Search - Umekichi :: Voice of Geisha Doll

"Tokyo's `Geisha Songstress' Umekichi sings in the high-pitched nagauta vocal style and covers a wide range of Japanese folk idioms that slowly faded from popularity after World War II. A truly inspired cultural mash-up." - AUSTIN CHRONICLE Born in the Okayama Prefecture, Umekichi is from a family of pedigree. Her ancestors played an important role in expediting Japan's emergence from its period of isolation, namely from the Edo era to the modern Meiji period in the mid-1800s. Being brought up in a strict family, the teenaged Umekichi was especially talented in classic ballet and piano. Late in her teens, she visited Tokyo and had a chance to see the Azuma Odori Concert, a huge once-a-year event hosted by the geisha girls. This experience had a great impact on her life. She learned to play the shamisen (a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum), enrolled in a state-operated academy of traditional Japanese music, and trained for two years. She then started her professional career as a house shamisen player in various rakugo theatres. In 2001, she made her debut as a "pop artist with a Japanese coiffure" and, ever since, has been widely recognized as a missionary to communicate the Edo culture and its music to a contemporary audience.