My small shrine for X Japan

The story of X and X Japan is a long and complicated one. The introduction that I'm about to give is just to cover roughly the 15 years of X life.


Who are they?

X Japan was one of the most influential Japanese rock bands of all time. If you ask around, chances are most people would say that they are the founder of JRock and Yoshiki, the leader, was the father of visual kei. I dare not say that this is completely true, though I believe it is nearly there ^^ Why? Pardon me if Im wrong, but as far as I know, X was one of the first of very few Rock bands which managed to get mainstream audience and not just went Indies. I remember during their time there was a band called, BOOWY or B'z or Buck Tick *can't remember which, all starts with a 'B'* which was also quite popular. *shrugs* anyone out there knows about it?

Yeah, continuing with my story, X Japan, which original name was just 'X', was founded in 1982. However, it was not until 1986 that the two original founders, Yoshiki and Toshi, managed to get permanent members, hide and Pata and Taiji, and started to be heard more. X's music was highly aggressive according to the standard of the mainstream audience at that time, thus they were having difficult time getting recording deal. Once they did *read Yoshiki's biography for more information* they started to get more and more audience and their songs soon were found on major top charts which usually covered the JPop scene only.

In 1992, X held their first Tokyo Dome concert, Hamettsu ni Mukatte, which is also known as 'On the Verge of Destruction' concert. What's so amazing about this concert is that it is the first ever concert to be held in Tokyo Dome. Before X, Tokyo Dome were never been used as a concert venue, thus X became more famous because of this.

The concert was immediately followed by departure of the band's talented bassist, Taiji *read Taiji biography for more info* in around February. X recruited a new bassist in August 1992, Heath had joined the band. At the same time, X changed its name to X Japan. The reason was because they wanted to go international and break the US market. At that time there was already a band in the US which was also called X, so they changed the name to X Japan to avoid confusion.

X Japan continued to grow and become famous. They managed to capture the mainstream audience with their songs. However, they announced the disbandment of X Japan in 1997. The vocalist, Toshi, left the band in April due to some unknown reason. The band held their last concert, The Last Live in Tokyo Dome, December 1997 and it was a highly sad one. The concert was said to be a replica of the Dahlia Tour in 1995, but I believe that the Dahlia Tour did not have the crying atmosphere as The Last Live had.

X Japan disbandment was planned to be a temporary. Yoshiki wrote X's songs for Toshi's voice. Now that Toshi was gone, he and hide were planning to find a new vocalist and re-form X Japan in the year 2000.

However, a highly shocking incident happened in 1998. hide was found dead, hanging on a towel on a doorknob at his apartment in the morning of 2nd May. Yoshiki's dream of reuniting X Japan was dashed. Not only that, he grieved so much that he cut himself off from the media for one whole year, working behind the scene and did not plan to appear on the front stage again. hide's death brought many fans hysterical, there were some who committed suicide and many who tried unsuccessfully to do so.

X Japan had become a legend. It was like as if they laid the foundation of JRock. They had influenced the JRock world in a way that nobody has ever done. Even though they had disbanded years ago, their music is still alive. Yoshiki is working hard to release more X Japan things; the latest was the rare Art of Life DVD. They continue to attract new fans. As of myself, I was introduced to X Japan in 2002 and fell in love with them immediately.