Hijiri Kuwano

Hijiri Kuwano is a Japanese violinist, composer and arranger. Hijiri began taking violin lessons at age 6 and studied under Yonosuke Ishii, Shizuko Ishii and Chikashi Tanaka. While attending Tokyo University of the Arts, he performed as a guest concert master at Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra. Before graduating from the university, he became interested in playing non-classical music and started performing with Toshihito Nakanishi, who inspired him in many ways. Hijiri also started his career as a composer when he produced an album published together with a photobook by Kenji Ishikawa, Moonlight Blue. Hijiri worked on recordings, concerts with various artists, movies and video games as a soloist and with "Hijiri Kuwano strings group". He is credited in Whisper of the Heart, Shall We Dance, Nobody Knows, Melody of Oblivion, Good Luck Girl!, Final Fantasy XIII and numerous other productions as a performer, composer and arranger. He is also known as an original violin player for the battle theme "Blinded by Light" in Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII (composed by Masashi Hamauzu). He works closely with Hamauzu and Imeruat (Masashi Hamauzu and Mina) as a supporting artist. He toured with Imeruat to Europe and Hong Kong and performed several pieces on "α" Clock: World Time, Sony Global website (composed by Masashi Hamauzu).