Pre-Avex Career
Top Japanese record label and management company Avex Entertainment Inc made Ayu a household name after she debuted under it in 1998. In fact, at the height of her popularity in 2001, Ayu was reportedly responsible for 40% of the company's income. All things considered, it's difficult to imagine one without the other, but Ayu did try her luck in the entertainment industry prior to her fateful meeting with Avex producer Max Matsuura.
When asked about her early career, Ayu usually describes local modeling gigs as way to make money for her family. She rarely -- if ever -- goes into detail about her other early forays into the entertainment world. She first began modeling for local businesses in Fukuoka, allegedly using the stage name Kusumi Hamasaki. However, by 1993 she had moved to Tokyo and expanded into acting and music on a more national level.
Her first acting gig was in the successful television drama Twins Teacher. For this new job she used the name Ayumi Hamasaki, though she wrote "Ayumi" in kanji (歩) rather than the hiragana she uses professionally today. In hindsight, perhaps the most significant consequences of the experience were her adoption of her given name Ayumi and meeting her future boyfriend of seven years, Tomoya Nagase, on set.
Although she continued to act in dramas and b-movies until she signed a contract with Avex in 1997, in 1994 she began singing on the Idol on Stage television show, and by 1995 she had a contract with another music label, Columbia Japan. Under Columbia, she released a rap single and album, both titled NOTHING FROM NOTHING. Neither faired well in sales in her contract ended in 1996. However, she used another variation of her current professional name for this release; her full name was written in Japanese syllabary the same way it is now (浜崎あゆみ), but where her name is now carefully written in roman letters as "ayumi hamasaki", NOTHING FROM NOTHING took almost the polar opposite approach. Instead of delicate, lowercase serif, it was written in all capital, sans-serif letters and a bold font: AYUMI.
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