A Dreaming Girl (Tamura Hono interview with B.L.T graph vol 101 May 2024 edition)

 

Sincere, genuine, and positive—these were the qualities that emerged from Tamura Hono's words, highlighting that the group is currently in its best condition it has ever been. However, this is not their final stop. Rather, it is seen as just a milestone. Now, they are ready to go beyond full bloom.

Q The other day, I was able to watch the 2nd of “4th ARENA TOUR 2024 Shin Sakurazensen - Go on back? -” performance in Kanagawa. It might just happen to be something that happened that day, but I had the impression that there were a lot of women in the audience. What do you feel from the stage?

Hono: Right… I have always got the impression that there are a lot of women coming to our events, but I think that people around me have been mentioning it more often recently. Such as, “There sure is a lot of women in Sakurazaka46’s concert audience”. My parents also came to watch, and it seems that they saw the fans taking pictures together with the individual member flags in front of the venue, and told me that there were a lot of women holding towels with my name on them. We had a real meet & greet event the other day, and even then I was told, “You seem to have a lot more female fans”. It makes me very happy to think that we receive a lot of support from women, both as an individual and as a group in general.

Q Do you feel how, as the number of new fans increase, the width has also expanded?Do you feel like the addition of new fans has broadened your reach?

Hono: Hmm~ I wonder… Certainly, seats in concert venues have been filled all the way to the edges, and I could feel it from seeing it in visible numbers such as CD ranking and the like, but I guess I never really feel how it has expanded. I have never been one to compare the past and the present, so in a good way, I don’t feel those changes. But I think that I was able to feel it for real when I saw the sight of a packed audience in the large venue for “3rd ANNIVERSARY LIVE”. When we entered the venue, all the members were like, “Can we really fill this venue? It’s so wide, will we be fine!?”. So I was genuinely touched when I saw Buddies surrounding us in almost 360-degree view.

Q And after going through such a process, the group will be holding an additional 2 DAYS concert at Tokyo Dome... There’s an impression that this is the end result of what has been accumulated by members and staff together as “Team Sakurazaka”. Or could it be just a milestone?

Hono: Of course I feel happy and grateful that we have been given a chance to perform at Tokyo Dome again. However, I don't hold any special sentiment like “Because it's this venue…”, in a good way. My feelings remain the same regardless of the venue. That’s just me, though. I want us to be a group that, no matter what venue we will be performing in, it will be filled with so many people that the crowd overflows. But since I have such a strong feeling, honestly, I have to admit I'm a bit nervous . Given how things have been going well in the past year, I might end up being hit by reality at Tokyo Dome (as in seeing empty seats)... But I think that, that too, is a challenge. Regardless of the outcome, understanding where Sakurazaka stands will be a positive thing for us, and so I don’t really have the feeling that we have reached our peak yet. I wonder how I should put it, but like, it feels like everything is still a challenge.

Q Right, I guess you can’t really know that until the show is over. “No matter where the venue is, your feelings won’t change”; Even if you have that stance, surely your atmosphere changes depending on the day and the venue, right? Do you feel that it affected your performance?

Hono: Right, I feel that it affected my feelings toward the show more than the performance itself. As we tour around, even the day 1 performance and day 2 performance in the same venue has a different atmosphere, and I think I was still affected by that atmosphere until the 3rd TOUR. It could have been due to our condition or simply because of our lack of confidence, but I feel that inconsistency disappeared during this 4th TOUR. There is always a change in the air for every performance, but every single member gives their best for each performance and makes the “best” show that we can do that day with the fans. It felt like we were all approaching each show with the same enthusiasm as if it was our final performance, and I felt that even after it ended.. I never really thought of us in this manner before, but this tour was the first time where I thought, “Ah… We might have grown as a group”. 

Q Earlier, you said that, “It’s not like I don’t have any worries toward the Tokyo Dome performance”, but I have the feeling that no matter what Sakurazaka chooses to do right now, it’s likely to turn out well. However, for Tamura-san, it’s more of “just a challenge”, is it not….?

