Hideki Ishima

is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band and for creating the sitarla instrument. A guitarist and sitar player for nearly forty years, he now exclusively plays the sitarla, an instrument he invented in 2000 that combines aspects of a sitar with an electric guitar. Guitarists Kazuo Takeda, Akira Takasaki, Rolly, and Mikael Åkerfeldt have cited him as an influence.

Career Ishima started playing guitar at 19, at the behest of a friend who wanted to be in a band. His first group was in his native Sapporo shortly after graduating high school. He moved to Tokyo and formed the group sounds band The Beavers in 1966, who had released four albums and one single but had not had major success.

Ishima began playing sitar at 24, after researching Gábor Szabó at the suggestion of a woman and learning that the jazz guitarist also played this instrument he had never heard of. When they went on hiatus in 1973, Ishima recorded the solo album One Day and joined a group called Trans Am. alongside Kenji Sawada and Nobuhiko Shinohara, before being fired. and it replaced his guitar playing in Flower Travellin' Band when they reunited. It is featured on their 2008 album We Are Here. The sitarla was displayed at the 2000 NAMM Show.

Discography One Day (1973)