Miss Columbia

In 1933, the theme song of the same name from the Shochiku film "Nineteen Springs," starring popular star Nobuko Fushimi and popular child actress Hideko Takamine, was released with music composed by Yoshi Eguchi, whom Columbia had recruited from Polydor, and sung by Miss Columbia, becoming a huge hit. After that, she had a string of hits including "Rain on the Tree-lined Street," "Ginza in Autumn," "Moon Camp," and "That Day, That Time," and became a popular pop singer with both beauty and a beautiful voice. However, in 1936 (Showa 11), while preparing to record "Bride's March," the theme song for the upcoming Shinko film "First Love Diary," she was forced to take a year off to recuperate due to illness.

In 1937 (Showa 12), she made a comeback, and "Funna no Nai wa," which followed the trend of the "Nee Kouta" boom, became her first hit after her comeback, contrary to her own expectations. In July of the same year, she appeared on "Uguisu no Kyoen," a special NHK music program featuring all the female singers of the time. The program was interrupted during Matsubara Misao's performance to broadcast breaking news about the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. From the time of her debut, her vocal songs such as "Ruro no Tami" were released as records under her real name, Matsubara Misao, but after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, most of the wartime songs she recorded were also released under the name Matsubara Misao.

While songs like "Fujin Aikoku no Uta" and "Heitaisan yo Arigato" sung under the name Matsubara Misao were hits, her biggest hit as Miss Columbia was "Tabi no Yoru Kaze" and "Kanashiki Komoriuta," the theme songs for the Shochiku film "Aizen Katsura," which she sang with the then-newly debuted Kirishima Noboru in 1938. The film "Aizen Katsura" itself became a massive hit, and when sequels and a concluding chapter were produced, a series of theme songs including "Aizen Yakkyoku," "Asatsuki Yuzuki," "Aizen Soshi," and "Koya no Yoru Kaze" were released together, all of which were hits. In the film, Matsubara Misao provided the voiceover for scenes where Tanaka Kinuyo sang, but because the technology of voiceovers was not widely known at the time, many viewers mistakenly believed that Tanaka herself was singing. "Aizen Katsura" became such a hit that the song "Drigo's Serenade," which was sung in the film, was re-released as a record under the name of Matsubara Misao, and she even appeared in a short film called "Aizen Monogatari" alongside Kirishima Noboru and Watanabe Ryo.

Following the success of "Tabi no Yoru Kaze," she began collaborating more frequently with Noboru Kirishima, with whom she was known as the "Aizen duo," and their hits continued with "Ippai no Coffee kara," "Aiba Shingunka," and "Aizen Yakkyoku." As opportunities for performing on stage and touring increased, her relationship with Kirishima, who was three years younger than her, grew closer. Then, at the end of 1939 (Showa 14), the marriage of these two popular singers took place, with composer Kosaku Yamada and his wife acting as matchmakers.

Even after 1940, she defied the common belief that "popularity declines after marriage" and continued to have hits such as "Men Nai Chidori" and "Aiba Hanayome." However, she became subject to a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs prohibiting stage names written in katakana, and ended her career as Miss Columbia, continuing to work as Matsubara Misao. She balanced family and work, and even during the war, she recorded songs such as "Ōzora ni Inoru" and "Isao o Mune ni." On screen, she appeared in the 1939 Shochiku film "Junjō Nijūsō" and in the 1940 Shochiku film "Nobuko," also starring Takamine Mieko, where she played the role of a music teacher.

After the war, due to her naturally weak constitution, she completely retired in 1948 (Showa 23) after recording "Sanbyaku Rokujugoya" with her husband, Noboru Kirishima. As a family woman, she supported Noboru Kirishima and devoted herself to raising her children. Although there were many talks of a comeback afterward, she continued to refuse all singing work. In 1981 (Showa 56), she participated in "Tsuma yo" (My Wife), released to commemorate the 45th anniversary of Noboru Kirishima's singing career, by providing spoken dialogue as Misao Matsubara, marking her first recording in over 30 years.

However, three years later, on April 24, 1984 (Showa 59), Kirishima passed away at the age of 69. His wife, Misao, reportedly cried out, clinging to her husband's body, "Don't leave me behind, Daddy! Take me with you!" Misao, who was hospitalized in a different hospital from Kirishima at the time, managed to hold the funeral despite her illness and completed the 49th-day memorial service for Kirishima Noboru. Shortly thereafter, as if following her late husband immediately, Misao also passed away on June 19 of the same year from gallstone disease. She was 73 years old. She is buried at Hase-dera Temple in Tokyo, the same temple as Kirishima Noboru.

After the war, Columbia Records created the "Columbia Rose" title, a successor to the Miss Columbia contest, as a way to promote female singers, and to date, three generations of Columbia Roses have debuted.

The eldest son, Norio Sakamoto, and the third daughter, Teruko Otaki, who are the last surviving children of the Kirishima-Matsubara couple, continue to sing their parents' hit songs.