Kobukuro

Kobukuro (コブクロ) is a Japanese duo from Osaka, formed on September 8, 1998 by Shunsuke Kuroda and Kentaro Kobuchi. The two met in Sakai earlier that year, when Kobuchi was giving solo street performances on Saturdays and Kuroda was active as a street musician. The unit's name combines their surnames. They began with street performances in Osaka and later released the independent albums "Saturday 8:pm", "Root of my mind", and "ANSWER". Their music draws on folk pop and J-pop, with close vocal interplay, warm vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar arrangements, and songwriting that moves between intimate ballads and uplifting mid-tempo songs. The duo are associated with Warner Music Japan. From 2004 onward they have largely self-produced their work, with Kobuchi writing most of the material and shaping much of the arranging. Their official website is http://kobukuro.com/. Their anime work includes "Summer Rain" for Cross Game, "Blue Bird" for Bakuman, and "Mirai (未来)" for Orange. Their career continued into the 2020s, and in 2026 they announced their 36th single, a double A-side release titled "Kasumibiyori / Starry Smile Story," alongside analog editions of their first three albums for the group's 25th anniversary period.