Hirakawachi Icchome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hirakawachi Icchome (Japanese: 平川地一丁目) is a Japanese folk music group consisting of brothers Ryuunosuke Hayashi (born April 14, 1988) and Naojirou Hayashi (born December 23, 1990). Their name is also romanized as Hirakawachi 1-chome.

Growing up on Sado Island, the brothers' musical influence came from their father who taught them to play guitar. Ryuunosuke, the oldest, began copying folk songs from the 1970s and 1980s and then began writing his own and asked his younger brother, Naojirou, to join him. They began playing locally at music events and festivals (hence the name Hirakawachi Icchome which is the district they lived in growing up) and eventually participated in a New Year countdown event in Sado, gaining them invitations to perform from all over Japan. In 2002 they entered an audition held by a major music company and were selected as one of five finalists from 37,000 applicants, winning the right to make a professional debut. Their professional debut occurred in November of 2003 when they released their first CD single, Tokyo. Their debut album Enpitsu de tsukuru uta (song written in pencil) was released on July 28, 2004 and reached the 7th spot on the Oricon Chart making it the youngest j-pop male artists' album charted in the top 10.

Now they have released a total of 7 singles and 2 albums, and their 8th single "Yume no tochu/ko-tei de mituketa haru" will be released on March 24th, 2006.