Ai Kawashima is a Japanese popsinger-songwriter and pianist. Overcoming her tragic childhood, she released her debut single Asueno tobira as the duo I Wish in 2003. She is well known for her numerous street performances. She is also known for her devotion to help children under circumstances similar to hers in Japan and all over the world.
Early life
Kawashima was born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan. After her birth, her mother's health deteriorated and she died when Kawashima was only 3 years old. Because her father had been missing before she was born, she was taken to an orphanage and eventually adopted by the Kawashima family, owners of a construction company. Her foster father died when she was 10. After graduating from middle school, she moved to Tokyo. Her foster mother died when she was 16. She started playing the piano at the age of 3 and eventually began to think about a career as a singer.
Career
Kawashima started her career as an enka singer. At around the age of 10, she performed on stage at the Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1999, she released her debut single, Juu-roku Koi Gokoro / Anata ni Kataomoi. However, the enka project was crippled by poor sales and was abandoned entirely within a few months. After this initial failure, she began to sing her own songs on the busy street corners in Shibuya, Tokyo with a microphone and a radio cassette player. To become famous, she set herself the goal of performing 1,000 times on the street. Nobody paid attention to her songs at first, but the crowd gradually grew as she kept performing on streets and she met people who gave her support, culminating her major debut and the 2003 hit single "Asueno tobira", which sold more than 900,000 copies. She sang the song as the vocalist of the duo I Wish. She has been performing solo since the duo broke up in 2005. Her second solo single, "12-ko no Kisetsu" ranked 10th on the Billboard Hits of the world, Japan. Even after her major debut, she kept performing on streets and, in 2005, she accomplished 1,000 street performances, which, according to Kawashima, became the foundation of her music. In 2009, she performed at Japan Day at Central Park, New York.
Personal life
Kawashima has devoted her time and money to a project to build schools in developing countries. 3 schools have been finished so far and her goal is to build 100 schools. Every year since her mother's death, she has held a memorial concert on August 20. On the night of March 11, 2011, 20 elementary school students who were able to flee the devastating tsunami after Tohoku earthquake comforted each other by singing the song Tabidachi no hi ni together at a local Shinto shrine where they spent the night. The students had been practicing the song for their graduation ceremony, which was only a week away. Having heard the story, Kawashima visited the students in a shelter on April 6 and sang the same song together. On August 21, she visited the students one more time to attend their belated graduation ceremony and sang the song together. The song ends with the words, "Let us bloom from this bud."
Discography
Kawashima's songs have been featured in various anime and video games. "Zetsubou to Kibou" is the theme song of Shining Force Neo; "Compass" is the theme song of the eighth One Piece movie Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates, and "Kimi no Koe" is the ending theme song of The Place Promised in Our Early Days. One of her newest songs, "Door Crawl", is the theme song of .
