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→ Correspondents ←


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→ Kenichirou Akashi, Japanese language Correspondent ←

 Ken playing the Tar                                       Ken playing the Oud

Contact by email: kenxakashi@gmail.com


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Born in Chiba City, Japan, Ken completed graduate
studies in physics (Keio Gijuku University).
He performs blues guitar, oud, and Armenian tar, and sings in various languages
including English, Armenian, Arabic, and Turkish... (and, of course, Japanese!).

During his university years, he played soul and R&B in a band.
Later, he began performing blues guitar while singing solo.
In parallel, around 2004, inspired by his studies of the
Arabic language, he taught himself to play the oud.
By 2010, he had begun performing Middle Eastern songs in Armenian,
Arabic, and Turkish, accompanying himself on the oud.
He performs regularly live in Tokyo and at various events, such as the Sumida
Street Jazz Festival in Tokyo and the Jozenji Street Jazz Festival in Sendai...
He also plays the Japanese shamisen (Tokiwazu style),
the Okinawan sanshin, and the Chinese ruan.

He is particularly fascinated by the songs of Armenian
troubadours such as Cheram and Sayat Nova.
Driven by his passion for Armenian songs, he taught himself the language
and performs in the style of these troubadours much like a bluesman.

In the fall of 2024, during a visit to Yerevan, he acquired
an Armenian tar and taught himself to play it back in Japan.
However, finding little information about the tar in Japan and wishing to learn
the fundamentals, he returned to Yerevan in the spring of 2026 to take lessons
from Mr. Tigran Armen at the Cultural Center directed by Mr. Samvel Baloyan.
He is currently refining his tar technique in Tokyo.

You can find him on his website, on Instagram and on YouTube:
On his website: https://x.com/AKA_KEN
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenakashi/
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kenakashi8058


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