Takio Ito

Takio Ito ranks among the earliest figures to fuse Japan's folk traditions with rock and roll from the United States and Europe, and he has never stopped pursuing further mixtures of these influences. In December 1997 he joined Colombian opera singer Gloria Patricia Londono A. and Chilean actress Elsa Poblete Bustamante to present the original folk musical Agua Dulce Rejuvenecimiento in Tokyo and across South America. Recognition first arrived in 1963 when he won a folk singing contest in Hokkaido, Japan. Although min'yo—the centuries-old vocal style frequently backed by the shamisen—shaped his beginnings, Ito steadily merged that heritage with Western instruments. In 1989 he and his band Tryin' Times appeared on the popular Japanese television program NHK Red And White Singing Tournament. Two years later the group gave a stirring performance at the WOMAD Festival. Throughout his career Ito devoted extensive time to collecting folk songs across Japan, many of which were later gathered in the book Kita No Umi No Michi (The Northern Sea Road).