Shizuka Miura


Shizuka Miura was a Japanese ball-jointed doll maker, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She became recognized in Japan for her doll work. Worldwide, Shizuka is best known for having been the foundress and front woman of the rock band Shizuka.

Biography

Shizuka Miura was a protégée of master dollmaker. She became known in Japan as an accomplished doll artist. Mason Jones commented on his visit to Shizuka and Maki:
In about 1992, Shizuka started her musical career by adapting some of her poetry into songs. Her earliest known musical performance was at the former Tokyo live venue 20000V on 21 November 1992. It was later released in a C54 self-titled compact cassette with a total of five tracks. Three other cassette tapes were also released under the title "", most of them had portraits of Shizuka as their cover art. With the band, she has worked on the release of a studio album, three live albums, and three video albums, besides having played a number of live performances in Japan and the United States.
Musically, her vocals are often ethereal, reverberated, slow and tremulous, characteristics that connoted sadness and a "haunting, gothic atmosphere".
Shizuka died circa 31 January 2010. Her cause of death was suicide. Jones wrote on his blog that "it may have been due to medication", but it remains publicly unknown. On 25 April, a DVD-video album was released by PSF Records as a visual tribute to Shizuka, which contained one of the last live performances by her group recorded at ShowBoat on 30 December 2008.