Apr 5, 2010

The Early Photograph


It is one of the oldest, and probably the most known, publicity photo of Hikashu.

From left to right, Mitama and Tobe in the first row. Inoue, Yamashita and Makigami in the second.

It was shot in late 1978, by a photographer and an old friend of the group, Takimoto Junsuke.

In it, all the members were in pajama, and sat around a Kotatsu (commonly-used heater in Japan) which was placed along the roadside. The location was near a crossing, and you could see there was a taxi passing by right behind them in the background.

The instrument on the Kotatsu was Inoue's synthesizer, Roland System 100.



Related Entry:
Hikashu - 1978 (1996)

4 comments:

  1. Looks like there's a 303 bass sequencer and 606 drum machine pugged into it (but not totally certain). Anyhow, neat set up.

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  2. Thank you so much for this wonderful site! I thought I would never know so much about Hikashu without learning Japanese. In fact, I'm learning Japanese now so I can translate and understand the lyrics to Hikashu, among other Japanese bands and poets, though it will take awhile for me to know it well enough to translate Makigami-san's lyrics.

    I'm very curious to know the translations of Hikashu songs though. Could you publish more translations? Especially for At The End of the 20th Century, which remains my favorite song of theirs.

    Again, thank you so much for this site! You have a fan here!

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  3. I will post a new entry containing video clips and you could see some setups of the bands too, especially Plastics.

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  4. The last comment is a reply to normloman.

    To SWhite:

    Thanks for kind words. There is so much to write about Hikashu and I'm struggling to fill the gap. In my opinion, they are the greatest band in Japan right now and I strongly believe they should be more known in foreign countries. I'll do my best to change the situation.

    I'm glad to hear you studying Japanese. There are lots of gems here behind the language barrier.

    Makigami's style of lyrics, as well as his singing, is very unique. He rarely uses difficult word but interpritating its meanings are often very difficult.

    As for translations of the lyrics, I promise you can see more later. I don't know what foreign audience wants to see in this blog so suggestions like yours are of great help. Thanks again.

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