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Kazuhiko Katō (加藤 和彦, Katō Kazuhiko ^?, March 21, 1947 – October 17, 2009), nicknamed "Tonovan" (トノヴァン ^?), was a Japanese record producer, songwriter, and singer. He sometimes used the spelling of "Kazuhiko Katoh".

As a member of the Folk Crusaders, Kato launched his recording career in the mid 1960s. "Kaettekita Yopparai (I Only Live Twice)", their psychedelic debut song composed by Kato and released in 1967, sold more than 1.3 million copies in Japan, and became one of the best-selling singles of the early Japanese popular music industry.^[1]

After the breakup of Folk Crusaders in 1970, Kato gained success for his production works for other musicians, including Shigeru Izumiya, Mariya Takeuchi, and Takuro Yoshida. In particular, Sadistic Mika Band, the acclaimed project he started with his first wife Mika Fukui, received international success. Their 1974 album entitled Kurofune (The Black Ship) is regarded as one of the most significant Japanese rock albums of the mid 1970s. The group was disbanded and reassembled again several times, with new vocalists such as Yumi Matsutoya, Karen Kirishima, and Kaela Kimura.^[2]

As a composer, Kato created the theme song "Ai Oboetei Imasu ka" for The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? anime film released during the summer of 1984 in Japan. He later formed a songwriting team with his second wife, the late Kazumi Yasui. Most of the songs they wrote were recorded and produced by Kenji Sawada. In 1990, Kato teamed up with graphic artists, Haruhiko Shono and Kuniyoshi Kaneko, to provide the music for the award-winning Japanese computer game, Alice.

Kato was also featured as an interview subject in the 2009 documentary film about lyricist and collaborator, Chris Mosdell, entitled Ink Music: In the Land of the Hundred-Tongued Lyricist, alongside fellow Sadistic Mika Band-mates Yukihiro Takahashi, and Yu Imai - the latter, while not featured directly in the film, is credited as co-composer of the film's original soundtrack.^[3]

Kato committed suicide by hanging on October 17, 2009 at a hotel in Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Police discovered a suicide note in his hotel room.^[4]

Albums

(Titles in brackets are for rough translation purposes only)

• ぼくのそばにおいでよ (Come Near Me)（1969）
• スーパー・ガス (Super Gas)（1971）
• それから先のことは (Then What Lies Ahead)（1976）
• ガーディニア (Gadinia)（1978）
• パパ・ヘミングウェイ (Hemingway Papa)（1979）
• うたかたのオペラ (Opera in the short-lived)（1980） (Better known as "L'opéra fragile")
• ベル・エキセントリック (Eccentric Bell)（1981）
• あの頃、マリー・ローランサン (Around Her, Marie Laurencin)（1983）
• ヴェネチア (Venice)（1984）
• マルタの鷹 (The Maltese Falcon)（1987）
• ボレロ・カリフォルニア (California Bolero)（1991）

References