飯田橋にある外堀公園の桜と三味線。
新しい季節に世界中の幸せを込めて！
三味線奏者　岩田桃楠（Momokusu Iwata）
★公式サイト：shamisentokyo.com
★公式twitter： / im624
平成5年大阪府出身。両親が音楽家という環境に生まれる。2012年、東京藝術大学音楽学部に合格したのを機に活動拠点を東京へ。大学では長唄三味線を学ぶ。上京後の演奏活動をきっかけに、ももいろクローバーZの桃神祭出演や紅白歌手である伊藤多喜雄氏のバックバンドに抜擢されたほか、中東の国・オマーンと日本の国交樹立40周年記念式典に招かれ、オマーンに一週間ほど滞在して国王や国賓の前で演奏。津軽三味線デュオ「桃響futari」を結成。現在は、藝大仲間とのトリオ「AOI」や、サックスをフィーチャーしたユニット「Cappen」など、ジャンルレスなスタイルで、精力的に国内外で活動。三味線音楽の古典や津軽民謡はもちろん、クラシック、ジャズ、ロック、ポップス、ダンスミュージックなど、様々な現場で演奏を行っている。2018年8月4日にドレミ楽譜出版社より、本人による演奏解説や特別インタビューも含む楽譜集「津軽風アレンジで楽しむ三味線ソロ曲集」（模範演奏CD付き）を発売。同書はAmazonランキング三味線関連部門で1位を獲得。
Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1993. Both parents are musicians. Momokusu grew up with wide　variety of music. When he was an elementary student (9 years old), he was watching an　animation, “Naruto”, on TV. He was quite shocked by the sound of Tsugaru Shamisen in　the show. Immediately after that, he told his mother, “I want to play the Shamisen!” There　happened to be a shamisen of his great grandmother who was a teacher of Japanese folk　songs. He started practicing the musical instrument.　In 2012, he was admitted to Tokyo University of the Arts and moved to Tokyo. He has been　learning Nagauta Shamisen at school. He also joined “Mitsudomoe”, the　Tsugaru　Shamisen club of Waseda University. While he spent campus life, he was asked to　participate Tojinsai of Momoiro Clover Z, and the back band of Takio Ito, who sang songs at　Kohaku Utagassen, the very popular music show on every New Year’s Eve. Momokusu　was invited to play in Oman when Oman and Japan celebrated the 40 th anniversary of　establishing the diplomatic relations. He stayed about a week and played in front of the　royal families and the state guests. He made a big decision during this trip. He and Hibiki　Sawada, who was also a member of Mitsudomoe, decided to create a Shamisen unit,
Tokyo futari”.　Tokyo futari won the 1 st prize of the group section of the 36 th World competition of Tsugaru　Shamisen. In February, 2017, they released the 1 st album, “Tokyo futari”.　Currently, Momokusu is actively playing in and out of the country with various artists: Tokyo　futari, “AOI” which is the trio of University alumni, and a duo with a sax player. He plays not　only the traditional folk songs, but also classic, jazz, rock, pops and dance music.
On the 4 th of August, 2018, he published a book of Shamisen scores, “Tsugaru style　shamisen solo scores” (with his demonstration CD) from DoReMi publishing. This　book　contains how to play the instrument and includes a special interview article about himself.　This book was ranked as the most popular shamisen book at Amazon.