Asakusa Jinta

Calling themselves an "Asianica Hard March Band", Asakusa Jinta was formed under the name March March Japonica in Asakusa, Tokyo in 1999. After changing their name to Hyakke no Gyoretsu in 2000, the band began performing on the streets of Asakusa and gained popularity from local people. The band then released their first album, "Today is kyo and Horror", in 2001, and this was followed by their second album, "Dangerous Guy in Asakusa", in 2002 and their third, "This is Asakusa, Sweetheart Town", in 2003.

Calling themselves an "Asianica Hard March Band", Asakusa Jinta was formed under the name March March Japonica in Asakusa, Tokyo in 1999. After changing their name to Hyakke no Gyoretsu in 2000, the band began performing on the streets of Asakusa and gained popularity from local people. The band then released their first album, "Today is kyo and Horror", in 2001, and this was followed by their second album, "Dangerous Guy in Asakusa", in 2002 and their third, "This is Asakusa, Sweetheart Town", in 2003. After the release of their third album, Japanese rakugo-ka (Japanese story-telling comedian) Sanyutei Koyuza gave the band the name Asakusa Jinta, and they later performed a show with him, in 2004 as they became the first band to become guest members of the Rakugo Assosiation. 2005 saw the release of the band’s fourth album, "Asakusa Rock", which was helped by the Rakugo Assosiation and many rakugo-ka even played instruments on the album. Takeshi Kitano also wrote the lyrics to the album’s title song.

Asakusa Jinta were also nominated for an award at Stockholm’s Japan Foundation festival in this year. More attention again came to the band when they recorded the theme song of the horror movie "Nekome Kozo", which was based on a story by Kazuo Umezu and directed by Nobuo Iguchi. The soundtrack was released in June along with the movie and it was also released on DVD in October 2006. The band released their fifth album, "SKY ZERO", in January 2007, and continue to play at venues such as Asakusa Kurawood, Ikebukuro P’parco and Shibuya GAME, as well as touring in various places around Japan and have even performed in other countries, including the US, Italy and The Netherlands. In addition to this, the band still participate in the same street festivals and parades of Asakusa from which they first gained their popularity. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..