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Member Profiles
Sound therapist and singer
Aika (Keiko Hashimoto)
Keiko Hashimoto graduated from the Osaka College of Music Graduate School of Music’s Opera Research Room.
Her stage name, Aika, reflects her desire to combine words of love (ai in Japanese) with music as she sings to the heavens.
She channels her experiences of the trauma of the Great Hanshin Earthquake and her recovery from cancer through her own healing power to host concerts and recitals nationwide, driven by her heartfelt feelings of gratitude for all living things while valuing her own inner voice and the words it inspires.
She also works as a miraculous and renowned sound therapist who communicates the traditional beauty of Japan along with the amazing power of language and sound in the countries of Asia, Europe, and North America.
She has dedicated performances featuring the ancient sounds of Yamato to shrines and temples nationwide, including at events such as the rebuilding of Ise Grand Shrine and Izumo Grand Shrine and the celebration of the 1200th anniversary of the founding of Koyasan.
She has released numerous CDs, DVDs, and books.
A sacred place that renewed my life
I visited Kumano, a place of rebirth and great natural beauty, many times to increase my natural ability to heal from cancer.
I would begin with a walk on Shichiri-mihama Beach in the morning, hike along the Kumano Kodo in the afternoon, and sometimes go trekking in a gorge or canoing in a spirit of childlike wonder. Then in the evenings I’d visit one of the area’s many onsen. Before long I was cured, giving me an experience of how this is truly an area of rebirth.
In addition, I was invited by the the Buddhist priest Zenryu Hidaka, chief priest of Sanbo-in Temple and 520th executive administrator of Kongobu-ji Head Temple, the head temple of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism, to dedicate a performance at the temple’s Daigaran together with 80 volunteer “goddesses” as part of a festival commemorating the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of Koyasan.
This fall (in 2019) I will perform in the Great Fall Festival at Yoshimizu Shrine, a World Heritage, to celebrate the enthronement of Japan's new emperor, a honor for which I am deeply grateful to the retired emperor and his wife Michiko in this first year of the Reiwa era.
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