Biography
渡辺はま子 Hamako Watanabe (October 27, 1910 – December 31, 1999) was a female pop singer who was active in the Japanese music scene from before the war to the postwar period. She was born in Hiranuma, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Her real name was Hamako Kato. She spent her entire life in Yokohama. Her nickname was "Ohama-san".
Born in Yokohama, Watanabe was a true Yokohama native and a singer known for her beauty. She was born the second daughter of Chikazo Watanabe (?-September 19, 1941), an English teacher at a women's normal school, and Mari Watanabe (?-May 15, 1955). She had an older brother and sister. Mari's grandfather was Japanese-American. In 1929 (Showa 4), she graduated from the general course at Soshin Girls' School. Later, she moved to Kawasaki City and entered Miyuki Elementary School (now Kawasaki Municipal Miyuki Elementary School), but in the third grade, she transferred to the elementary school attached to the Yokohama Women's Normal School where her father worked. It is said that during her time at this elementary school, she was taught to read and write musical scores by her homeroom teacher, and this sparked her interest in music, which was her first motivation to pursue it. She was an active and tomboyish girl, and this vitality continued throughout her life.
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In 1981, she was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Fourth Class. She continued to be active in music and radio, but in 1985, she was shocked by the death of her husband, Sadaharu Kato, a U.S. military interpreter, with whom she was known as a devoted couple, and it is said that she began to develop dementia around this time. Following advice from her family who noticed something was wrong, she retired in 1989. However, she kept her promises to perform on stages and other events that she had been offered before deciding to retire, and on June 19, 1990, she made a special appearance at a "gathering for pensioners" hosted by a local bank at the Mito Prefectural Cultural Center, which was well received.
After her retirement, her dementia progressed and she suffered a stroke, making it almost impossible for her to converse with anyone other than her family (her eldest daughter says the last time she was able to have a conversation with a third party was when she called Fujiyama Ichiro's widow in 1993 to offer her condolences), and in her final years she was bedridden. On Christmas Day in 1999, five days before her death, her eldest daughter played her a tape recording she had made of her visiting Muntinlupa, and Watanabe, who usually showed no emotion due to her illness, nodded repeatedly at her daughter's words and shed a single tear.
Following her death, a private funeral was held with only family members present, in accordance with her will. In January 2000, her former record label, Victor Entertainment, officially announced her passing. Her posthumous Buddhist name is Hōjuin Kaorukuni Myōon Hihama. Her grave is at Myōkōji Temple in Yokohama.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.