Hono: That’s right, we have always work with a “let’s give it a go” spirit, and I talked about this a bit during the MC (of Kanagawa 2nd day), but there were quite a few times when people around us would say, “You went through a difficult time too, huh?”. Of course, I do have some regrets, but it’s not like I perceive it as a negative thing… My feelings of giving my absolute best are stronger than my regrets, so I enjoy all my activities, especially with so many people supporting us. The number of those people might change again in the future, but even then, my feelings toward wanting to deliver the works and expressions remained the same. Rather, I feel somewhat unsettled when people say "You're really picking up momentum". To be honest, what we're doing and our intentions haven't really changed, so the realization isn't quite there… It is as if “we appear to be on a rise (in people’s eyes)”. Of course, I feel happy if that’s how we are seen to others, but it’s not like I’m giving my best out of frustration. We’ve been doing the same thing as always. In fact, it’s been so fun that I want to work even harder. So I never focused on my negative feelings or regrets, I still don’t even now.

Q That MC from Tamura-san was memorable, and Yamasaki Ten-san’s “You used an important time in your life for us, so we take on our concert with the determination to make sure you go home satisfied” also strongly left an impression on me.

Hono: That talk is actually something we always share among the members. The members would gather and talk before the start of a concert, and during that moment the same thing would often be said by Matsuda or the stage director, so those words are pretty central to what we do, so to say. So while for the members it may not be something particularly special, it was conveyed to the fans when Ten-chan said it out loud in the venue. And then we received so much more reaction than I expected, which made me very happy.

Q I’m not saying that this didn’t happen back in Sugai Yuuka-san’s time, but I got the impression that the flow of the MC has become much more natural since Matsuda became the captain.

Hono: I think it might have become even more natural on this tour. There was a suggestion from Matsuda, she said, “I want us to speak in a more casual manner, rather than selecting specific members to handle the MC”. Up until now, we had a vague idea of what the flow would be beforehand, but this time we tried to avoid that and talk more naturally. In regard to MC, the 2nd generation members have particularly been drilled on it since the time we entered the group; and since we are aware of how big of an impact one MC session could have on the show, sometimes I think about how the efforts we made through tears are starting to bear fruit. And the current group atmosphere is so good that the members basically went up on the stage just as they are, and I think that may have also shown during the session.

Q  I also feel that the 3rd gen entering and the 2nd gen becoming a senior have played a huge role. What are your thoughts about that?

Hono: I think that it’s really, very big. Seeing the 2nd gen members acting senior-like is refreshing (laughs). But it’s not like we are purposely acting like seniors… I really think that the “2nd gen-likeness” that is a gathering of people who treat everyone on an equal term regardless of which generation they are from is also visible. It’s not like we are trying hard to get along, or consciously try to look after each other; we truly just interact with each other naturally as people, so I think that the 3rd gen members are able to participate in a natural way as well.

Q I could sense that even from the way the 3rd gen addressed the 2nd gen members. “Hono-san” instead of “Tamura-san”, “Chuke-san” instead of “Takemoto (Yui)-san”, “Matsuri-san” instead of “Matsuda-san”. It’s nice to see how close you are.

Hono: It’s so cute, right?~ (laughs). And yet, the 3rd gen members are reliable, they are already amazing as they are, but I could feel how they continue to grow day-by-day, they really can be depended on.

Q Considering the inspiration you get from the juniors’ growth… Tamura-san herself has said that instead of being driven by frustrations, you have faced each day with enjoyment as your motivation. How did you cultivate such values?

Hono: Hmm~ I wonder…? Just before the group renaming, I found myself unsure of what actions to take regarding the matters at hand, and at other times, there was always something to do, and perhaps it’s because I came to understand that environment is not something that I should take for granted. Being able to do concerts, release singles, undergo the production for it… The same goes with recording for TV shows or magazine photoshoots like this… I have been blessed to be in a position where there is always something to do in front of me, so I just simply give it my all to my activities. Well, to say “simply” might be misleading. For me, I always try to enjoy the opportunities that I have been given while always feeling grateful for the environment I have been blessed with, and I feel that I have become who I am right now because of it. I wonder if this has been conveyed…

Q The other day, Morita Hikaru-san also said something with the same nuance. “The amount of energy I put in my activities have never changed”, so she said. I guess the members share similar feelings with each other.

