SACHIKO

HISTORY

Sachiko grew up in a small, rural town and was the middlest of five sisters. She was brought up with a very heavy emphasis on tradition and historical preservation, causing her parents to be very strict with their children. Her relationship with her parents became strained due to this because she was the troublemaker in the family. One day, though, her youngest sister fell debilitatingly ill with a disease that permanently disabled her, meaning she couldn't play with Sachiko anymore. That event was as if a switch had been flipped in her mind as she became bound and determined to help her sister recover, but her youthful naivety kept her from facing the truth: that a future where her sister could get up and run and dance and make music with her and her other sisters again just wasn't possible. Out of the four that remained able-bodied, she arguably worked the hardest to make sure her ill sibling was smiling as much as possible. She wrote song after song after song, even absconding with her grandfather's old shamisen to get it repaired so she could play it while she sang. This bedridden sister had a record player that exclusively played Enka tracks, so Sachiko made it a point to learn Enka singing to bring a more lifelike performance to her sister.

As much as her morale boosts were encouraging, that's all they were. They weren't medicine or any sort of tangible treatment, and unfortunately her sister ended up passing away. Nevertheless, Sachiko kept making music. She saw how happy it made her sister for the short while she had left, and she wanted to share that joy with as many people as possible, especially her grief-stricken family members. Eventually, though, her strict father became fed up with the theatrics and wanted her to pursue a tangible skill like weaving. Her mother disagreed, saying that Sachiko's music had helped them through so many dark times that it should be considered a tangible skill in and of itself; the joy felt in the home when she made her music could be felt all through the village. This caused her tenuous relationship between her parents to reach its boiling point as she finally blew her lid at them for never letting her think for herself and instead always adhering to these silly traditions. Her father remained unmoved on the matter despite the protests from her remaining sisters, forcing Sachiko to go into the city to make a real career for herself if she wanted to be independent so badly. And that's just what she did.

The problem was that she didn't really have a whole lot of outside influence other than those old-fashioned values and traditions brought upon her by her parents and neighbors. In spite of that, she used this to her advantage when crafting what persona and aesthetic she would adopt while performing, opting to drop her surname for her first name to act as a single-word stage pseudonym (if you ask her what her surname is, you'll get a different answer every time, but the jury's still out on whether any of those are even remotely correct). She made quite a name for herself with her mellow voice and striking vocal agility that almost made her sound like the traditional kokyū, not to mention her nostalgic vibe and historical aesthetic that she quickly grew to love instead of resent. The people loved her, and she loved seeing all of their smiling faces because that was how her sister smiled at her all those years ago.

City life is hard for a country girl, and she never quite got properly acclimated to it. Strong words such as "hate" are words she hesitates to use to describe it: had she not gone there, she wouldn't have made a big name for herself, but she did go there by force by her father, so she does still hold a crumb of bitter resentment towards it. Of course, this is excluding all the other reasons she dislikes city life that come with the territory of it just being something foreign to her. She became educated on all the glitz-and-glam horror that came with being a big-name performer and made it a point to be as friendly as possible with everyone she met while keeping them on their toes at all times. Her motto was and still is: "Never let them know your next move, but always make sure that said move is a kind one."