Kousuke Atari

Atari Kousuke began his music career as a performer of shima-uta, the traditional singing style of Amami, an island in the Ryukyu chain in southern Japan, but then shifted to folk-tinged pop, breaking out to a wider audience in Japan and gaining recognition in the Chinese-speaking world as well. Born on Amami, Atari decided to become a musician after he heard Hajime Chitose, a shima-uta star, in high school. He focused on the local scene for a while, debuting with the album Atari (1999) -- which featured him singing over a jabisen, a variation of shamisen -- on the Jabara Reco...