Hono: I’m changing the topic back to the tour MC we were just talking about, but after the end of the show, (Ozono) Rei-chan said to me, “I’m really moved with what Hono-chan just said, and I share the same feeling”. As I was feeling glad that I wasn’t the only member who thought that way, it just so happened that Morita was there too, and she told me, “I was close to crying listening to what Hono-chan said. I really thought of the same thing”. I didn’t know what Rei-chan and Morita were feeling during the show, so I expressed it with a “This is just what I personally think” kind of tone; but it really made me happy to know that there are members who are thinking and feeling the same thing. That, and I’m glad that I could convey what we feel to the fans.

Q Just thinking about it won’t necessarily convey it to someone, so it’s really important to put it into words, isn’t it? Including those aspects, how are the 2nd gen members like in the usual?

Hono: We usually just talk about trivial things (laughs). Especially now, we are not talking about anything deep… Before the name change, we often talked about things such as, “The group is like this right now, so let’s do this and that, and let’s head in this direction”, but I think it was mainly because we were in the same situation. There were many things that we wanted to do, but couldn’t, so we would talk like, “I wish we could do this and that”. It’s not that we have fully stopped doing such things, it's just that as time goes by, we start to think about different things and there are differences in regard to where our feelings are facing, so I think that’s why we are discussing less. But it’s not that we are rejecting who we were back then. Looking back to it now, I’m glad that it happened. At the time, we talked about things like “That was so frustrating. I wish we could do more”. Our feelings may have veered towards a slightly negative direction, but we have a lot of cheerful members, so I have the impression that we were able to cherish the time where we had fun or made each other laugh. That’s why each of us has been able to focus only on what is in front of us. However, I think it’s okay for us to each have different goals, that’s just how unique we are as individuals. But I think that as long as we are all facing forward, our destination will be the same, and I am sure that we all are so there is this feeling of trust of “Things will be fine!” that I have with the 2nd generation members.

Q I suppose you could have that feeling of trust because you have been working together for 6 years through thick and thin. “Aun (In Harmony)”, so to say.

Hono: But before the tour, Matsuda gathered the members together for the first time and said, “I want to know what everyone’s goals are”. She made a space for discussion, or rather, something like “Let’s check how everyone is feeling!”. Matsuda led us and shared the awareness of, “Right now, Sakurazaka is said to be in a very good state, so in order to improve even more from here on, I’d like us to cherish this once again”. Then she said, “If you don’t mind saying it in front of everyone, then I’d like each of you to tell what goals you have in mind”, whether it is something personal or for the group, whether it is something short-term or long-term… and so each of us say something, and when everyone is finished, Matsuda said, “While each of us may have our own goals, I hope that we can make it into everyone’s goal and not just that one girl’s”. At that time, we still didn’t know about Tokyo Dome’s additional performance, so there were members who said, “I want all of us 1st, 2nd, 3rd gen to stand on Tokyo Dome together”. Because of that, when we learned of Tokyo Dome, I felt truly, truly happy that that goal came true.

Q So instead of the nuance of “If you work hard in your group activities, then your individual goals might come true”, it was “Let’s make your goals come true as a group”. I think that way of thinking is really wonderful.

Hono: That’s right. Matsuda’s way of thinking of having each person’s goal as the group’s goal really hits me… I could feel how each member has the awareness of “I will work hard so that everyone’s goals could come true”, and when I think about that goal is more likely to come true when being backed by multiple people instead of working hard on it on my own… I feel encouraged by it as well.

Q However, I talked with Yamasaki Ten-san as well the other day, and she said, “Rather than wanting to do something as an individual, I’d like to work harder with the members in the group”. I thought that it was a wonderful thinking as well.

