Tuesday 14 May 2013
7:00pm – 8:00pm

Hibiki Ichikawa and Guests: An Evening of Tsugaru Shamisen and Japanese Folk Songs

ドリンクレセプション 7:00pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle, London, NW1 4QP

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation 主催

The Daiwa Foundation was pleased to present an evening concert of Japanese folk music. The only professional Tsugaru Shamisen player resident in the UK, Hibiki Ichikawa from Ishikawa Prefecture will perform traditional Japanese folk songs along with his own original compositions. The Tsugaru Shamisen is a stringed instrument which originated in Aomori, Northern Japan and is derived from the Okinawan sanshin but is larger and has a distinct rhythmical, percussive sound. Improvisation is characteristic of the Tsugaru Shamisen playing style. Hibiki will also introduce his instrument, its history and the origin of the songs he plays. Vocal accompaniment will come from Akari Mochizuki, an enka and minyou singer, and Hibiki will also be joined by one of his students to play a duet. This event was a rare opportunity to encounter Japanese folk music in the UK.

Videos of this event can be viewed on YouTube:

Part One with Hibiki Ichikawa

Part Two with Hibiki Ichikawa and Henry Thomas

Part Three with Hibiki Ichikawa and Akari Mochizuki

Part Four with Hibiki Ichikawa and Akari Mochizuki

Part Five with Hibiki Ichikawa and Akari Mochizuki

コントリビューターについて

Hibiki Ichikawa

Hibiki Ichikawa was born in Kanazawa in 1980. He started playing the standard Shamisen at the age of 20, and when he discovered the richness and variety of sound of the Tsugaru Shamisen, he took it up just a year later, training under Master Akihiro Ichikawa. In 2005, he joined the group Cazicazi, playing traditional Japanese music with indie rock. He has performed Tsugaru Shamisen live in Kanazawa, across Japan and internationally in Poland and South Korea. Hibiki moved to London in 2010 to introduce Tsugaru Shamisen to an international audience. He has been performing at a number of events and concerts such as WOMAD and JAPAN MATSURI in the UK. He began teaching Tsugaru Shamisen in Kanazawa in 2008 and he now teaches it to students across London.

Akari Mochizuki

Akari Mochizuki started singing Enka at the age of three. She studied drama in Cambridge and contemporary music in London and started her career as a professional singer in 2009. Since then, she has performed at many occasions such as WOMAD 2010, HYPER JAPAN and Japan Matsuri 2009, 2010 & 2012. She had her first professional release as a singer in 2013.

Henry Thomas

Henry Thomas, from London, is just 17 years old but has already been playing Tsugaru Shamisen for two years.