Artist profile

Akari Tamura

Bhakti · Kirtan as Living Prayer

Kirtan leader, multi-instrumentalist and yoga teacher living nomadically between Bali, Japan, India and Thailand, who sings traditional mantra alongside her own melodies.

BhaktiBali / Japan

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About the artist

Akari Tamura

Akari Tamura came to sacred music through yoga and Eastern philosophy. From 2006 she immersed herself in Hatha and Vinyasa yoga and studied Vedanta, Jnana Yoga and Buddhism, and it was from that ground that the path turned towards Bhakti and the practice of mantra.

She has been leading kirtan gatherings since 2013. What she sings is a mixture: traditional mantras and her own melodies, carried on harmonium, guitar and whatever else is at hand, with a classical training underneath the voice. She describes kirtan as a living prayer rather than a performance, and what she builds in a room is space for people to find their own voice in it.

She lives nomadically, spending much of the year in Thailand, Japan, India and Bali, and travelling through Europe each summer. Alongside the kirtan she has trained hundreds of yoga teachers.

“My intention is not simply to teach songs, but to create a space where practice, philosophy, and community come together so that each participant can develop a genuine and sustainable relationship with kirtan.”

Akari Tamura

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