Celebrity Keiko Haruno's dream of spreading the traditional storytelling art of "rokyoku" to the world is set to come true when she performs overseas for the first time in New York in March, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign.
Haruno, a University of Tokyo graduate, first came to prominence playing the private tutor "Keiko sensei" (Teacher Keiko) on TV. But in the midst of her hectic life as a TV personality, she found her life's calling in rokyoku (literally "narrative singing") and became an apprentice in 2003 to Yuriko Haruno II, a female rokyoku master from Kamigata, an urban region comprising the cities of Osaka and Kyoto.
About three years ago, a German at one of her performances in Kyoto was very impressed by the melodious storytelling of rokyoku — a genre of narrative singing hailing from the early Meiji Era and accompanied by shamisen — and recommended she consider performing abroad. That was when she started plotting her international debut.