Kyōiku (教育^?, "Education") is the debut studio album by Japanese rock band Tokyo Jihen, led by musician Ringo Sheena. It was released on November 25, 2004, more than a year after Sheena's third solo studio album Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana (2003). Kyōiku is the only album to feature the band's original line-up, featuring guitarist Mikio Hirama and pianist Masayuki Hiizumi, known as H Zetto M.

While vocalist Ringo Sheena has been a member of several rock bands, she parted with her bandmates when she debuted as a solo musician in 1998. She had always wanted to be a member of a band, however, and used her first three solo albums, Muzai Moratorium (1999), Shōso Strip (2000) and Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana (2003) as a presentation for musicians who wanted to work with her.

After the release of Sheena's third album, Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana in 2003, Sheena embarked on a nationwide tour entitled Sugoroku Ecstasy. Sheena asked the backing members well in advance to perform for the tour, so that her first choices would not be double-booked. These members were dubbed Tokyo Jihen, a name that was publicised during the tour. Tokyo Jihen was officially announced as Sheena's main musical unit on May 31, 2004, and first performed at a series of summer music festivals in July and August 2004.

The album is composed of nine songs composed by Sheena, as well as three songs composed by pianist H Zetto M, "Gunjō Biyori", "Genjitsu ni Oite" and "Service". The album features 10 songs sung in Japanese, plus "Genjitsu ni Oite", an instrumental, and "Genjitsu ni Warau", a song sung in English. For her first three solo albums, Sheena worked as the sole songwriter on all of the songs. Sheena stated that it had been "a dream of sorts" to release music that collaborated with different songwriters, and she wanted Tokyo Jihen to be different from her solo project, in which her opinion was final on all matters. Later Tokyo Jihen albums featured much more song-writing from other members, most notably Variety (2007), however Sheena still had the feeling that it was "taboo" for other people to write songs for her during Kyōiku. All 17 of the songs for the Kyōiku era were recorded over a period of four days.

...
Wikipedia