Chitose Hajime is a Japanese singer, songwriter, musician and composer who began her career independently by releasing a pair of folk albums in 1994 that drew on her home Amami islands' traditional form of shima-uta singing and writing. These were heard by several major record labels and she finally signed to a major in 2001, beginning with a collection of Western rock and indie covers as well as her own music. She continued to write and record before signing, in 2002, to the Epic label which resulted in the release of one album and three singles before she retired from the industry to spend time with her children. 2005 saw her return with a single that also acted as the theme music for a Japanese anime TV series called 'BLOOD+'. Since 2010 she has only released one mini-LP which was a collection of her previous music.
