KOMINATO Akihisa was born in 1978 in Fukushima Prefecture. As the eldest son of a family of master musicians in the Kominato min’yō folk ballad tradition, he was initiated by his parents at an early age and first appeared on stage at the age of five. In 1995 he began studying the shakuhachi under the late Yamaguchi Gorō, a living national treasure. In 2001, he graduated from the Department of Traditional Japanese Music at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Today he is a prominent performer who appears frequently on TV and radio and at concerts and events in Japan and overseas. In addition to Japanese classical music, his work encompasses a broad range of genres, including folk ballads, pop, and jazz.