Hideki Ishima - One Day (Psychedelic Folkrock/Hardrock Japan 1973, ex Flower Travelling band)

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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Hideki Ishima (石間 秀機 Ishima Hideki?, born 21 March 1944 in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan) is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band. A guitarist and sitar player for nearly forty years, he now exclusively plays the sitarla, an instrument he invented in 2000 that combines aspects of a sitar with an electric guitar.

Ishima started playing guitar at 19, at the behest of a friend who wanted to be in a band. His first group was Jarōzu (ジャローズ) in his native Sapporo shortly after graduating high school. He moved to Tokyo and formed the group sounds band The Beavers in 1966, who had released four albums and one single but had not had major success.

Ishima began playing sitar at 24, after researching Gábor Szabó at the suggestion of a woman and learning that the jazz guitarist also played this instrument he had never heard of. He taught himself from Ravi Shankar's 1968 book My Music, My Life, looking up the Japanese translations for the English words.

In 1969, while in the blues band Mystic Morning with Joe Yamanaka, the two of them were scouted by Yuya Uchida for Flower Travellin' Band. When they went on hiatus in 1973, Ishima recorded the solo album One Day and joined a group called Trans Am. After a few years off, he followed this with the Donjuan R&R Band with Kenichi Hagiwara. During the 1980s he was in Co-Colo alongside Kenji Sawada and Nobuhiko Shinohara, before being fired.

Ishima quit guitar in 1990, citing money problems. After a 40-minute sitar lesson from Manilal Nag during a trip to Japan in 1998, Ishima became a student of Nag's Japanese apprentice.

He made a comeback in 2000 exclusively playing the sitarla. That year, he recorded the album More-ish with the multinational group Pythagoras Party. The improvi sational instrumental group View was formed in 2007.

Any Japanese rock fan worth their salt knows The Flower Travellin' Band. As guitarist for that unit, Hideki Ishima helped create one of the most distinctive guitar albums in rock history, 1971's "Satori." His buzzing, limber lines gave the record its shape and made an impact that is still being felt today. Especially in the West, where "Satori" has justly been branded as not just a lost classic, but perhaps the lost classic, acting as the de facto entry point to anyone serious about educating themselves on Japanese rock music. Imagining Japanese rock without "Satori" is like imagining western rock without Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced."

But when the Flower Travellin' Band went on hiatus in 1973 (they did not break up, as Ishima-san will be quick to point out,) the endlessly inventive guitarist dropped off western radar. 

During that period, he continued to make exceptional work with bands like Co-Colo, Trans Am, Pythagoras Party, and the Donjuan R&B Band, as well as backing up vocalists like Flower Travellin' Band's Joe Yamanaka, and occasional Akira Kurosawa actor Jinpachi Nezu ("Ran," "Kagemusha.")

Now, with the Flower Travellin' Band off hiatus, Ishima is back in the spotlight. 

He's also got a new improv unit called View, and exclusively plays the Sitarla, a sitar/guitar hybrid of his own invention. In February, Ishima-san sat down with Jrawk to discuss gifts from God, the state of Japanese rock, and resurrecting his old band.

01. We're Just Tryin' My Way 6:35
02. Artificial Flowers 3:46
03. Lady Bird 3:32
04. Night Mare 3:37
05. Unbalance 3:47
06. Depending by the Time 6:52
07. Trash Blues 3:06

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