Junji Shirota started playing Piano when he was 4 years old, Guitar and 5 strings Banjo at 15 years old.

70th and 80th mostly he played American folk music and Bluegrass as a member of major group in Japan and released over 35 albums from Toshiba EMI.

After that he moved to San Francisco and started the career as guitarist for Irish music.

He did accompaniment to many Irish musicians like Tony MacMahon, Noel Hill, Andrew MacNamara, Dale Russ, Jack Gilder, Tommy peoples, Paddy Keenan, Martin Hayes, Frankie Gavin, etc.

Especially he did a lots of tour with Paddy Keenan.

He started music with Mareka Naito (Fiddle,Irish Harp&Concertina) in 2011. 

This duo spend time in Ireland during summer in recent years and playing music, also they bring many musicians to Japan and doing tour with them.

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musicians who Junji brought to Japan....

1998 Andrew MacNamara

1999 Breda Smyth

2000 Gerry O'Conner

2013,2014 Cormac Begley, Edel Fox
2015 Paddy Keenan, Frankie Gavin

2016 Noel Hill, Ciaran Somers

2017 Brendan Begley