of JAL Flight 123 on August 12, 1985, at the age of 43^[9].

His official site describes the program as his last, recorded a few hours before the crash^[8]. In the sense of singing in front of people, the August 12 taping was his final performance. This page is nonetheless set on August 10 because Shuenroku does not count recordings made for broadcast as live shows. The last time Sakamoto stood before an audience at a concert of his own, according to the official performance log, was at Hiroshima Heiankaku^[5].

His "last TV appearance," a common search, cannot be pinned down from the official records. In the official list of TV programs, the last broadcast of "Kono Hito" was the episode on cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, aired on September 5 and recorded on June 13. Scripts survive for episodes planned for October, but the list does not say whether they aired^[7]. August recordings or broadcasts of his regular shows could not be confirmed from the official timeline^[6].

"Kokoro no Hitomi" is described as the last song he recorded in the studio. It was produced with Kazunaga Nitta, the music producer who founded Fun House^[9][10].

What is known about the day

The "Sakamoto Kyu Concert" at Hiroshima Heiankaku was given twice on the same day, with backing vocals by Wish. The official performance log does not name the band, and no source was found for the start times, the size of the audience or the weather^[5]. The official site also cautions that its set lists are based on show scripts and may differ from what was actually performed; the songs and running order below come from that record^[2].

Hiroshima was a city Sakamoto visited often that year. He traveled there repeatedly to tape "Quiz Cross 5" in TV Shin-Hiroshima's studio, and on April 22 he served as honorary "one-day postmaster" of the Hiroshima post office^[6]. "Nakinagara Warau Hi," a 1976 film he starred in, directed by Zenzo Matsuyama, had opened in Hiroshima ahead of the rest of the country^[1].

The first show opened, like most of his other 1985 dates, with "Kono Yo no Aru Kagiri," followed by "Minna de Tsukurō" and his 1964 hit "Shiawase Nara Te o Tatakō"^[5][1]. The second show also began with "Kono Yo no Aru Kagiri," but "Kogeyo Maikeru" took the place of those two songs, leaving the second set one song shorter, at eight^[5].

The middle of both shows was the same: his 1960 hit "Suteki na Taimingu," Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," and "Natsukashiki Love-Song," the new single released on May 22^[5][6]. "Sweet Caroline" appears in almost every 1985 entry in the log, from the January dinner show to Sapporo in June. "Natsukashiki Love-Song" first appears in Sapporo, after its release^[5].

Next came "Yūyake Koyake," a children's song about the evening sky, performed with sign language. In the log, the signed "Yūyake Koyake" enters the set at a school thank-you party at the Hotel New Otani on March 11 and stays through Atsugi in April, Sapporo in June and Hiroshima^[5].

Both shows closed by moving from "Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi o," which shares its title with a 1963 musical Sakamoto appeared in, into "Ue o Muite Arukō." That pairing appears in every 1985 entry in the log that gives a full set list, from the January dinner show to Sapporo^[5][1]. In January it was followed by "Nijūisseiki no Uta" and an encore; in Okinawa in February it was followed by "Ikite Ite Yokatta" and a poetry reading by Yukiko Kashiwagi, and in Atsugi in April "Nijūisseiki no Uta." In Hiroshima, as at the March school party and in Sapporo, nothing followed on the record: both shows ended with "Ue o Muite Arukō"^[5].

"Kokoro no Hitomi," the B-side of his May single, was not in the Hiroshima set. In the official records, the only occasions on which he can be confirmed singing it in front of people are a public live broadcast from NHK's Yokohama station on June 22 and the NHK-FM taping on August 12^[8].

No contemporary press report of the Hiroshima shows, and no account from anyone in the audience, was found.

What the show left behind

"Aki Ichiban! Sakamoto Kyu" aired on NHK-FM at 9 p.m. on September 1, 1985^[8]. According to his daughter, the singer-songwriter Hanako Oshima, a schoolteacher who heard the broadcast arranged "Kokoro no Hitomi" for choir; it spread to schools around the country and eventually into music textbooks. As a B-side, she said, no one had expected it to be sung so widely^[11]. The words are by Toyohisa Araki and the music by Takashi Miki, and in August 2023 a choir of 84 junior high school students sang it on the charity telethon "24-Hour Television"^[12].

His family has kept singing it. Oshima said that in 2004 she recorded the song with her mother, Yukiko Kashiwagi, and her sister, and that they went on to sing it at Christmas concerts; in 2017, a version with the three women's voices added to Sakamoto's original recording was included on a best-of^[11]. That album, "Sakamoto Kyu Best: Kokoro no Hitomi," was released by Universal Music in December 2017^[13]. On July 12, 2019, BS TV Tokyo aired a three-hour special that presented "Kokoro no Hitomi" as his last recorded voice and singing, taped a few hours before his death^[14].

Awards followed in the autumn of 1985: a special award at the 15th Ginza Music Festival and a music culture award at the Japan Lyricist Awards in October, and a special broadcast music award at the 16th Japan Kayō Awards in November. "Ue o Muite Arukō," which had received the overseas category award from JASRAC, Japan's music copyright society, in 1983, received it again in 1986 and 1987^[1].

The song itself kept traveling. According to Billboard JAPAN, A Taste of Honey's 1981 cover spent 24 weeks on the Hot 100, and 4 P.M.'s version charted for 32 weeks in 1994 and 1995. In Japan, RC Succession played it on stage from the late 1970s and recorded it on their 1981 album "EPLP"^[4]. On November 21, 2024, the song was honored by the Japan Composers Association at the 66th Japan Record Awards^[1].

An asteroid discovered in 1993, No. 6980, was named Kyusakamoto^[3]. In Kawasaki, his hometown, memorial concerts are held on the anniversary of his death. In 2023 the Kanagawa Shimbun reported that pupils from Kawasaki Elementary School, his alma mater, would perform at an event space at the Kawasaki Le Furon shopping center by JR Kawasaki Station on August 12^[15].

For the 40th anniversary in 2025, Universal Music released a three-CD, 61-track set titled simply "Sakamoto Kyu" on August 20^[16]. Nippon Broadcasting System aired a late-night special, with Yukiko Kashiwagi and Kazunaga Nitta, who produced "Kokoro no Hitomi" with Sakamoto, as guests^[9].

In 2026 came a feature film about the making of "Ue o Muite Arukō," "Sukiyaki: Ue o Muite Arukō," directed by Takahisa Zeze and distributed by Toho. Taiga Nakano plays Sakamoto, Junichi Okada plays Hachidai Nakamura and Tori Matsuzaka plays Rokusuke Ei. It was chosen as the opening film of the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, which began on October 26, and its theatrical release is scheduled for December 25. In May, "Kokoro no Hitomi" was used in a new television commercial for Suntory Tennensui mineral water^[10].

On the record, both Hiroshima shows ended with "Ue o Muite Arukō." "Kokoro no Hitomi," left out of those sets, was sung at a radio taping two days later and is now sung in school choirs.