Yanagisawa Shinichi was a Japanese jazz singer, actor, voice actor, welfare activist, vaudevillian, and lyricist from Tokyo. He was affiliated with M-Three and served as honorary president of the NPO Japan Abilities Association and honorary director of the Kima Makan in Higashiyamato.

During World War II, Yanagisawa was evacuated from Tokyo to his grandparents' home in Nagaoka, Niigata, but returned to Tokyo after Nagaoka was also bombed.

While attending Tokyo Metropolitan Toyotama High School, Yanagisawa was involved with a Communist Party-affiliated organization but transferred to Aoyama Gakuin High School due to dissatisfaction with the social dynamics. He later dropped out of Aoyama Gakuin University’s Faculty of Literature, Department of English and American Literature.

In high school, he met missionary Yanto through the church, which inspired him to engage in social service and join a choir. In 1950, he began singing jazz at an occupying forces' club to raise funds for war orphans and disabled persons, leading to his jazz singing debut in 1952.

Yanagisawa married actress Ikeuchi Junko on October 12, 1957, but they separated on January 17, 1958. He remarried Hitomi Haruyo, a dancer from Nichigeki Music Hall, on May 23, 1960. By 1989, he was reported to be single.

Despite suffering from lumbar and cervical disc hernias and a dislocated hip, Yanagisawa was active in welfare work, maintaining a low profile until receiving a Prime Minister’s Award in 1981 for his efforts during the International Year of Disabled Persons. He sold his property to support his welfare activities and did not seek compensation after a severe traffic accident that caused persistent headaches, believing it was unintentional.

In 2000, he published "Meiji & Taisho Scratch Noise" (Bungeisha).

Yanagisawa passed away from myelodysplastic syndrome on March 24, 2022, at the age of 89.

(Source: kisskh) Edit Biography