Rinne Toda Pop Music Singer & Former Member of Girl Group Country Musume

Rinne Toda also known by her stage name of Rinne was a Japanese pop music singer and member of the Hello! Project based group called Country Musume. She was also the leader of the group from 2000-2002. She graduated from Country Musume in 2002 in order to pursue a career as a stage actress. And in 2006, she married a salary man from Hokkaido where she still lives.

It would be on August 2, 2002 that Toda announced that she wanted to graduate from Country Musume & Hello! Project. Note: if any of you would like to read a more in-depth analysis of what Hello! Project is, I have written an article about that separately.

Her last official work with Country Musume was the fan meeting on the 13^th of August, 2002.

Upon her graduation from Country Musume and Hello! Project, Asami Kimura took Toda’s place as the leader of Country Musume. Country Musume is a different musical group and should not be confused with the more popular girl group Morning Musume. Rinne Toda performs as a vocalist on the first Country Musume album called Country Musume Daizenshuu 1featuring the mentioned Asami Kimura and Rika Ishikawa as members. Ishikawa was a fourth generation member of Morning Musume with Nozomi Tsuji, Ai Kago, and Hitomi Yoshizawa. The debut album for the group is an album that is of the dance pop style with a little bit of country influence as well. Country Musume was formed in 1999 by Morning Musume producer TSUNKU and the original producer Yoshitake Tanaka. The original lineup of this musical group had three members in it. They were Azusa Kobayashi, Rinne Toda and Hiromi Yanagihara (R.I.P. October 19, 1979-July 16, 1999). Yanagihara was killed in a car accident at the age of 19 just before the first single for Country Musume was to be released.

Tanaka had been busy working on stage plays and musicals based on farming and agriculture so it was only natural that Rinne Toda would be given the opportunity. Toda herself said that she was surprised to be told she was graduating. Did she not make the choice herself? I would say there’s a good chance that Toda herself wanted to graduate. In 2003, she starred in the musical called Musical Sougen No Hito which is a play based on a poem written by enka singer Hibari Misora. It tells the story of youths living in postwar Japan. The play is a love story.

• Known as Toda Rinne in Japan.
• Her stage name is Rinne.
• Date of birth: February 6, 1981.
• Her place of birth is in Sapporo in the Hokkaido Prefecture.
• She has a blood type of B.
• Of the group’s original members that are still alive and active, Azusa Kobayashi is the oldest member at 42 years of age.
• And of the members that were a part of Country Musume before the group went on a hiatus, Rika Ishikawa is the youngest member being only 34 years old.