Mizora Hibari was a famous and well loved singer and entertainer in Japan's postwar years (1945-1959). Few younger generations understand the privation and suffering of their grandparents, or great grandparents endured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuPYzWnT1aA
In those years, people had few outlets to distract them from their shared suffering. Films provided one source. And one little girl gave audiences joy through her films.
See appeared in films that had uplifting themes. A young girl who was fresh and filled with enthusiasm for the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0KLu6lZ5Yw&t=55s
The statue captured her in one of her iconic roles in the postwar films Kanashimi Kuchibure in which she sang a jazzed up tune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne0O0lNADW4
The statue depicts her in the role of the street urchin who sings the song her brother wrote. A sorrowful tale of families torn apart during the postwar period of Japan's history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GorIRRmeFkg
The statue stands on a busy street in the Noge district of Yokohama City.
Much has changed since she died in 1989. Noge still offers visitors with restaurants that serve traditional izakaya food drink. And even now on the byways one can find entertainment to satisfy bodily needs of drunken male customers.
Misora continues to smile despite the changes she observes from her pedestal.
Today cars speed by on paved streets. On both sides shops and markets line along the thoroughfare.
She looks down from the pedestal in front of the sushi shop. No one passes by.
And when a person passes by, he pays little attention to the little girl smiling down at him.
