[1][2] Tokyo Jihen started as Ringo Sheena's backing band at first for her last concert tour before ending the first half of her solo career.
She began looking for members of her backing band to support her solo tour "Sugoroku Ecstasy" in the Autumn of 2003.
After the tour, she announced that she would stop her solo career to join "Tokyo Jihen" as a full-fledged member.
They played some live sets during that year's Fuji Rock Festival, and made their major debut with the single "Gunjō Biyori" on September 8.
On July 1, 2005, it was announced during the tour that keyboardist H ZETT M and guitarist Mikio Hirama would leave Tokyo Jihen.
H ZETT M recommended his friend and former bandmate, Keitaro Izawa, as a substitute for him to Sheena, but she began visiting music clubs to look for other keyboardists.
Sheena approached several guitarists as potential members,[4] but was turned down by all of them, possibly because they disliked the idea of being considered her "backing band".
In the latter half of 2006, Sheena produced the film score of the movie Sakuran, on which three of the other four band members (excluding Hata, who had broken his leg) collaborated.
Kameda returned to his work as a producer, overseeing several top ten releases, and Hata participated in the recording and subsequent tour for Fujifabric's new album.
On December 2, 2009, Tokyo Jihen released the single "Nōdōteki Sanpunkan", their first in two years, and resumed their activity as a band full-time.
The fourth album Sports, released on February 24, 2010, won the 1st place in Oricon chart after an interval of four years.
A live best of album, Tokyo Collection, and a concert DVD and Blu-ray release of their "Discovery Tour" went on sale on February 15.
The album, a collection of B-sides, included the previously unreleased-on-CD "Handsome Sugite" and one new song, "Tadanaranu Kankei".
On December 31, 2016, when Sheena Ringo participated in the 67th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, Tokyo Jihen played as her backing band.
Ukigumo and H Zett M have been regular collaborators with Sheena, playing on recorded work and in backing bands on her live tours.
Ringo Sheena (椎名 林檎, Shiina Ringo) Seiji Kameda (亀田 誠治, Kameda Seiji) Toshiki Hata (刄田 綴色, Hata Toshiki) Ukigumo (浮雲, The Drifting Cloud) Ichiyō Izawa (伊澤 一葉, Izawa Ichiyō) H Zett M (H是都M, H ZETT M) Mikio Hirama (ヒラマ ミキオ (晝海 幹音), Hirama Mikio) Uni Inoue (井上 雨迩, Inoue Uni) The real names of Hirama and Hata are "平間 幹央" and "畑 利樹" respectively, but, Ringo Sheena gave them stage names, using Kanji which is not usually used for their names, but as they are the phonetic equivalent, the pronunciation is not changed.
Ukigumo, on the other hand, cannot write musical notation, Izawa or (less frequently) Sheena transcribe his tunes in the studio.