Blind High School Student Aiming At Enka Stardom
A clip of Hiromasa Shimuzu, a blind 17-year-old from Gunma Prefecture who has just released an Enka CD:
A few notes about Hiromasa Shimuzu:
- He has listened to enka music since he was a small child. When he was a second grader, his grandfather took him on a day trip to an onsen. At the onsen, Hiromasa sang some enka songs on a karaoke machine and the reaction of the people there gave him a desire to become a pro enka singer.
- He won N-H-K’s Nodo Jiman Competition last year [his championship performance is the clip in this post], and he was a special guest on yesterday’s broadcast of this year’s competition.
- According to the profile on his official website, one of his hobbies is surfing the net. A news video about him on YouTube includes some clips of him listening to his computer read the content of enka websites.
- He dreams of earning a spot on the New Year’s Eve Kohaku music special.