Hono: I think that Ten-chan is pretty similar to me in that sense, we both don’t have any particular clear goals like “I’d like to be like this, I’d like to make that come true”. Of course, I have vague goals such as how I’d like to be an idol who is more active globally or how I want us to be a group with a more overflowing crowd of people coming to our concerts, but I can’t pinpoint a specific goal right now. I think that everyone goes through a time like that, where you are unsure of where to head to, but when I hear Matsuda saying, “Let’s make one person’s goal into everyone’s goal”, I found my reason to work hard. So now I don’t have any doubts anymore… I am sure that all the members are feeling the same way.

Q This conversation has given me a better idea of what Sakurazaka46’s “strength” is. That, and just how big Matsuda-san’s presence is…

Hono: It’s big, and while everyone relied on Matsuda, we want her to rely on us as well, so it’s a relationship where we can reach out to each other. We never thought that she should carry everything because she’s the captain… Ten-chan also said something similar, like, “It’s okay for you to think of everyone as a captain too”. Matsuda has always been the one to speak during important times or act as the representative of the group, and I think that she surely feel a pretty big burden on that, so if there is anything that we can do or if there is anything that we can help her with even for just a little, we all want to reach out and do it together with her. In fact, I don’t feel that Matsuda alone is leading at the front, and I hope that the relationship between the members will remain the same in the future.

Q Speaking of which, during the tour there was a day where Matsuda-san had to be absent due to poor health, wasn’t she? Wasn’t it during the Osaka performance? How did it go?

Hono: Yamasaki and I were entrusted with Matsuda’s position, or rather, to act as the MC. My portion is the first and last session, but since it was decided the night before the show, I was already freaking out like, “What should I do!?!?”. Personally, I was overwhelmed by it, but the members helped me with it, and I was able to say “Everyone~~~ Help me~!” without a hint of embarrassment (laughs). But when that happened, everyone responded. Even the staff said, “Everyone really helped each other for the Osaka performance, you all showed great teamwork”. Everyone lent a hand to each other and did our best with the intention to make sure everyone had so much fun, they wouldn’t even notice Matsuda’s absence, and so in that sense as well I’ve been able to feel the size of presence and how dependable my friends are throughout the tour.

Q It’s really big to be able to say “Lend me your help” when you need one, isn’t it?

Hono: That’s right, they are people that I can say anything to. Trying to look cool and carry the burden on my own doesn’t feel right; I would end up looking lame instead. Of course, I think that things such as the sense of responsibility you feel when you stand in the center, or the pressure that you feel from those around you, are varied from person to person in terms of the size of how keen it felt. Yet, even so, I believe… Even with the role of a “captain” in place, I don’t wish for one person to carry all the burden; I want her to share it with us. That’s why during the Osaka performance, I didn’t want it to come off like, “I got entrusted with the MC. It’s difficult but I’ll give it my best”. Even then, the pressure that I felt was great, especially since I was the ‘shadow announcer (kage-ana)’, and had quite a lot to do, inside I was feeling like “Uwaaaa~!” (laughs). I relied on everyone, so I think I was able to feel more relaxed than I thought I would.

Q I feel that the strength of the current group is how the members are able to act on their own initiative to ease that pressure.

