Sheena Ringo

Okay, Sheena Ringo is one of those artists I will defend to anyone who'll sit still long enough. I still remember how singing "Honnou" and "Kabukicho no Joou" at barely twenty took a kind of nerve most people never grow into. She rolled her r's, dressed like a deranged librarian, and just refused to be cute about any of it. What gets me is she's not some one-trick eccentric. She writes, composes, plays, produces, runs Tokyo Jihen, and then casually directs the closing ceremony handover at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The woman controls every pixel of her world, and her perfectionism is honestly a little intimidating. Sweet, dangerous, brainy, theatrical, all at once. There's nobody else quite like her, and I doubt there ever will be.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Sheena Ringo (born Yumiko Shiina on November 25, 1978, in Urawa, Saitama) is a Japanese singer-songwriter who made her major-label debut in 1998 with the single "Kōfuku-ron." Her first two studio albums, Muzai Moratorium (1999) and Shōso Strip (2000), established her as one of Japan's leading rock artists. In 2003 she founded the band Tokyo Jihen, which remained active until 2012 before reconvening in 2020, and in 2016 she served as artistic and music director for the Rio Olympics closing ceremony flag handover segment.

Name (English)

Sheena Ringo

Name (Japanese)

椎名林檎

Reading

しいな りんご

Real name

椎名裕美子

Born

November 25, 1978 (age 47)

Origin

Urawa, Saitama, Japan

Height

167 cm

Occupation

Singer-songwriter / Rock musician / Band vocalist

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Horse

Blood type

O

Agency

Kronekodow

Active years

1998–present

Junior high

Fukuoka City Municipal Momochi Junior High School

High school

Fukuoka Prefectural Chikuzen High School (withdrew 1996)

University

Did not attend university

Debut

Major-label debut in 1998 with the single "Kōfuku-ron"

Awards & achievements

• 2000 42nd Japan Record Award – Best Album (Shōso Strip)
• 2001 Japan Gold Disc Award – Rock Album of the Year (Shōso Strip)
• 2009 FY2008 Agency for Cultural Affairs Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts – New Artist (Popular Entertainment)

Timeline

1. 1978Born in Urawa, Saitama; spent early childhood in Shimizu, Shizuoka, then relocated to Fukuoka City in sixth grade
2. 1996Withdrew from Fukuoka Prefectural Chikuzen High School to focus on music
3. 1998Made major-label debut with the single "Kōfuku-ron"
4. 1999Released debut album Muzai Moratorium; singles "Kabukicho no Joō" and "Koko de Kiss Shite." became hits
5. 2000Released second album Shōso Strip, which sold over 2.3 million copies on the Oricon chart
6. 2003Released third album Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana and formed the band Tokyo Jihen
7. 2004Tokyo Jihen released debut single "Gunjō Biyori" and first album Kyōiku
8. 2012Tokyo Jihen concluded activities following a concert at Nippon Budokan on February 29
9. 2016Served as artistic director and music director for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics closing ceremony flag handover segment

Spouse

Junji Yayoshi (married 2000, divorced 2002)

Children

A son (with Junji Yayoshi) and others

Siblings

Older brother: Junpei Shiina (singer-songwriter)

Specialties

• Lyric writing
• Composing
• Instrumental performance
• Music production

Works summary

Works

259 (1998–2026)

By year (titles with a known year)

1998: 4, 1999: 7, 2000: 7, 2001: 2, 2002: 3, 2003: 6, 2004: 5, 2005: 3, 2006: 4, 2007: 10, 2008: 12, 2009: 17, 2010: 1, 2011: 8, 2012: 4, 2013: 13, 2014: 12, 2015: 4, 2016: 4, 2017: 4, 2018: 3, 2019: 14, 2020: 1, 2021: 1, 2022: 2, 2023: 7, 2024: 6, 2025: 7, 2026: 2, year unknown: 86

Main labels/studios

CD (24), LP (5)

Debut work

椎名林檎の悦楽巡回

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://www.kronekodow.com/
• Xhttps://twitter.com/Nekoyanagi_Line
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A4%8E%E5%90%8D%E6%9E%97%E6%AA%8E
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q234591

Tags

• Singer-songwriter
• Rock
• Tokyo Jihen
• From Fukuoka
• Kronekodow
• Rio Olympics creative direction
• Muzai Moratorium
• Kabukicho no Joō

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.