Aya Ishiguro

Aya Ishiguro (nickname: "Ayappe", Japanese: 石黒 彩, real name: Aya Yamada (山田 亜弥)) is a singer, writer, TV personality and fashion designer in Japan (but is most famous for her participation in J-Pop group Morning Musume). She was born in Hokkaido, Japan on May 12, 1978.

Aya Ishiguro was a runner-up in a 1997 contest to find a new female rock idol. After the contest was over (with the winner being Heike Michiyo), music producer, former rock musician, and contest judge Tsunku decided to focus his attention on 5 runner-ups, which included Ayappe as well as Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Asuka Fukuda, and Yuko Nakazawa.

Tsunku promised to take the quintet under his wing if they sold 50,000 copies of their CD "Ai no Tane" (also known as Morning Musume's 0th single) within 5 days. They did it in 4 and Tsunku upheld his end of the bargain.

During her years in Morning Musume, Ayappe was given mostly harmony lines due to her low singing voice (which supports others' voices well). However, in late 1998 Tsunku decided to create Tanpopo, a subgroup of Morning Musume (which by then had 8 members) that included Ayappe, Kaori, and 2nd generation member Mari Yaguchi. It was in Tanpopo (meaning "dandelion" and having slower, more mature songs than Morning Musume in general) that Ayappe's voice shone.

After 7 singles and 3 albums with Morning Musume (and another 4 singles and 1 album with Tanpopo), Ayappe left the group in January 2000, shortly after their first megahit single "Love Machine" in September 1999. Kaori and Mari performed Tanpopo songs as a duet until 4th generation members Rika Ishikawa and Ai Kago joined (Tsunku also made future Tanpopo songs more upbeat).

In May 2000, Ayappe married Shinya from J-Rock band Luna Sea and gave birth to their first daughter in November that year.

While being a stay-at-home Mom (Ayappe would have 2 more children with Shinya in the years that follow), Ayappe also dabbled in various careers--ranging from fashion designing, to writing (she has written a book about her transition from being a MoMusu to a mom), and TV show host (where she interviews celebrity wives). She also re-united with the new Tanpopo briefly to sing the Grand Symphonic version of the song "Tanpopo" (released in the "All of Tanpopo" album).

Ayappe's most recent work is a book named "Kosodate Purojekuto" (Nov. 2004).