is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 musical group. The name is derived from Mount Himekami in Morioka

Morioka, Iwate

is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture, Japan.As of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 300,740 and a population density of 588.11 persons per km². The total area is 489.15 km²....

, Iwate Prefecture

Iwate Prefecture

is the second largest prefecture of Japan after Hokkaido. It is located in the Tōhoku region of Honshū island and contains the island's easternmost point. The capital is Morioka. Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture outside Hokkaido...

. The group was founded in 1980 by composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Yoshiaki Hoshi

Yoshiaki Hoshi

, born in Wakayanagi, Miyagi, Japan, was a Japanese musician best known for his band Himekami. Hoshi won the 1971 Victor Electronic Music Contest, and founded Himekami Sensation in 1980. His debut album was Oku no Hosomichi, released in 1981. In 1984, the group name was changed to Himekami...

 as , and includes synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 player and vocalists Wakako Nakajima, Tomoko Fujii, Junko Shiwa, and Yoriko Sano. The group changed its name to Himekami in 1984.

The album Ama Takami no Kuni was the first released by the group following founder Hoshi's death in October 2004. Higher Octave Music

Higher Octave

Higher Octave is a sub-label imprint of Narada Productions, which is part of EMI's Blue Note Records label group, located in New York.Higher Octave was founded in 1986 as an independent record label specializing in a wide variety of uplifting music, including smooth jazz, New Age music, Latin music...

 has released a number of their albums in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

.

As Himekami Sensation

(1981, based on the work

Oku no Hosomichi

, translated alternately as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior, is a major work by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō considered "one of the major texts of classical Japanese literature."...

 by Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Basho

, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...

) (1982) (1982, main theme for the Tetsutarō Murano film Shiroikawa) (1983)

Sources:

As Himekami

(1984, collaboration with YAS-KAZ) (1985, collaboration with YAS-KAZ, theme of NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 Gurutto Kaidō 3000km) (1986) (1987) (1988, soundtrack for the 32nd Yukunen Kurunen celebration) (1989) (1990) (1992) (1993, the song "Kaze no Inori" on this album is used as the theme song for the "Homura Kikō" segment of the NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 Taiga Drama

Taiga drama

is the name NHK gives to the annual, year-long historical fiction television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white Hana no Shōgai, starring kabuki actor Onoe Shōroku and Takarazuka star Awashima Chikage, the network has hired a producer, director, writer, music...

 Homura Tatsu) (1994) (1995) (1995) (1996) (1997) (1998, winner of the 40th Japan Record Project Award

Japan Record Award

for outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association, is major music awards show held annually in Japan.- Categories :The Japan Record Award are four awards which are not restricted by genre....

) (1999) (2000) (2002, opening theme for the original soundtrack) (2003) (2004) (2008-02-04 (released via the web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

), 2008-04-02 (released in stores))

Sources:

Singles

(1981) (1985, collaboration with YAS-KAZ, theme of NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 Gurutto Kaidō 3000km) (1994, collaboration with Oyunna) (1996) (1998, theme song from the TBS

Tokyo Broadcasting System

, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....

series by the same title) (2000, theme song from the TBS series by the same title)

Sources:

External links

Official site Official Toshiba EMI site