Mikage Project

Japanese Traditional Musicians

MIKAGE PROJECT is a group of three Japanese traditional instrument professionals, who have come together to connect with the next generation, folk songs from all around Japan have been recreated in a modern style.

Mikage means the soul and the spirits of Shinto and Buddhism. Folk music worldwide lets the people feel the spirit of predecessors for generations. MIKAGE PROJECT reexamines the folk songs while keeping the universal human element a constant. Learning from the past and the future, MIKAGE PROJECT sets sail on the one and only journey of folk music!

MIKAGE PROJECT was founded in December 2020. The members are Koki Sato who plays the Shakuhachi (bamboo flute), Sho Asano who plays the Tsugaru Shamisen (Japanese stringed instrument), and Takashi Honma who plays the twenty-five string koto (Japanese harp). In April 2021, they released their first EP MIKAGE PROJECT which included recordings of Kokirikobushi (Toyama prefecture folk song).

They have appeared in the media multiple times. In October 2021, the group made a national broadcast debut on a show by the Japanese National broadcaster NHK Minyo Tamashii Furusato no Uta (Folk Song Spirit of Hometown). Since then, they have appeared on various NHK shows, accomplishing such feats as a collaboration with a folk song legend Naoyuki Harada, and Sho Asano winning accolades as a folk song concierge.

More recently, MIKAGE PROJECT released their second mini-album NEO BUSHI in May 2022. Also, they appeared in the Tokushima Prefecture Awa Odori Association New Year Performance in January 2022. Their efforts to create a new wave of Japanese folk songs are gaining support. Their fourth mini-album TOU will release in June 2024.