Aya Ishiguro

**Aya Ishiguro** (石黒彩) (Legal Name: Yamada Aya (山田亜弥)) is a singer, writer, TV personality and fashion designer in Japan. She is most famous for her participation in J-pop group Morning Musume.

## History

### Early Life

She was born in Hokkaido, Japan on May 12, 1978.

### 1997-1999

Ishiguro Aya was a runner-up in a 1997 contest to find a new female rock idol. After the contest was over—with the winner being Michiyo Heike—music producer, former rock musician, and contest judge Tsunku decided to focus his attention on five runners-up, which included Ishiguro, Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Asuka Fukuda, and Yuko Nakazawa.

Tsunku promised to take the quintet under his wing if they sold 50,000 copies of their CD "Ai no Tane" (also known as Morning Musume's demo single) within five days. They accomplished this task within four days, and Tsunku upheld his end of the bargain.

During her years in Morning Musume, Ishiguro was given mostly harmony lines due to her low singing voice, which was used to support the voices of others. However, in late 1998 Tsunku decided to create Tanpopo, a sub-group of Morning Musume that included Ishiguro, Iida Kaori and 2nd generation member Mari Yaguchi. Tanpopo's songs were slower and more mature than the majority of Morning Musume's, which allowed Ishiguro's voice to shine through.

After seven singles and three albums with Morning Musume (and four singles and one album with Tanpopo), Ishiguro left both groups and graduated from Hello! Project in January 2000, shortly after the release of the single "Love Machine" in September 1999.

### After Morning Musume

While being a mother and homemaker (the Yamadas had two more children in the years that followed), Ishiguro also dabbled in various careers —ranging from fashion designer to writer (she has written a book about her transition from being an idol to a mother) to TV show host (where she interviewed celebrity wives). She also re-united with the new Tanpopo briefly to sing the Grand Symphonic version of the song "Tanpopo."

In November 2004, Ishiguro's released a book called "Kosodate Project."

On February 23, 2012, it was announced that she would make a guest appearance at Dream Morning Musume's last live at Nippon Bukodan, with Tsuji Nozomi, after 12 years.

On March 10th 2012, Dream Morning Musume held their ‘First chapter final’ live concert titled “Dream Morning Musume Special LIVE 2012 Nippon Budokan~Dai 1 Shou Shuumaku ‘Yuusha tachi, Shuugou seyo’~” at Nippon Budokan. Current Morning Musume members, and OG members Ishiguro and Nozomi Tsuji made their guest appearance. Moreover, Maki Goto, who had been on indefinite hiatus since the end of 2011, also made a surprise appearance. For this day’s live, a total of 24 former and current Morning Musume members got together on the stage.

In 2012, she performed on stage at a Hello! Project concert as part of Tanpopo, and in 2013 at a Hello! Project concert called Hello! Project Countdown 2013 ~Hello & Good Bye~ along with several other graduated members.

In May 2016, Ishiguro appeared on a segment of TV Tokyo's Yoso de Iwan to Itei ~Koko Dake no Hanashi ga Kikeru Himitsu Ryoutei~ (ヨソで言わんとい亭～ココだけの話が聞ける㊙料亭～, Tell It to Yoso ~You Can Only Hear These Stories at the Secret Restaurant~) and revealed the low pay earned by the original members of Morning Musume. According to Ishiguro, the original members earned a monthly salary of 200,000 yen (approx. $2,000 US), which then came down to 120,000 yen (approx. $1,200 US) after the cost of insurance and agency fees. However, she would revise this statement later in the same month, and noted that that agency fees also paid for many of her living expenses during her time as a Morning Musume member. She apologized for going public with her remarks.

In 2017, on November 3, a remake of Morning Musume's demo single, titled "Ai no Tane (20th Anniversary Ver.)", was digitally released exactly 20 years after the original. The remake is sung by the original five members and Morning Musume '17 as a special anniversary unit named Morning Musume 20th.

On February 12, 2018, TV Tokyo aired the Morning Musume 20 Shuunen Kinen Special starring 25 current and former members of Morning Musume: all thirteen Morning Musume '18 members and OG members Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Ishiguro Aya, Abe Natsumi, Fukuda Asuka, Yaguchi Mari, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Takahashi Ai, Niigaki Risa, and Michishige Sayumi. The show included a talk corner about group history, a look back at Hello! Morning, and several studio performances.

On December 26, 2020, Aya announced on her blog that her husband Shinya had tested positive for COVID-19 after developing a poor physical condition. Aya has tested negative and her children are currently awaiting a test result.

On July 2, Ishiguro appeared alongside Yasuda Kei and Iida Kaori on TBS 爆笑！ターンテーブル2時間SP (Bakushou! Turntable 2-jikan SP).

## Appearance

Aya wears a purple shirt with a green underlay, purple skirt and blue shoes. She has brown, curly hair.

## Trivia

* Her official YouTube username is AyaBird1999.