Machibuse (まちぶせ) by Hitomi Ishikawa: The Song That Was Written for Someone Else

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In April 1981, singer Hitomi Ishikawa released her 11th single, “Machibuse” (まちぶせ). It reached #6 on the Oricon chart, stayed on it for 12 weeks, and reportedly sold over 700,000 copies. At the end of that year, it took her to the Kohaku Uta Gassen for the first time.

A café window with a large stuffed rabbit seated at a table for two — My photo: a street corner at dusk, and a café where two seem to be laughing together. Photo: Segaijin

The song

Yumi Arai (now known as Yumi Matsutoya, or “Yuming”) wrote both the lyrics and the music. The title means “lying in wait.” A girl waits for the boy she likes and hopes he will notice her.

A song that began with someone else

The first singer was not Ishikawa. Seiko Miki recorded it in 1976 as her debut single. It reached only #47, and she later left the music world after vocal problems. Five years later, the song found its audience through another voice.

The numbers

Ishikawa’s version reached #6 on the Oricon chart and #3 on TBS’s music show The Best Ten. It took more than two months to climb the charts, a slow burn rather than an instant hit.

Ishikawa’s turning point

By her third year as a singer, Ishikawa still had no big hit. One article says she treated this as her last single. She had even sung it at her audition before her debut. The song extended her career.

Yuming sings it herself

In 1996, Yumi Matsutoya recorded her own version under the name Yumi Arai. It reached #5 and sold about 372,000 copies. Singers such as Hideaki Tokunaga, JUJU, Keisuke Kuwata and Mone Kamishiraishi have covered it too.

Why this song stays with me

Listening again now, I am struck by how much of a girl’s heart is packed into this song. Yuming writes with such sharp eyes.

This is how I read it. A girl notices that another girl has suddenly become beautiful. She is jealous, but she pretends not to care and walks right into their conversation on purpose. Then she sits across the table and gives him hot looks. It is not just nervousness. It is a shrewd plan to win him. I imagine sparks flying between the two girls, all hidden behind polite smiles. Yuming tells the whole drama without explaining a thing.

If you want to understand Japanese girls, or learn to read between the lines of what they do, this song is full of hints. The title may sound a little scary today, but I hear it as a funny, fierce picture of a girl who has decided to win him.

Listen

While researching this article, I listened to the versions one after another, and I made a fun discovery. When the singer changes, the scene I imagine changes too. The same girl, the same jealousy, but each voice gives her a different face. I enjoyed every minute of digging into this song. Over 45 years, this song has been sung by both women and men. The scene changes with each voice, but the feeling stays the same. Compare the versions on Spotify: