He picked up saxophone at age of 18 without formal training and moved to Chiba Prefecture to attend Chiba Institute of Technology. Around age of 19, he started to play around Jazz clubs in Tokyo and Chiba area.
In 1983, he received scholarship from Berklee College of Music and intended to stay for only one semester and ended up staying much longer than one semester. He continued receiving scholarship till end of his study on e86
At Berklee, he studied with Andy McGee, Jimmy Mosher, Bill Pierce, George
Garzone, Herb Pomeroy, John LaPorta.
He played and jammed with many musicians in Boston.
He did not only play Jazz. He played all kinds of music. Frank Wilkins used to call him one of the most versatile sax player in Boston. He was working as a fulltime freelancing musician in Boston area till 2003.
He moved to New York in 2003 after played in Boston for 20 years and started to working as a freelance musician.
His very first gig in NY was at Historical Lenox Lounge Zebra Room.