Yoshida Brothers

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The Yoshida Kyōdai are Japanese musicians and have released several albums under the Domo label internationally as the Yoshida Brothers.

They are a pair of brothers and performers of the traditional Japanese music style of Tsugaru-jamisen which originated in northern Japan. They debuted in 1999 in Japan as a duo playing the shamisen and have since attracted an international audience.

Their music has been a fusion of the rapid and percussive Tsugaru-jamisen style along with Western and other regional musical influences. According to the Japanese-language Yoshida Kyōdai Wikipedia article, during the Yoshida Brothers 2006 concert tour through the United States, they will perform with only their shamisens, setting aside their normal accompaniment music.

During their concert appearance on 8 June, 2006 at the White Plains Performing Arts Center in (White Plains, New York) they performed with only the shamisens.

[edit] Trivia

In the Japanese rendering of their stage name, the Japanese kanji characters for "Kyōdai" 兄弟 is read as "brothers", but separately the characters mean "older brother" 兄 (read as "ani") and "younger brother" 弟 (read as "otōto").

On their third international album, they recorded a version of John Lennon's "Oh My Love". When asked, they said it had nothing to do with Lennon's being married to Japanese artist Yoko Ono, and that it was in fact their producer's idea.

The commercials for the Nintendo Wii video game console that began airing in North America in November 2006 feature the Yoshida Brothers song, Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix).

[edit] About the Performers

YOSHIDA Ryoichiro (YOSIDA Ryôitirô) 吉田　良一郎 (b. 26 July, 1977) is the elder brother, and YOSHIDA Kenichi (YOSIDA Ken'iti) 吉田　健一 (b. 16 December, 1979) is the younger.

They were both born in the municipality of Noboribetsu in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, the two brothers have played the shamisen from a very young age. They both began to study and play the shamisen from five years of age under Koka Adachi, learning the Minyō-shamisen style; then from about 1989 they studied the Tsugaru-jamisen style under Takashi Sasaki.