Ryōko Moriyama

Ryoko Moriyama (森山 良子, Moriyama Ryōko) (born January 18, 1948) is a Japanese folk singer and actress. Her father is Hisashi Moriyama, a pioneer of Japanese jazz. Her son Naotarō Moriyama is a singer. Her first cousin Hiroshi Kamayatsu is also a musician. She is known as the Japanese Joan Baez, or the Queen of college folk. Her songs tend not to become best sellers but her most famous song is "Satokibi Batake". This song is about a tragedy during the Battle of Okinawa. The song's full version is 10 minutes. When this song was first released, it was thought to be too long to air on the radio, but now the song is popular in Japan. Every summer, NHK air a shorter version as a symbol of the 'No War Campaign'. In the song, an imitative word 'Zawawa' is repeated 66 times, because of this, it is often called 'Zawawa'. Moriyama often called "Satokibi Batake" 'Zawawa' as a joke.

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