While Toshio Kishimoto's business card describes him as a doctor of medicine, drugs are not the only healing method in this practitioner's black bag. Besides heading a laboratory at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, the 47-year-old is also an award-winning composer and shakuhachi player in the jazz and pop idioms -- not exactly traditional genres.
While some may puzzle at this strange mix, the multitalented doctor says that, for him, it is just a matter of course. "I write and play my music because I just want to, no matter how busy I am," the researcher said. "But I think I'm lucky because people enjoy my music, and that's really a pleasure for me, too."
Ever since he began working as a clinical doctor specializing in respiratory diseases at Kawasaki Medical School in Okayama Prefecture, Kishimoto has voluntarily given shakuhachi performances in hospitals, schools and other facilities.