Overview | HJ Festival

Kaya Ito

President / Senior

Kaya was born on October 8, 2006 in Kumamoto, Japan. Before she came to the U.S.A, she lived in France, Korea, and China for a total of 6 years. When she was 14, she came to U.S due to her father’s job. Last year, as the leader of Public Relations, she recorded advertising videos for Instagram and YouTube and handed out flyers around town, as well as working on other tasks. This year, she will be the representative of the Japanese festival. She is the captain of club and varsity soccer team and coaches younger generations of people in her club.

Arata Yamazaki

Vice President / Junior

Arata was born in Japan and moved to the United Sates at 9 years old and is now 16 years old. In the last year’s Japanese festival, he was the leader of the event team. Starting this year, he will be the vice representative of the Japanese festival. He is a part of a soccer club team outside of school.

Kosuke Ejiri

Founder of Ichishibu

/Former President

Kosuke Ejiri was born on March 16, 2006 in Kanagawa, Japan. He grew up in Kanagawa and Tokyo and came to New York when he was 16 due to his father’s job. 6 months after transferring to the school, he created the study group, Icishibu, in hopes of helping the academics of the Japanese students. He then planned the Harrison Japanese Festival. As a leader, he put together and supervised the 7 groups, succeeded in the festival, and passed it on to the next generation. He will be attending the University of Washington fall 2024.

OUR CREATIVE TEAM

2023/2024 Leaders

↑Click to see our first year Team

About
Us

“いちしぶ” or “ichishibu” is a student group that contains more than 40 Harrison High School students. Our group was founded in March of 2023 with intent to support Japanese students with schoolwork in a foreign language. We meet every Friday, and students motivate each other in order to strive in their classes. With the increased unity and spirit since the founding of the club, we decided to represent ourselves in the Harrison Japanese Festival as “ichishibu” to express and highlight Japanese culture to the locals. We hope “ichishibu” can become apart of Harrison’s tradition through integration of Japanese culture.

Since many Japanese families are living in Harrison, hosting the Matsuri here would allow us to share and express our Japanese culture in the best way possible. We hope this event will be a successful opportunity in which the people of the community can connect and further bond by experiencing our Japanese culture.

Event・Stage / Junior

Mei Maehara

Mei was born on March 21st 2008 in Tokyo and she moved to New York when she was 8 with her family. Last year she was an interviewer of the public relations group and she interviewed people who were involved in the festival as well as the members of Ichishibu. This year, she will be the leader of the stage and event group. Outside of school, she is involved in dance, band and many other activities.

Game / Sophomore

Kanta Oka

Born in Oita, Japan on March 19, 2009, he moved to the United States when he was 14. In the last festival, he appeared in a video as an interviewer for the public relations team and contributed to the festival by interviewing various teams and people. Starting this year, he will be in charge of leading the game’s team. He is also a member of the Varsity Swimming team, and his cheerful personality makes him a popular member of the team.

Public relations / Senior

Chiharu Sato

Chiharu was born on September 24th, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. She spent 16 years in Japan before coming to America and coming here was her first time living in a foreign country. Last year, being a part of the Public Relations group and accomplishing not commonly recognized, yet important tasks, she became a necessary part of Ichishibu. This year, she is the leader of the Public Relations team. She is also a part of the varsity basketball team and her teamwork stands out as a player.

LEADERS

Team Members

OUR CREATIVE TEAM

Sei Shinozaki

Culture / Junior

Sei was born on December 12th, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan and came to America when he was 15. In the previous festival, he was the sub-leader for the Events team and contributed by preparing before and on the day of the festival. This year he will be the leader of the Culture team. He mainly plays tennis and often practices tennis in school on the weekends.

Kento Koyama

Sponser / Sophomore

Kento was born on September 7th, 2008 in Nara, Japan and after he finished pre-school, he came to New York. In the last festival, he contributed by making the posters for the stage and the booths, and he also helped advertise the stage performances. This year, he is the leader of the Sponsor team and is responsible for supporting the festival by communicating with the sponsors.

Iroha Kawata

Food / Sophomore

roha was born on May 27, 2008 in Niigata, Japan and grew in Hyogo and Tokyo. She moved to New York when she was 16 years old because her father’s work. She is the leader of the food team, but she joins the festival for the first time. She was a member of volley ball club when she was a junior high school and a high school student. She began to learn violin when she was 4 years old, now she is a member of strings orchestra and playing first violin.