Wang Yemin
Fingerstyle guitarist born in Shanghai, China, now living in Kyoto, Japan. At the 2023 Morris Fingerpicking Day competition in Japan he won first prize and the award for best original composition, becoming the first Chinese artist to win Japan’s fingerstyle championship. Fans are captivated by the colourful worldview, elusive style and beautiful, melancholic melodies of his music. He is now based in Japan’s Kansai region.
While in Japan he has performed with Rinten Okazaki, Shun Komatsubara, Masaaki Kishibe and others, acting as a cultural bridge so that more people can hear Chinese guitar music.
Biography:
- 2014: graduated in international law from East China University of Political Science and Law, then moved to Japan for further study.
- 2016: earned an MBA from Doshisha University in Kyoto; the same year he won the West Japan preliminary of the Morris Fingerpicking Day competition and took third place in the national final.
- 2017: produced and organised a China tour for Rinten Okazaki, Shun Komatsubara and Takeshi Sakasegawa.
- 2018: released his first original solo guitar album, “Higan · Three Lives”; invited to the Tokyo Handcrafted Guitar Show and as a demonstrator at Music China in Shanghai, with concerts across Japan.
- 2019: first solo tour of China; in October performed “Acoustic Night at Music China Shanghai” with world-class guitarists Gareth Pearson and Shohei Toyoda.
- 2023: national champion and best composition award at the Morris Fingerpicking Day competition in Japan; invited to Sound Messe in Osaka as a Morris guitar demonstrator. In May and July he was a guest performer at Rinten Okazaki’s invitation; in October he gave the solo concert “Road of a Champion” in Shanghai and formed the trio “F3 (3 fingerpickers)” with fellow Japan fingerstyle champions Akihiro Tanaka and Shohei Toyoda, touring Japan. In November he was invited to the Kurashiki Jazz Street festival.
- 2024: released his album “Fiesta” and toured China with “Road of a Champion 2024”.
- 2025: toured across Japan. In April he was invited to give a dedication performance at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto; the same month he went to Korea to perform at the “Fingerstyle Korea Special Concert” with Youngso Kim (2019 Japan champion) and Sanghyuk Chun (2024 Japan champion). In July he toured China with “Fiesta”, and in September he performed at Masaaki Kishibe’s 30th-anniversary concert.
Shohei Toyoda
Born in 1985 in Kosai, Shizuoka, Japan, he moved to the United States with his family at age four because of his father’s work, and lived in Dublin, Ohio, until finishing high school. He began playing acoustic guitar at about 14.
In 2004 he entered Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating in guitar performance in 2008. There he studied Chet Atkins-style playing with Professor Guy Van Duser and fell in love with the style of keeping a lively country rhythm with the thumb while playing harmony and melody with the other fingers.
In 2011 he released his self-produced debut album “The Hills Have Ears” and began his solo career. That September, at the Thumbpicking Championship guitar contest in Kentucky, USA, he won all three divisions and was named “Grand Champion”, the first Japanese artist to receive the title.
From 2012 he moved his base to Japan. In April that year, at the Morris Fingerpicking DayJapan fingerstyle competition, he won both the top prize and the best arrangement award.
In September 2013, at the largest acoustic guitar competition in the US, the Walnut Valley Festivalfingerstyle guitar championship, he took third place.
In 2016 he released his second album, “slowly but surely”, on the Kyoto acoustic label Slice of Life Records.
In July 2024 he released his third solo album, “Better Than I Thought”, on Slice of Life Records.
