KOTO
SOUNDS OF DRAGON
JAPANESE BEAUTY & TRADITION
Rie
Koto Artist
Who I am
Rie ASAI
She was born and broght up in Japan. She started playing the koto when she was three years old. Tamiko Asai,her mother, is a great koto player who got lots of Culture and arts prizes in Japan. She often went abroad with Tamiko Asai to participate in music , art, culture festivals held in the countries of Europe, ASEAN and USA. She has been started collaborating with other instruments such the piano, guitar, drums, sax etc to develop new areas of music keeping the sounds of tradition. Playing the koto music with her story-telling is very popular overseas. She has been succeeded as a member of J-Pop unit "HARUHAYATE" and Japanaese opera unit "YOKAI-YUGI" in Japan.
Tamiko ASAI
Koto player. She demonstrated Koto performance in front of the Prince and Princess Akishino, Princess Hisako Takamado, and Prince and Princess Hitachino. Her overseas performances were held in Bulgaria which was invited by the Bulgarian government (1981), 100th Anniversary of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles (1984), eight countries in South America (1990), Mongolia which was invited by the Mongolian government (1997), E.T.A.-Hoffmann Theater in Hamburg, Germany (2000), Yangon University in Myanmar (2008), Zayed University which was sponsored by the Consulate-General of Japan in Dubai (2009), Cambodia-Japan Heart to Heart Day which was invited by the Cambodian government (2012) and many others. She has received the Aichi Prefectural Culture Contribution Award, and the Cultural Prize for Art & CultureSelected by Aichi Prefecture. She was named as the Advisory Committee Member ofNagoya City Cultural Promotion Agency. She served as Chairman of the “Soukyoku-Chikage-no-kai”.