Hono: The members themselves simply have a good personality. After a show, we would say to each other things like “The thing that you did that time, it was really good!”. If there were a member who felt worried about their MC, or singing part, or dance like “I wonder if I did well…”, the members would go, “Absolutely! It was really good!”. Everyone pretty sincerely communicates to each other. And it’s not something that we do consciously, and it’s something that I only realized from being told by staff and the people around us, but Sakura really likes to compliment each other. We’ll honestly say “Cute~!” toward the members if we think so, and we openly express our thoughts and feelings to the person in question such as “That was really good” or “That was really amazing”. But it seems that there are some aspects that are a bit peculiar for the people around us… “Eh? So, what we are feeling is not normal?”, and so I was able to learn how it looks from an objective point of view, so to say… I think that this happens basically because a group of girls with good personalities have been gathered, but I feel that Ten-chan’s presence is especially big. She is one of the members who has been leading the group, but she is always innocent, honest, earnest, and cheerful… if Ten-chan weren’t like that, I think that the group would be in a different worldline today. When I think about it, it was Ten-chan who initiated the habit of members complimenting each other. Ever since she joined the group, she has always been a girl who naturally says things like “You’re so cute~!”, “The thing that you did here was great”, “I really like this thing she does at that moment!”. That action of hers spread through to the entire group, and everyone started to think positively and cheerfully… I’m truly thankful for her presence. I think that everyone who sees Ten-chan would think, “I wish I could live more like that” or “I’ll do my activities more like her”, and I think that just being with her is enough to brighten things up. In fact, I truly believe that Ten-chan has brightened up the group, leading us to where we are now.

Q Have you ever conveyed to Yamasaki-san how you think of her that way?

Hono: Yes, I think we tell each other quite a lot (laughs). Ten-chan would also say things like, “Eh~ It’s all thanks to Hono-chan~”, but from the way I see it, it was really thanks to Ten-chan. Or like, it’s thanks to everyone. That’s why we turn our “Everyone, I truly love you!” feelings into words and say it to each other, and perhaps that’s why we could stay bright and positive. In fact, I think that I have changed quite a lot to the point that I think, “Have I always been this kind of person?”. So like, in the end, it’s really all thanks to the members~ It deepens my feelings of love and gratitude towards them, and those feelings just continue to grow. I’m truly able to be in such a wonderful group, so much so that if there is any girl who is feeling worried and lost, I want to tell them “Come to Sakurazaka!”.

Q Through Tamura-san's words, I once again realized how comfortable and welcoming this group is. But I imagine that this is not the peak of the group, nor do you seem to intend to make it one, but what do you think?

Hono: At first, I was someone who was pretty afraid of taking on new challenges, or I guess I'm more of a 'play it safe' kind of person. I don’t have confidence in myself… But I do have confidence in the group that is Sakurazaka and the members because they are so amazing and wonderful. That’s why… Just as mentioned before, we will be taking on Tokyo Dome next, and when I think about the negative possibilities such as seeing empty seats, it scares me a little, but I’d like to break down those walls even more, that is what I started to think after going through our activities over the past year. We received a bigger response than expected, and there have been many positive aspects, so while I think that we will run into more walls in the future, we’ll overcome them together just like how it’s always been, and I feel more excited about it. And by putting all our energy into our activities like this, Sakurazaka46 could one day transcend the framework of Japanese idols and create a path that reaches the world. I know that I’m talking of something fantastical, and that in reality it would be difficult, but my feeling is that strong… I have always had this feeling of how great it would be if we could broaden our horizons rather than just focusing on ourselves. But first of all… if we could see Tokyo Dome filled to overflowing with people, then I think we would be able to grow one more step, and personally I’d be happy about that, so… I really want to give it my best! Even if my vocabulary can't quite express the depth of my feelings (laughs).

Q This is just a personal wish, but it would give me goosebumps to hear 60.000 people** sing “Ikutsu no Koro ni Modoritai no Ka?”s “Go on back?” and “Those days” together.

**[T/N: The capacity really depends on seating configuration, for example Taylor Swift’s was 57k audience. Btw the record is Kinki Kids’s concert in 2007 with 67k audience]

Hono: While we do say things like, “Let’s hype up like this!”, we want the fans to create the atmosphere and excitement of the concert in their own way. We don’t force it on them, so we really just want them to enjoy the show however they like. Whether they choose to sit or to stand, whether they choose to sing, or just merely watching… I think it’s okay for them to be free to do whatever they want as long as they are considerate and not trouble the people around them. I intend to go on the stage with the awareness that we are taking up the time of all these fans, so it would be wonderful if we could share the most amazing scenery together.

— 

Raw: kiryu

Translation: tmi

QC: kiryu