Get to know Hito

Hito (Japanese for ‘person’) didn’t have the best time at her Ibiza debut for Richie Hawtin’s ENTER. at Space in 2012.

“I cried,” she laughs. “I didn’t know Ibiza, I didn’t know the people’s reactions and I never saw people like that in Berlin. People dressed without sleeves, in New Era caps. I was like, ‘What is this?’”

In order to reassure her, the entire ENTER. team turned out to cheer her on when she played an epic set at the Sake Bar the following week. Four years later, the Berlin-based Japanese DJ is an Ibiza regular with gigs at Circo Loco, Ushuaïa and more this summer. Her unique mixes – all about harmonious combinations and design “like a Japanese garden” – have been getting a rapturous reception from Movement to Awakenings.

Hito is from the small city of Himeji, famous for its medieval castle. She started DJing there at 20, turning up at a local club with records bought in London. Soon after moving to Berlin in 1999, she was DJing at the now defunct Maria, playing everything from experimental electronica to bhangra-influenced UK sounds. Her connections to the city’s fashion and design crowd saw her DJ for Dior before her involvement in a successful mobile Ramen business caught Hawtin’s eye; after he took her back to Japan in 2009 to study Sake, she helped set up his Sake bar project.

In 2012, Richie asked her for a DJ demo. Invited out to Ibiza, she initially thought it was as a hostess. Instead, it was a six-hour set every week. And after that first week, no more tears.

Catch Hito at the Night Tales ENTER.Sake in London on August 13