Profile
KARIN ●Japanese
25 strings koto player, painter, composer.
Born in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Started playing the 25 string koto at the age of 12. Became a professional performer at 14.Studied Japanese traditional koto, the 13 string Ikuta Style Koto at Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts). After graduation, she starts performing story telling with 25 string koto, and seeks new expression working with various artists from different fields. Studied 25string koto under Nosaka Keiko, traditional singing with shamisen under Fukami Satomi. She developed her own singing and dancing "KARIN" style, a unique way of taking the rhythm using the percussion and with her feet, which astonishes all the audiences. She starts her performances with the traditional Japanese songs, leading the listeners onto Celtic music and classic medivial European music. With the 25 string koto, which has a completely different tone from the Japanese traditional koto, but carrying both Japanes and European scale, she creates sounds which vary from a sound that is as bright as the sun which makes you want to dance, to a quiet calm note like a mellow moon.
Besides a koto performer, she is also an actress, a musical director, and in her free time she likes to paint her impressions she received from her tours.
Karin uses the 25 string koto and her own voice to spread the Japanese soul to the world. The common Japanese koto music is played on the 13 string koto, but Karin plays the 25 string koto. The instruments beautiful structure and wide range of notes, and with Karin's technique, she creates an amazing music that moves the heart of those who hear it.
She was brought up in a family full of musicians. She first met Keiko Nozaka who designed the 25 string koto when she was in Junior High School. In University, she studied the traditional 13 string koto, and singing with shamisen. After graduation, she decides to create songs with the koto and her own voice.
Her roots are in the ancient songs of Japan, the songs of the wind and the rain, and planting rice in the mud. There is a group of Japanese there. Using the instrument born in Japan, Karin, a Japanese sings in her own words.