My hero - Miyawaki Sakura (宮脇 咲良)

Today I’ll be talking about someone whose passion for their

dreams inspires me. In that sense, you could say that they’re my
hero, in one way or another. I’ll be talking about Miyawaki
Sakura.
Miyawaki Sakura was born on the 19th of March 1998 in
Kagoshima City, Japan. At the time her parents were 20 and 23.
Though they divorced when she was a year old, causing her to
only have met her father (with memory) once. Her mother
remarried, which gave her, her half-brother Sotaro, who was
born in 2010. She has said that her stepfather raised her like his
own daughter and supported her throughout her career,
sometimes even more than her mother. She has a cat named
Maru-chan.
Sakura attended She Shiritsu Seiwa Elementary School for primary school education, followed by a
private school in Kyushu called Shigakukan Junior High School. She then graduated high school at
Kurume High School. In an interview, she stated that she used to study for 10 hours a day.
Her mother’s love for musicals caused her to perform in theaters when she was younger. Thus in
2010, she gained the chance to attend a musical workshop in New York. This even caused her to
audition for HKT48 (HKT48 (“H.K.T. Forty-eight”) a Japanese idol girl group, which was produced
by Yasushi Akimoto. It’s named after the Hakata-ku, Fukuoka city of Fukuoka Prefecture, where the
group was originally intended to be based.).
In 2011, Sakura joined as an HKT48 trainee of the first generation. Her first appearance as a member
of HKT48 was on October 23rd at a national handshake event, which was for the song "Flying Get".
A month after, on November 26th, she made her theatre debut with a revival of "Te wo
Tsunaginagara" from SKE48’s (SKE48 (“S.K.E. Forty-eight”) is a Japanese idol girl group, which
was produced by Yasushi Akimoto. It’s named after the Sakae district in Nagoya of Aichi Prefecture,
where the group is based.) Team S stage. On March 4th,2012 she was officially added to team H,
though she was later transferred to team KIV and became co-captain of the team. In the same year,
she became the first-ever HKT48 member to be ranked in the AKB48 (AKB48 (“A.K.B. Forty-
Eight”) is a Japanese idol girl group, which was produced by Yasushi Akimoto. It’s named after the
Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located) general election, ranking 47th
position. She participated in the group’s 28th single, as well as their 31st single "Sayonara Crawl"
released May 22nd, 2013. This led her to place 26th in the 2013 general election. She was given a
concurrent position in AKB48 Team A. Sakura kept the AKB48 position until December 8th, 2017.
She was announced to enter the survival show Produce 48 in South Korea on May 11th, 2018, in
which she represented team KIV. Many of the Japanese idols (including Sakura) were surprised by
how much of a difference there was between the Japanese and Korean contestants, the Korean
contestants were described as “good at everything” by a Japanese contestant. It discouraged the
Japanese contestants a lot. Sakura was appointed an A-grade in both the first and second evaluation.
On August 30th she was announced 2nd place, making her part of the project group IZ*ONE, along
with 11 other contestants, notably mentioning Nako, who used to be under HKT48, and Hitomi,
who’s a member of AKB48.
IZ*ONE promoted for 2 and a half years, debuting October 29th, 2018, with a mini album holding
the name “COLOR*IZ” and promoting the title track “La Vie en Rose”. They officially disbanded on
April 29th, 2021. Their last promoted release was the mini album “One-reeler / Act IV” with the title
track called “Panorama”. However, their actual (non-promoted) release was a single album called
“D-D-Dance” with a track of the same name, it was released on January 26th, 2021. Even though
IZ*ONE was mainly a k-pop group, they also brought out various Japanese releases, such as their
single “Suki to Iwasetai”.
After the disbandment of IZ*ONE, she returned to Japan. In Japan an interview, which was supposed
to release in July, from the Japanese Magazine Vivi, accidentally got leaked, where she said she’d
graduate from HKT48. Because of this, it was announced she’d graduate from HKT48 after a decade
on May 15th, 2021. On June 14th, a short version of her graduation song’s, “Omoide ni Suru ni wa
Mada Hayasugiru”, music video got published. 6 days later, the official audio was released. Sakura’s
graduation concert, “Bouquet”, was held on June 19th at Marine Messe Fukuoka. The send-off party
then was held on June 27th at HKT48’s official theater, concluding her last theater performance.
Later that year in August, rumors started spreading, stating that she’d join Source Music’s new girl
group. The company (HYBE) then gave an official announcement stating they “cannot help verify
information regarding our artist contracts. We ask for your understanding.”. on September 23rd it
was then proclaimed, that she had signed an exclusive contract with Source Music, though HYBE
once again stated an announcement wording “We cannot confirm any details regarding an artist's
exclusive contract.”
It was also announced that she would launch her own cosmetic brand named CRAN in collaboration
with the Japanese content lens brand named MOLAK. Sales would start in December of 2021.
In May it was then brought to the public, that her fellow IZ*ONE member Chaewon signed an
exclusive with Source Music and that they’d both promote in Source Music’s new idol group. The
girl group was then announced on March 21st, 2022. It was later publicized that the group’s name
would be LE SSERAFIM and they’d debut in May. LE
SSERAFIM officially debuted on May 2nd, with a mini album
named “FEARLESS”. At the time of debut, they consisted of
6 members: Chaewon, Sakura, Yunjin, Kazuha, Eunchae, and
Garam. Though shortly after their debut, Garam got bullying
accusations (now proven false), which lead her to officially
leave the group. The group now had their first comeback with
their 2nd mini album holding the name ANTIFRAGILE,
promoting with a song of the same name.
Concludingly, I want to say that she’s generally an extremely
inspirational person. She has a modern mindset and has
spoken up about more “taboo” topics in the idol industry,
which I find extremely powerful. She’s currently 24 and I
believe she will be continuing a long journey in the idol
industry.