PROGRAM

Born in 1964. During the 1990s, he created animated series for children, such as Mt. Head (Atama-yama, 2002) was nominated for the 75th Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, won six Grand Prizes including at Annecy, Zagreb, and Hiroshima, and was selected as one of the "100 Best Animated Works of the Century." Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor (2007) went on to win seven Grand Prizes, including at Ottawa and Hiroshima. With his feature film Dozen of Norths (Ikuta no Kita, 2021), he made history by becoming a double Grand Prize winner for both short and feature films at two of the world's major animation festivals: Annecy and Ottawa. His films have received over 155 awards worldwide, and his work Very Short (2024) was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2017, he wrote the lyrics for "Belganaru," a beloved song on NHK’s children’s program Okaasan to Issho. He is also a highly acclaimed picture book author, known for works like Oya-oya, Oyasai and Parade.
He has been honored with ten prestigious lifetime achievement and cultural awards, including the Kawakita Award, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, the Klingsor Award, and the Golden Dinosaur Special Award. He is currently a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (USA), and Vice President of the Japan Animation Association (JAA).

Graduated from the Music High School Associated with the Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts, and completed both her bachelor's and master's degrees at Tokyo University of the Arts.
Born in Tokyo, she moved to Germany shortly after birth and began playing the violin at the age of three.
She won second prize at the International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists and second prize at the 6th Forval Scholarship Stradivarius Concours.
After serving as an assistant to Daniel Gaede at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg and working as a concertmaster in Darmstadt and Bonn, she returned to Japan in 2008.
She served as a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts from 2010 to 2015, and is currently an associate professor at Elisabeth University of Music.
As a registered artist for the Public Hall Music Activation Project by the Japan Foundation for Regional Art-Activities, she is also deeply committed to outreach concerts and community-based activities.

After graduating from Elisabeth University of Music, she completed her master's degree at the same institution. She also successfully passed the prestigious NHK Traditional Japanese Music Audition.
She won the Silver Prize and the Fukuoka Prefectural Governor's Award at the 19th Kenjun Memorial National Koto Competition.
She has made numerous media appearances on television and radio, including NHK’s New Year Concert and NHK-FM’s Hogaku no Hitotoki (Traditional Japanese Music Hour). Internationally, she has performed at major events and venues such as Japan Expo in Paris, the Aachen Guitar Festival, and WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln) in Germany, with her total number of overseas performances exceeding 100. In 2015, she was selected as a featured performer for Masahide Hashimoto's KOTO Project, participating in a recording alongside legendary musicians such as Peter Erskine (Dr.), Tiger Okoshi (Tp.), and Kuniyoshi Sugawara (Shakuhachi). The resulting album, WAON, achieved a nationwide release in Japan and was broadcast across 200 radio stations throughout the United States. Domestically, the project received critical acclaim and high praise in JAZZ LIFE, one of Japan’s leading jazz magazines.
In the same year, she composed the music and wrote the lyrics for the official school song of the Hiroshima Prefectural Kure-Minami Special Needs School, which opened in Kure City, Hiroshima. She also had the honor of performing at the welcome reception and in promotional videos for the G7 Hiroshima Summit 2023. She currently serves as a part-time lecturer at Hijiyama Girls' Junior and Senior High School, as well as a lecturer at Elisabeth University of Music.