, commonly abbreviated to ASH, is a

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

school in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, founded in 1999. It is managed by the

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

, a subsidiary of Shinhiroshima Telecasting, and is located within TSS Production offices. It has a longstanding business relationship with the talent agency Amuse, Inc. In October 2017, ASH opened a branch school near Fukuyama Station in Fukuyama, the second-largest city in Hiroshima Prefecture.

Activities

Classes offered at Actor's School Hiroshima include acting, singing, dancing, and modelling. ASH maintains several internal idol groups, which membership consists of its active students and perform both in internal and outside events, allowing them to obtain real-world experience. These include , MAX♡GIRLS, peony (

Shimane Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...

promotional unit, named after that prefecture's official flower), and . ASH holds recitals, or "Acts", twice a year in the spring and autumn. The audience is allowed to record the performances using professional equipment. Students may perform solo or in groups after passing auditions, and the internal idol groups also perform there, often groups where a former ASH student is present.

Alumni relations

On March 31, 2019, to commemorate the school's 20th anniversary, ASH students performed a medley of songs released by their notable alumni in that year's Spring Act. In 2019,

Riho Sayashi is a Japanese actress, singer and dancer. She is a former member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume and the duo Peaberry. In 2019, she became a touring member of Babymetal, including in their performance at Glastonbury Festival 2019. Ca ...

, formerly of

Morning Musume , formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most to ...

, became a support dancer for

Babymetal (stylized in all caps as BABYMETAL) is a Japanese kawaii metal band consisting of Suzuka Nakamoto as "Su-metal", Moa Kikuchi as "Moametal" and Momoko Okazaki as "Momometal". The band is produced by Kobametal from the Amuse Inc., Amuse talent a ...

. This was considered a "shocking" occurrence in the Japanese entertainment industry, especially since Sayashi held a prominent position in her former group and both groups belong to different management companies. Sayashi and Babymetal lead singer Suzuka Nakamoto's relationship at ASH, where they were considered rivals and two of the top students of their time, is believed to have an influence on this. On December 1, 2020, Arisa Mineyoshi of STU48 covered " Ijime, Dame, Zettai" by

in the final rounds of the AKB48 Group No. 1 Singer Contest. On February 2, 2021, ''Nikkan SPA!'' reported on a series of concerts at the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Budokan was a popular venue for Japanese professional wres ...

by three different musical acts fronted by ASH graduates, which it dubbed the "Budokan ASH

Relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

". It started with STU48, which performed there on January 15 and announced that Chiho Ishida would be the lead performer in their sixth single. Mitsuki Imamura, the group's captain, tweeted after the show "We left the baton at the Budokan", and =Love leader Anna Yamamoto tweeted "We received the baton" before her group performed there the next day. Babymetal would also perform in Budokan on the 19th and 20th, the first two shows in a planned ten-day performance. On September 20, 2021, STU48 announced the "New Wave Project", an STU48 trainee recruitment process exclusively for active ASH students, at the 2021 ASH Autumn Act.

Notable faculty

* Mikiko

Notable alumni

Perfume Perfume (, ) is a mixture of fragrance, fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), Fixative (perfumery), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agre ...

** Yuka Kashino (1st class) ** Ayano Omoto (1st class) ** Ayaka Nishiwaki (1st class) ** Yuka Kawashima (former member) (1st class) *

, solo singer, former member of

, former support dancer of

(12th class) * , model, former member of

Sakura Gakuin was a Japanese idol girl group formed in 2010 by the Amuse talent agency. The group's membership fell within the age range of Japanese compulsory education, typically containing between 10 and 12 members at a time who fall between the ages of ...

(12th class) *

Suzuka Nakamoto , known by her stage name Su-metal, is a Japanese singer. She is best known as a member of the kawaii metal band Babymetal, and was formerly a member of Karen Girl's and Sakura Gakuin. She is represented by the talent agency Amuse Inc. Early lif ...

, former member of

Karen Girl's was a Japanese three-member girl group formed in 2008 by the Amuse, Inc., Amuse talent agency. The group performed songs for the anime ''Zettai Karen Children'' for the duration of the show. History Karen Girl's was formed from elementary schoo ...

and Sakura Gakuin, member of Babymetal (15th class) * Himeka Nakamoto, former first generation member of

Nogizaka46 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto, created as the "official rival" of the group AKB48. They are the first group from the Sakamichi Series, which also includes sister groups Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46), Yoshim ...

(16th class) * , member of =Love * Anna Murashige, member of

HKT48 HKT48 (read "H.K.T. Forty-eight") is a Japanese idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. HKT48 is named after the Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Hakata-ku ward of Fukuoka, where Akimoto originally intended to base the group. The group currently performs at ...

* Yuri Tani, former member of

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol musical girl group named after the Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48 has sold more records than any other female musical act in Japanese history. AK ...

Team 8 * and , members of

Team 8 * Hazuki Tanda, member of * STU48 ** 1st Generation: Mitsuki Imamura, Chiho Ishida, Marina Otani (former), Arisa Mineyoshi, Akari Yura (former; currently a model) **2nd Generation: Sara Shimizu, Yuna Kawamata, Yura Ikeda ** New Wave Project: Azumi Okada, Rio Okamura, Yuka Kurushima, Noa Morokuzu (a.k.a. Noa Mitsuki) * , member of Juice=Juice (19th class) * Aina Yoshida, former member of

Pink Babies was a 14-member Japanese idol, Japanese female idol group that was active from 2014 to 2017. Created by songwriter/producer Shunichi Tokura as part of his "Pan-Pacific Project", the group was a Tribute act, tribute to the 1970s J-pop duo Pink Lad ...

* , performed the Japanese end credits version of ''

Frozen II ''Frozen 2'', stylized as ''Frozen II'', is a 2019 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures as the sequel to '' Frozen'' (2013). The film was directed by Chris Buck ...

'' theme, " Into The Unknown" * , member of Sakura Gakuin * , member of Ocha Norma (31st class) * Airi Taniguchi, member of

Sakurazaka46 , formerly , is a Japanese idol girl group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was created on August 21, 2015, becoming Nogizaka46's first sister group under the Sakamichi Series. The group was rebranded as Sakurazaka46 after their last conce ...

References

External links

*
About ASH
officially endorsed blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Actor's School Hiroshima Dance schools Schools of the performing arts in Japan Schools of the performing arts Buildings and structures in Hiroshima