Musicians - Haruo Minami

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	Musicians - Haruo Minami

Haruo Minami (三波春夫 Minami Haruo, July 19, 1923 - April 14, 2001) was a famous Enka singer in postwar Japan. He was born Bunji Kitazume (北詰文司) in Nagaoka, Niigata. He is known for popularizing the saying "Okyakusama wa kamisama desu" (customers are gods).

Hideo Murata is regarded as the rival of Minami.

Career

In 1939, at the age of 16, Minami Haruo debuted as a rokyoku performer.

Minami joined the army in 1944 and was sent to Manchuria. He was captured by the Russian army and spent four years at a prisoner of war camp near Khabarovsk. He returned to Japan in 1949 and resumed his career as a rokyoku singer.

Minami adopted his stage name in 1957 and started performing Enka. He wrote and performed "Tokyo Gorin Ondo", the theme song of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In 1992, Minami enjoyed a popularity resurgence when he performed the ending music for the Fuji Television series Super Zugan. Previously popular primarily among the elderly, Enka music gained many new fans of the younger age groups due to this song.

On April 14, 2001, Minami died of prostate cancer at age 77.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Haruo Minami ]

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