ങ YOSHIDA KYODAI (BROTHERS)

The Yoshida Kyōdai (吉田兄弟) are Japanese musicians and have released several albums under the Domo Records internationally as the Yoshida Brothers. Ryōichirō Yoshida (吉田 良一郎 , born 26 July 1977) and Ken'ichi Yoshida (吉田 健一 , born 16 December 1979) were born in Noboribetsu in Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan. The two brothers have played the shamisen from a very young age. They both began to study and play the shamisen from five years of age under Koka Adachi, learning the Minyō-shamisen style; from about 1989 they studied the Tsugaru-jamisen style under Takashi Sasaki.

They are a pair of brothers and performers of the traditional Japanese music style of Tsugaru-jamisen which originated in northern Japan. They debuted in 1999 in Japan as a duo playing the shamisen. Their first album sold over 100,000 copies and made them minor celebrities in Japan, a fact that surprised the Yoshida Brothers themselves. They have since attracted an international audience.

The commercials for the Nintendo's Wii video game console that began airing in North America in November 2006 feature the Yoshida Brothers song, "Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix)

Their music has been a fusion of the rapid and percussive Tsugaru-jamisen style along with Western and other regional musical influences. In addition to performing songs that are only on the shamisen, they also use modern instruments such as drums and synthesizers. [wikipedia]