Made possible by support from Längmanska Kulturfonden

NEW EP feat. the Koto-master Hiroe Morikawa and the Swedish traditional folk group Jaerv. Recorded and mixed in Göteborg, Sweden 2018-2022.

Hiroe Morikawa is a fourth generation player of hogaku in her 105-year-family-history. She started learning koto from her mother at her age of 3 and also shakuhachi from her father at 6 years of age. Koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument. She started learning shakuhachi and musical basics of hogaku, including techniques, thought and philosophy, from late Katsuya Yokoyama since her early childhood. Hiroe won many awards during her elementary and junior high school days and that includes the 1st place for three times as a soloist and twice as a group, and the Minister of Education Award. She participated at 6 concerts in the Netherlands on the 400 amity relation anniversary of Japan and the Netherlands when she was 15, and paid a courtesy call on HRH the Queen of the Netherlands together with 3 other award-winning musicians of the Music Competition of Japan. In 2002 Hiroe made a major debut and had success with unordinary number of CD sales when she was a student of The Music High School Attached to the Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts. Tunes from the CD were used for commercials and musical textbooks. Based on traditional techniques, she has created her own style with avant-garde playing techniques and takes part in various types of music through her plays on videos, theatrical stages, TV and radio. Hiroe is also active as a performer, dancer and actress and plays a role of vocalist and koto-player of a band, “Kiwi & Papaya Mangos”, in various art scenes broadly in Japan and overseas.