Profile:
KUNIMOTO is one of the few successors of rokyoku, a performing art that combines singing and stories of social obligations and human feelings to a shamisen accompaniment. During his teens, he was absorbed in bluegrass music, and he has now adopted a new style of performance that can relate to the young generation where he plays shamisen as he tells stories instead of having another player accompanying him. He performs rokyoku in original ballads and rock style and arranges his repertoire in various ways to seek a contemporary rokyoku. He is interesting as a person, too, and has been a stage actor and played a role in the musical "Pacific Overtures" performed in the USA.
